For Release – February 17, 2022
Hermantown Opens City-Wide Broadband Survey
Hermantown, Minn. – The City of Hermantown has unveiled a survey allowing residents to weigh in regarding broadband and their internet connections to target possible improvements.
“We know the ability to connect reliably and consistently to the internet is critical for so many people in our community,” said Joe Wicklund, Hermantown’s Communications and Community Engagement Director. “From remote workers to families to students and more, being able to meet broadband needs has only become greater and more varied.”
The City of Hermantown created the Broadband Task Force in 2021 to look at the issue of access and connectivity across the community, as well as ways to move forward with improvement.
“Broadband is certainly a hot topic and many of our local communities are tackling it in differing ways,” said City Administrator John Mulder. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all or a standard answer that works most effectively from funding to execution, so the Broadband Task Force is working to determine what the best next step might be for Hermantown.”
With an array of possible funding options, there may be different ways to accomplish improvement across small communities regarding their broadband capabilities.
“Now we want to pull in the experiences of as many people across Hermantown as possible,” said Wicklund. “With just a quick bit of feedback, we can learn so much about actual download and upload speeds, as well as if those are meeting individual needs across our community.”
Hermantown’s online survey not only garners the user’s opinion about broadband, but it also provides them a real-time measurement of the service – including download and upload speeds.
“For many users, there are a lot of unknowns in how they access the internet,” said Wicklund. “We are hoping this survey provides them with some helpful, real data while also giving us a picture of what we are truly receiving community-wide in terms of providers and speeds.”
The survey can be found on the City’s website at www.hermantownmn.com/broadband.
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For more information, contact: Joe Wicklund, Communications Director, City of Hermantown at [email protected] or 218.729.3614.