Rural broadband speeds lag
County speed test documents slower internet speeds in townships
A map released at Monday’s Marathon County Broadband Task Force meeting confirmed what was already well known. Internet service in the rural parts of the county is pretty horrible.
The map was created by Northcentral Regional Planning in conjunction with GeoPartners. The results came from a “speed test” community members were asked to participate in.
The map showed that most of the Wausau area metro area had download speeds of over 100 megabits per second MB) and download speeds over of 20 MB. A ring around Wausau had download speeds of 50 to 100 MB and upload speeds of between 5-20 MB.
The majority of rural Marathon County had upload and download speeds that were between zero and 5 MBs.
Local rural villages had these speeds:
_ Athens, upload: 5-20 MB; download, over 100 MB.
_ Edgar, upload: 5-20 MB; download, 50-100 MB.
_ Marathon City: upload, 5-20; download, 25 to over 100 MB.
_ Stratford: upload, 5-20 MB; download, zero to over 100 MB.
Task Force chairman John Robinson said data from the “speed test” would be used to justify requests for broadband grant funds.
In other task force business, the panel agreed to move forward with five Public Service Commission broadband enhancement grant requests:
_ $6.9 million for a $13.9 million LTD project to better serve 4,250 residences and businesses.There is a $1.66 million request from Marathon County.
_ $1 million for a $1.66 million Cirrinity project in Reid and Bevent to improve broadband for 368 homes and businesses. There is a $70,000 request from Marathon County.
_ $3 million for a $6 million Bug Tussel project in Guenther, Knowlton and Kronenwetter to serve 15 businesses and 590 homes. There is a $1.5 million request from Marathon County.
_ $3.78 million for a $9.4 million Frontier project to serve 4,024 homes and residences. There is a $944,835 request from Marathon County.
_ $2 million request for a $3.9 million Charter project to serve 232 homes in Nutterville, Harrison and Kronenwetter. There is a $1.6 million request from Marathon County.
