Frequently Asked Questions

Who is doing this broadband assessment?

Lycoming County is solely responsible for this assessment in conjunction with its partner, ECC Technologies. For additional information about the Lycoming County broadband study, please contact:

broadband@lyco.org

Why do you need my address?

We ask for your address to help us align the responses and identify where the greatest needs are across the County.

I am concerned about my privacy!

It is important for every citizen to be careful and protect their personally identifiable information. Likewise, the County shares and supports your privacy concerns.

For this assessment, we ask for your address to help us group together the many responses we receive across the state.

Your address information, in conjunction with your assessment responses, are used to help Lycoming County identify where broadband service is sufficient, and areas of the state where broadband service is insufficient.

Be assured that the County will not release information from this assessment to any third party, but the County does need some personal information, including your address, to help understand what citizens have to say about broadband service and its availability in their respective communities.

Aggregated citizen assessment results will be used to help the County identify broadband service gaps and ways to improve that service.

Do I need broadband access and service?

Tell us! For many people, broadband access and service is increasingly a part of everyday life. More people are working from home and many students are attending school from home. Seeing a doctor “virtually” is becoming more common.

People of all ages access the Internet to play games, shop or watch movies. All of these activities require strong, reliable broadband access.

A broadband connected community is also more attractive to businesses, enhancing opportunities to attract new companies, and strengthening efforts to retain existing ones. We want to hear your comments and experiences about broadband access and service.

Why is this assessment taking place?

We need your help! The County wants to better understand broadband access, its uses, and consumer adoption of broadband service in order to identify problems and service gaps. We know some areas of the County have more broadband service options than others.

By identifying service problems and gaps, the County can create solutions to expand access and improve broadband service. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the need for this connectivity as more students are learning “virtually” and more people are working from home.

In order to bring access to better broadband to your community, your help is invaluable. Citizens completing the assessment allows the County to obtain input directly, see where the greatest needs are, and work to advance the availability of broadband.

I am concerned about security on this site!

The County and ECC take security very seriously and follow recognized safety protocols to help maintain that security. First, this site is a secure site with an SSL certification. An SSL certificate is a type of digital certificate that provides authentication for a website and enables an encrypted connection. These certificates communicate to the user that ECC has proved its ownership of the domain to the certificate authority at the time of certificate issuance.

Second, data obtained from the site is maintained in separate, encrypted databases. This data does not identify an individual, their location, or any other personal information about the respondent or their computer/phone/device.

Third, the survey does require the input of a physical address. This is a vital piece of information because it allows us to create maps that show where the greatest broadband service needs are. However, this information, as stated above, is used for the County’s broadband service review, and is never released. Your information is protected.

I don’t have broadband at my home or business address. What are my options to complete the survey?

You can certainly complete the survey at any locally available computer or you can obtain a paper copy from your local town/village hall.