JUDGE: Partnership will bring broadband to Milam County

Like many rural counties, we are starved in Milam County for high speed Internet.  

In some parts of the county, such as Rockdale and Cameron, Zochnet has provided fiber, which allows for the fastest connection. However, in many parts of the county, we have slow speeds or no Internet. 

In fact, we estimate that 4,349 households in the county do not have high speed Internet.  In short, we need a plan.

Thus, Milam County has partnered with Connected Nation Texas to bring high speed Internet to all parts of the county. Connected Nation Texas is a public/private partnership whose goal is to provide affordable broad ban accessibility and use across all of Texas. Of course, this is not going to be a quick and easy fix.  Rather it is going to take some time to find out exactly what we already have and what we can do to solve the problem.  

Our first step is to find out what we have in terms of service here in the county. In order to do that we need you to help by completing a short survey. Go to https://www.myconnectedcommunity.org/milam-county/ and choose from one of the categories and complete the survey.  

One may complete a survey for more than one category. For example, if you are a business owner, complete the business survey and the personal survey. Remember, this information will be critical to determining what is needed and how improvements will be funded.

Step two, will be to have a town hall meeting(s) with everyone who is interested in the project. That will take place in the near future with elected officials and community leaders. Again, the goal is to find out more about what is already available and what can be done.  If you are interested and would like to attend, please let me know at syoung@milamcounty.net.

The last step is to find solutions, which includes funding.  We will work on that as well, once we know more about what we already have.  

We will discuss the involved steps and what can be done on our County Judge show on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Our program guest is Jennifer Harris of Connected Nation Texas who will discuss what the program and partnership has to offer. So please tune in to KMIL 105.1 and/or KRXT 98.5 at 9 a.m. to learn more about this exciting new partnership. We are happy to take your questions on the air.

We earnestly solicit your support for this program and ask that you complete the survey, so we can provide everyone with high speed internet.