Alaska Speed Test Week April 2009

March 19: Getting the Word Out- Radio

2009-03-19T09:21:00.002-08:00

Paaniikaaluk D'Anne Hamilton aired today on KOTZ radio "SIVU" (the bow of the boat) a new call-in program of the Northwest Arctic Borough, focusing on technology, broadband, and the economic potential they could bring to the Northwest Arctic.

Guests today were Mamaaq Linda Joule, Executive Director of the Native Village of Kotzebue, Nauyaq Wanda Baltazar of the Nikaitchuat Inupiaq Language Immersion School, and Qaulluq Susan Warner, talking about the Alaska Internet Speed Test Week March 30th thru April 5th.

March 18: Getting the Word Out - Text/print

2009-03-18T15:59:00.004-08:00

Here are some resources to help get the word out: a text message for forwarding and a link to a pdf of an announcement postcard.

Alaska Internet Speed Test Week
March 30th through April 5th, 2009

The NW Arctic Broadband Task Force, ASTE, AkDEC, and various internet-for-Alaska advocacy groups are gathering data about the state of Alaska to see what internet speeds actually exist in our villages and cities. We are working to get faster and more reliable internet access to our homes, schools, and businesses in all our villages. We need accurate data so we can have facts to present to the State and to the Federal Government about the need for better internet infrastructure, better
connections, and faster/consistently reliable internet speeds.

Please log on to:
http://www.ecorridors.vt.edu/maps/broadbandmap.php and run the test at home from 1 - 3 times total during this week. If your connection speed varies by time of day, you are welcome to run the test at different times; day, evening and night. Please don't run the test more than three times in this week, but please run it at least once.

Help and instructions are at:
http://www.aste.org/speedtest
Click on the Printable Instructions

Thanks for helping us to gather better broadband data for Alaska. Final results will be available to the public through the above web site.

The announcement may be downloaded from: http://drop.io/akspeedtest

March 16th - Martin's Rural Broadband Site

2009-03-16T19:41:00.004-08:00

Martin Leonard posted the Alaska Internet Speed Test Week announcement to his Rural Broadband in Alaska site, a blog that grew from their efforts to bring better broadband speeds to the Kuskokwim delta. Check it out at: http://alaskaruralbroadband.blogspot.com/

Martin also forwarded the announcement to School District Technology Coordinators and Village Technology Specialists in the region. We hope to see many testers from the Delta during the test week. Taikuu, Martin.

March 11-13 Test-the-Test Days

2009-03-09T14:10:00.005-08:00

Greetings, Speedsters.

Wednesday March 11th through Friday the 13th, we will be spot-testing to make sure that access to the test site is working properly across the statewide regions....hopefully with enough time to make any adjustments to location specific obstacles such as firewalls or proxy servers. So, click on the link to the speed test in the upper right of this page and run the speed test. Click on the second link to further instructions if you need more info about how to run the speed test.

You can commit your speed test results to the Google map if you want to test the operation of the test. However, we will be mapping results only in the actual speed test period (Mar 30 - Apr 5th), so be sure to add your location specific info then.

If the test works, great. Focus on strategies for encouraging at least 10 people per village or town to check their Internet connection from home or business during the speed test week. Just one test is fine for consistent service speeds. They can test up to 3 different times (day, evening, night) if speed varies widely by time of day).

If the speed test won't work, try to find an approriate person or tech to track down why not. Comment here if you need help in tracking down obstructions to successful testing.