What is the eCOMMonwealth Program (eCOMM)

A joint Local Development District (LDD) broadband project created to identify communities in Pennsylvania that lack modern, affordable broadband services and place those underserved communities in a position where one or more broadband service provider could affordably offer service to that community.

Pennsylvania recognizes the importance of broadband and high-speed Internet access and has developed eCOMM to accelerate and implement broadband services into underserved or non-served areas to meet their information technology and system needs.

Broadband Assessment Study

NEPA, in conjunction with four other LDD’s and the Commonwealth, hired Spotts, Stevens, and McCoy, Inc. to conduct a comprehensive Broadband Assessment Study.

The broadband assessment study was completed to identify the current broadband availability in the region. This assessment study will be utilized as a decision support tool to inform the region about current broadband availability and to identify priority areas for broadband deployment.

The results revealed that the majority of residents and a large portion of businesses are still using dial-up connections to access the Internet. A quarter of the population in the NEPA region stated that high-speed Internet access such as broadband was not available in their area. Businesses reported that their “current bandwidth is inadequate” and “high-speed services are not available.” Both residents and businesses stated that high-speed services are too expensive” and “they need help getting broadband providers to serve their area.”

Click here to view the downloadable report