LAKEPORT – The county of Lake will host a community meeting to provide information about the Upstate California Connect regional broadband demand aggregation project.

The meeting will be held on Friday, April 24, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes Street, in Lakeport.

Anyone interested in high-speed Internet availability, usage, and demand is invited to attend to learn about and provide input into this project.

In April 2008, the County of Lake received a $10,000 planning grant from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) to lead the development of a regional project to aggregate the demand for high-speed broadband access across Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba counties.

CETF is a nonprofit organization established, pursuant to orders from the California Public Utilities Commission, to improve access to broadband in underserved communities across the state.

The five-county regional project – dubbed Upstate California Connect – is one of seven rural, multi-county regions that are working toward the goal of ubiquitous high-speed broadband throughout California.

Last fall, Upstate California Connect partnered with the Center for Economic Development (CED) at California State University, Chico, which prepared and submitted the region’s proposed work plan, which has since been approved by CETF. CED is now facilitating participation in the project by gathering input across the region.

Community participation in the upcoming meeting is important to the successful outcome of the project by helping to ensure that the broadband needs of Lake County are well-represented.

CED encourages participation from all individuals, agencies, and businesses that use or would like to use the Internet – including business owners and entrepreneurs, schools, hospitals and clinics, farmers, nonprofit organizations, emergency responders, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and more.

The purpose of the meeting is to provide a status report on the project, as well as review ISP feedback, participate in a pre-test survey, get a peek at a prior project’s survey results, review next steps in the project, and discuss the community’s role in the project.

All are welcome to attend, no RSVP required. For further information, contact CED at 530-898-4598.