BEND, OR -- The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council is joining others around the state in a campaign to study internet speeds. COIC's Scott Aycock says economic development districts all over the state are researching broadband gaps in an effort to secure federal funding for improvements, "It’s coming through many different federal agencies and most of it is coming as competitive funding, so you need really good data on what your needs are and how to prioritize meeting those needs, in order to get your piece of the pie."

That “pie” comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, The American Rescue Plan and other sources, "The real driver here is an unprecedented, once in a lifetime investment from the federal government in increasing broadband infrastructure availability and the ability of households and businesses to pay for it." But the funding is competitive based on demonstrated need and Aycock says that will take at least 10% of the population contributing to the data, "Where we have gaps in broadband service, not just on the infrastructure side, but also the ability of households and businesses to pay for it."

Aycock expects to see patterns in the research, "Probably, we’re looking at ‘the more rural you are, the less service you have.’ And then, on top of that, you can have all the service in the world but if you can’t afford it, it’s as if it doesn’t exist. So everywhere, we’re going to be identifying folks that just simply can’t afford what is available."

He asks everyone to visit FasterInternetOregon.org and answer three questions, "It’s ‘do you have it or not?’ And if you do, you then are pitched over to a speed test so it tests your upload and download speeds. And, if you don’t have it, why? ‘It’s not available’ or ‘you can’t afford it’."

The goal is to wrap up initial data collection by October 15th.