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Public Survey Highlights Internet Need in Crawford County, Pa.

The early results of a recent resident survey have highlighted at least two areas where Internet service is lacking. Crawford County has earmarked more than $3 million from recent federal funding to improve Internet access.

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(TNS) — Early returns of a survey are showing results where high-speed broadband Internet service is needed in Crawford County.

Two areas showing poor or no high-speed Internet service are a corridor of Venango and Cambridge townships and the borough of Venango in the northcentral part of the county and Bloomfield and Sparta townships in the northeastern portion of the county.

So far, there have been 1,213 surveys returned out of about 10,000 distributed so far, according to the Crawford County Planning Office.

Crawford County has earmarked more than $3 million from its federal American Rescue Plan dollars to improve Internet access in areas having poor or no broadband Internet service. However, before it spends money on improving service, the county needs to know what areas are underserved, according to Crawford County Board of Commissioners.

High-speed broadband is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a download speed of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speed of 3 Mbps.

"I'm pleased with the results so far," Eric Henry, chairman of commissioners, said Monday. "However, we've not seen any volume of returns yet from areas of southwestern and northwestern Crawford County."

In addition to sending out surveys to targeted areas of the county, the survey is available on the county's website and Facebook page. The survey may be found online at arcg.is/154bqj.

People completely without access to the Internet may request a physical copy of the survey be mailed to them by contacting the commissioners at (814) 333-7400.

©2022 The Meadville Tribune, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.