GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kent District Library, all 20 of its branches, witness firsthand how valuable high-speed internet access is for everyone in the county.
“The latest U.S. Census shows that 12-percent of households in Kent County don’t have broadband. That’s more than one in ten households without broadband access,” said Randy Goble, KDL’s director of engagement. “It comes from a mix of things. It’s either they don’t have the financial means to pay for the service because it’s not cheap, or they’re just in an area that doesn’t have great coverage.”
For those in rural areas, libraries like the one in Comstock Park, offer hotspots for patrons to take home and use at no cost. Goble said the greatest demand for them are from residents who live in the northern and northeastern parts of the county.
“We’ve actually changed this quite a bit because of the pandemic,” Goble said. “Before the pandemic we had a couple hundred of these available. Now we have a thousand of them available and they’re available for up to four months check-out time.”
Kent County said they’re aware that rural areas have a difficult time accessing high-speed internet. However, they say it’s in cities and suburbs, too, so, they created a survey to help identify specifically where help is needed most.
“This effort is to help address issues that arose in the pandemic,” Sandra Ghoston-Jones, a management analyst with the Kent County Administrator's Office, explained to FOX 17. “For every kid that had to sit outside of a McDonald’s or a library to get their homework done, for every person who had a job interview drop because their interview access was unstable, for farmers who need technology, it’s really to address a broad array of our community to make sure that they have access to broadband that works for their needs.”
She said that currently the FCC maps, which are based on census blocks, show that if one household or business has a strong connection then the whole area does. However, county officials know that’s not accurate.
“The federal government has released some funding. It’s the Broadband Equity Access Act that is available to communities across the country because broadband access has been identified, largely because of the pandemic, as an issue that needs to be addressed so that people have the ability to access the services," Ghoston-Jones added. “So we are working to improve the data that is available specifically to Kent County so that the FCC maps can be improved.”
The survey is open and will close at the end of next week, she said. It asks a variety of questions from pricing to reliability.
Officials hope many community members will fill it out so that high-speed internet access ultimately will be available at all corners of the county.
Goble said, in the meantime, if people are having trouble getting online, they can stop by their local library.
“A lot of people don’t always think about the library. They think about it as books,” Goble said. “But we have a lot of technology and solutions to help people who really need it.”
***To take the survey, click here.***
