Monroe County wants residents to gather data on their connection speed at home — data the state uses to decide which areas get federal money for broadband projects.
Indiana has $868 million from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program to improve broadband in every part of the state, focusing on places with low network speeds.
Read more: Indiana's first-ever Digital Equity Plan now open for public comment
But the areas that the FCC thinks have access to high-speed internet could still be underserved.
John Baeten, Monroe County GIS Coordinator, said the FCC’s map is largely inaccurate.
“It's kind of negating any other location that maybe isn't getting that high quality internet speed that the internet providers are claiming to provide,” he said.
Many parts of the state have been hooked up to fiber networks that promise download speeds of over 100 megabytes per second, but counties participating in the Broadband Challenge want to make sure they’re getting the service they expect.
Read more: Statewide broadband program encourages eligible Hoosiers to apply for high-speed internet access
Anyone in the county can participate by taking three internet speed tests over a three-day period and uploading screenshots of the results to the county website.
Residents need to submit their screenshots by April 14. Baeten said the more people that participate, the more equitably broadband improvement is funded.
