How's Your Home Internet Service?...DETCOG Wants to Know

Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) wants to hear about your internet service, or lack of internet service, in meetings it is holding in each of its 12 counties. These meetings are part of a Broadband Internet study the agency is conducting in the region.

Friday 3/22/2019
10:00 a.m.	Center	Shelby County Outreach Ministries, Inc.	124 Haley Drive
1:00 p.m.	Nacogdoches	Nacogdoches Senior Center Library	621 Harris Street
10:00 a.m.	Groveton	Groveton Senior Citizens Center	143 West Front Street
1:00 p.m	Corrigan	Debby D. Marshall Community Center	603 S. Matthews
Monday 3/25/2019
9:30 a.m.	Crockett	Crockett Housing Authority	159 George Briggs
10:00 a.m.	Kirbyville	Kirbyville Housing Authority - Pecan Grove Community Center	414 S. Vallie Avenue
2:00 p.m.	Huntington	Huntington City Hall - Texas Room	802 Highway 69 S.
1:00 p.m.	Newton	Newton Housing Authority	103 Sartain Street
3:30 p.m.	Woodville	Tyler County Senior Center - Neches Room	2010 Willow Street
Tuesday 3/26/2019
9:30 a.m.	Coldspring	Senior Center of San Jacinto County	60 Butler Street
10:00 a.m.	San Augustine	San Augustine Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center	611 W. Columbia Street
1:00 p.m.	Hemphill	Hemphill Housing Authority Community Center - Building A	102 Ash Street

These meetings are for all interested citizens. DETCOG especially encourages participation from persons of low-to-moderate income. “We are particularly interested in obtaining input from residents who do not currently have internet service at home, or have limited or inadequate service, due to affordability or the lack of availability,” said DETCOG Executive Director Lonnie Hunt.

The meetings are part of a study being conducted by inCode, a division of Ericsson Inc. They are an independent consulting firm with expertise in telecommunications.

“We believe our region has suffered from inadequate broadband internet service for too long. We are asking for help from everyone in the region to develop a plan to address this need that is so critical to the future of our region,” continued Hunt.

A high speed fiber-optic cable based broadband network has become a critical component of the modern communications infrastructure. Such a network would serve the needs of schoolchildren, households, businesses, industries, health-care providers, local governments and utilities. “We are fast approaching the point where high speed internet access in your home is a necessity just like electrical service,” said Hunt.

DETCOG’s long-term hope is that a next-generation network infrastructure can be provided in the region. Its desire is to develop a detailed blueprint of an actionable business & technology plan to deploy an ultra-high speed, fiber-optic, broadband “backbone” network for every part of the DETCOG region.

For more information about the Broadband study email Bob Bashaw at “bob.bashaw@detcog.org”. You can also call him at (409) 384-5704 ext. 5302.