Indiana County Chamber of Commerce
May 17, 2024
Indiana County Residents Urged to Participate in
Home Internet Speed Tests by May 22
Indiana County, Pennsylvania – The Indiana County Board of Commissioners is requesting that residents who rely on DSL or wireless home internet services participate in the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority’s (PBDA) broadband service challenge process. Residents can go to SPCBEADchallenge.com and follow the instructions to identify their location on the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) map and take the speed test. You must begin your first test no later than May 20th. Residents have until May 22 at 11:00 p.m. to complete three speed tests that will only take a few minutes.
Indiana County has identified 1,150 homes equipped with DSL or wireless home internet services incorrectly labeled on the FCC map as having access to high-speed internet. Efforts are underway to rectify this discrepancy. Residents may access instructions via the Challenge website SPCBEADchallenge.com
Residents whose addresses are identified as being unserved or underserved on the FCC’s map do not need to complete this challenge process. Those locations are already deemed eligible for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program infrastructure funding.
This challenge is different from the FCC’s Challenge process previously administered in January 2023. Residents that submitted a challenge last year should still consider taking part in this new challenge process.
In response to last year's federal announcement allocating $1.16 billion to Pennsylvania through the BEAD Program, efforts are underway to bolster the infrastructure required for robust internet connectivity in areas currently lacking or experiencing insufficient service.
One prerequisite for accessing these funds involves implementing a challenge process to validate the accuracy of BEAD-eligible locations. This collaborative endeavor empowers local governments, nonprofits, and internet service providers to collaborate with the PBDA in refining the FCC’s map, which delineates regions as either served by strong, reliable internet, underserved, or completely unserved.
Over the last several years, in collaboration with our State and Federal elected officials as well as our regional and municipal partners, on behalf of unserved and underserved residents and businesses, the Indiana County Board of Commissioners have been awarded a $1.5 million grant through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) POWER Initiative, a $2 million grant through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-CV) program, and a $500,000 State grant through the Keystone Communities Program to construct a fiber optic network and wireless broadband equipment to provide high-speed broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of Indiana County, defined as having less than 100/20 Mbps. The County is providing matching funds totaling $3 million and following a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, the County entered into contracts to provide fiber optic services through Salsgiver, Inc. and REA Energy Cooperative, Inc. | In the Stix Broadband, LLC, as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to design, construct and deploy the broadband infrastructure to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband services.
Other informational resources regarding broadband deployment may be found through the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA) at broadband.pa.gov and through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Connected - Equitable Broadband Access coordinated through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, found at spcregion.org/connected.