The Orange County Board of Commissioners is seeking community members to serve on its recently-launched Broadband Task Force.

The advisory board will discuss solutions to improve the quality of high-speed internet services for Orange County residents, and then recommend a plan to the Board of Commissioners on how to expand reliable internet to all county residents and businesses.

“We have poor coverage in our rural part of the county,” former Board of Commissioners chair Penny Rich said in a November interview with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck. “Until broadband is a utility, it’s going to be hard to fix — because the telecommunications companies have a lot of money.”

There are a total of 12 seats on the Advisory Board, five of which will go to Orange County residents.

All residents selected by the Board of Commissioners to participate should have a background in telecommunication networks, public infrastructure projects, customer service or residency in an underserved area of the county.

“Our children have to learn, our children need the internet,” Rich said. “Business needs the internet. So, I think this is a good step in the right direction and we’ll start talking about the make-up of that board.”

Those interested in applying to be on the Advisory Board can do so on Orange County’s website.

 

 

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