{"id":70763,"date":"2017-04-21T20:11:29","date_gmt":"2017-04-22T02:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/home-businesses-internet-demand-increase-in-montezuma-survey-says\/"},"modified":"2017-04-22T02:11:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T02:11:29","slug":"home-businesses-internet-demand-increase-in-montezuma-survey-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/home-businesses-internet-demand-increase-in-montezuma-survey-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Home businesses, internet demand increase in Montezuma, survey says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Fiber-optic
Fiber-optic cable is installed in Dolores in 2012.<\/span>The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Early results from an unscientific survey by the Connect 4 Broadband Initiative indicate more Montezuma residents are working from home and there\u2019s a greater demand for fast internet.<\/p>\n

The survey, which was mailed to customers of Empire Electric Association and put on the Connect 4 website early in March, has received more than 1,500 responses so far, mostly from Montezuma County. At the annual meeting of the Montezuma Community Economic Development Association on Wednesday, the initiative\u2019s spokeswoman Chelsea Jones said the results show a rise in the number of home-based businesses in the county and increased demand for faster internet speeds. Connect 4 will take into account the results of the survey when planning the next phase of their broadband project, which will involve a partnership with broadband companies Data Safe Services and FastTrack Communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the response we\u2019ve had from (the survey) and the feedback, as well as the growth we\u2019ve had from MCEDA\u2019s website \u2026 has been really phenomenal,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

According to online and mail-in survey results, 78 percent of respondents had internet at home, and the majority of those who didn\u2019t said it was either too expensive or unnecessary. Only 36.8 percent said they were satisfied with their current speeds, and 81.7 percent said they\u2019d be interested in faster service if it were available.<\/p>\n

Connect 4 put out a similar survey in 2016, using more scientific methods, but Jones said this year\u2019s broader survey showed different results in two major areas. Almost 25 percent of respondents said they operated a home-based business, a 3 percent increase from 2016. More than 50 percent of respondents said they used the internet to work from home, compared with 45 percent in last year\u2019s survey. There was also a slight increase in the number of respondents who said they would support a sales tax increase to pay for higher internet speeds. More than 58 percent were in favor of the tax, with 47.1 against it, although the majority supported a 0.5 percent increase or less. In last year\u2019s survey, respondents were more split down the middle, with about 50 percent for the tax and 50 percent against.<\/p>\n

The survey also included a comment section, which Jones described as \u201ccolorful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a very diverse response,\u201d she said. \u201cWe got people screaming for it, saying they need broadband now, and other people saying they don\u2019t need internet at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the majority of people who said they didn\u2019t need internet were older than 70, while those who were most vocal in their support of faster speeds lived mainly in unincorporated parts of the county.<\/p>\n

Despite keeping the question on this year\u2019s survey, Jones and county officials have said they don\u2019t plan to push for a sales tax increase unless it\u2019s absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n

Like last year\u2019s survey, this one included a section where people could say how they use the internet. The top use was for news and information, which 89.3 percent of respondents picked. Other uses included shopping (85.2 percent), research (84.5 percent), email (79.4 percent), education (71.1 percent), entertainment (67.9 percent), social media (64.5 percent), work from home (51.6 percent), video calls (50.8 percent), gaming (39 percent), smart appliances (30.9 percent), telecommuting (25.4 percent) and home security (21.7 percent).<\/p>\n

The survey will remain open through the end of May. Empire Electric customers who complete it are entered into a drawing for a $200 gift card toward their electric bill.<\/p>\n

\n

Find out more<\/h4>\n

To fill out the Connect 4 internet survey or learn more about the broadband initiative, go to
\n www.connect4.org
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

growth in home businesses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,21,13,275,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-70763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-internet","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70763"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=70763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}