Members of the White Hall community are invited to attend a meeting this week to discuss the need for high-speed Internet in the area.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Montfair Resort Farm in Crozet. The event is free and open to the public.
Residents and Albemarle County leaders will discuss ways to get high-speed Internet service to White Halland the surrounding areas.
Ann H. Mallek, chairwoman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, will speak.
Several small-business Internet providers are also expected to attend the event.
The Montfair Resort Farm is at 2500 Bezaleel Drive, Crozet.
For more information, call event organizer Phyllis Ripper at 823-5830.
Thanks to this on Twitter,
@realcrozetva @tfjtolson Have you seen this? http://bit.ly/bF1t4S Augusta, Greene, and Orange have greater density of coverage than we do
BeckyFisher73
BeckyFisher73
I spent 20 30 minutes down the internet rabbit hole looking for these graphics and other such information:
From Broadband.gov: (note: 4Mbps is still sloowwww)
And this from Gizmodo:
Interesting infographic from Gizmodo depicting Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World, Shown Visually
I’m still working on a story at RealCentralVA.com about the potential impacts the FiberLight announcement will have on the citizens/denizens of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, and the surrounding Counties.
I do not know why this keeps coming up. With the technology now availablenthe lay of the land and the density of people are what is holding it back. You have to be within roughly 3 miles of the switch for DSL to be effective and the phone company needs more people to have a chance to make the required profit for it’s investment. Any cable based system has the same problem. And when stretched out DSL can be quite slow. Cellular modems seem the best bet for now if you can get reception and can afford the rates. Don’t be fooled by people selling point to point or satellite based systems. They can be quite sad and, expensive. There is no WiFi solution to a rural area like Whitehall at thenpresent time. If you look at the holes that we still have in our cellular networknand the refusal of County government to allow any more buildout of the needed towers. Ann Malek being there only means a photo Op for her. If shenwants to get behind a doable WiFi project she can. It would be in Crozet. Itnwould be a real benefit to the Community and put us in rare company. I doubt that she can grasp that…nnThe Fiberlight project is an upgrade to the digital backbone that connectsncentral Virginia to DC and beyond. The biggest benefit would be to large users like UVA. To rural users stuck with only dial-up services it would do nothing.nTo expect the phone company to upgrade it’s whole infrastructure to takenadvantage of the extra bandwidth is just plain silly. They are still behind thencable companies in speed. nnPotential impacts on areas are just opinions as well as those silly charts thatnare so 1990’s. Internet service in rural Romania, #4 on your list, is just as badnor worse than here. The only difference is that the people there are more receptive to allowing technology, cell towers, etc, that they feel can make their lives better. For example, when I was in Cambodia it was far easier to getna cell phone than a land line phone. And, the cell phone worked anywhere.nImagine, a company was allowed to come in and place their towers where theyncould give the best service. I know, it seems unreal but, there is a reason thatnwe are number 18 on the above list…
Let me see if i understand this….the people living “rural” areas, now want big city conveniences like higher network bandwidth. Interesting. No….humorous.
What’s wrong with that? The “want” is no different in this age than electricity, telephone service and newspaper delivery were in theirs. People who are warm think everybody is warm (or connected). VERY shortsighted comment.
High speed network access is not exactly a requirment for life existance. Comparing it to ‘heat’, is a little bit of a reach. nnMy point is more towards those that complain about growth in this area. We want some conveniences, but not willing to accept growth. Why would a private industry provide wireless data to an area that is sparsely populated? They wouldn’t. Cell towers, infrastructures are established in poplulated areas. The more populated, the more advanced infrastrucure. Ever try to get cell reception in death valley…Good luck. nnWhen i moved here, i know what i was getting (and what i wasn’t) – that goes with electricity, gas (or lack of ), and internet speed – and i go with that.
nnnnnnnI feel that the problem is more of a political one. The cellnservice in Albemarle is pretty bad. Why? The County will not allow towers constructed where they are needed. Fix this and people at least will be able to buy what they want. People are willing to destroy nature tonhave tract housing and empty streets, whats a few morencell towers? A cellular company is not capable of doingnthe amount of damage thats happening in Crozet now…nn
I read this story on WVIR today, and I can’t help but think that the answer to the question is, “move.”nnRural is rural. If you don’t like it, don’t live in a rural area. I chose Crozet, and many of my clients choose where they live, based in part on internet access. nnAnd I didn’t look at places that didn’t have it. Simple.
Hmm… A little karma here? The above can be applied to many things. You want a bigger library? Move. You want a government expanded community? Move. Something for nothing? Move. I love it. Thanks for playing…
The key difference in this example is that no one promised those in rural areas access to internet access. The local government has been promising a new library for years. nn
nnnnnnnLocal politicians will promise anything, only then”well” they kept dipping into has dried up. I am only suggesting that local government not be anbarrier to what people want and what they are willing to pay for. Are these unelected boardsnwilling to pay for what they want??? You are looking at a community that was force fed tractnhousing without infrastructure in place. But, younwant a new library until something else pops up.nlike parking or water or rescue squad or, or, or.nWhat, no fireworks. We already have a library…
we can’t afford libraries or teachers and all that goes with education but we can spend on more high speed internet in rural areas. tom periello did this in southwest va. does it give us jobs? meaningful work? who is going to pay for it? what are rural areas for? will it help sell real estate? who really benefits and for how long?
nnnnnnnHigh speed internet is now a commodity. More and more people expect access to it. The easiest solution is to allow the cell phonencompanies to fill the holes in their systems. This means buildingntowers. Once that is done the people that want high speed can paynfor it…nnWe can afford libraries and teachers and do have them. Digital content is here to stay and the infrastructure is needed to deliver it. A librarynthat is accessable to the whole community is more valuable than a building. That is why this needs to be a community wide discussionnrather than an unelected board going to a politician bypassing a majority of the people. Giving a name to an empty street and changingnthe boundaries of a community are only the start of a campaign ofnignorance…
yep,now even the president is in on this conversation. maybe this will be part of another tax or whatever on your phone bill.just imagine, an area of the county without a cell phone tower. what would you call that area? wild. that’s not good. everyplace must have reception. do these waves effect wild animals and bird migrations? do the waves effect young children whose skull and brains are not fully developed? do we as adults really care or do we just want what we want right now and forget everything and everybody? do you think this pie in the sky stuff is free and will be in the future?