What & Why

What is the City of St. Helens doing and why?

There is an obvious digital divide that currently exists in most communities, and the City of St. Helens is no different. Digital infrastructure can greatly increase the number of people who have access to high speed internet. It can boost economic development, provide opportunities for better civic engagement, and introduce modern applications, such as telehealth, to traditionally underserved populations.

Using a small portion of ARPA Funding (American Rescue Plan Act), the City has contracted with SNG (Strategic Networks Group) to complete an economic case study to help the St. Helens City Council and the community determine if broadband  and digital infrastructure makes sense for St. Helens. 

SNG will help explore the options of bringing an end-to-end fiber optic network throughout the city. Our objective is to provide high-quality service coverage to all residents and businesses in St. Helens. State of the art fiber optic internet is essential to learn, teach, access information, create jobs, and diversify our economy.

This essential infrastructure will be leveraged to connect residents, businesses, and organizations throughout the city, encouraging healthy competition from internet service providers, leading to improved service levels and lower costs for our residents and businesses. Additionally, this will allow us to support innovation and advanced services over time, benefiting the entire city.

Why is this survey so long?

We understand that the survey is long. We're asking people to take the eCheckup because we need the important data that the survey gives us to uncover gaps, barriers, and opportunities on where we stand in St. Helens, what we are missing out on, and where we need to be.

We call the survey an eCheckup because just like an annual doctor's personal health checkup, there are a number of things to go through to have a full understanding of a patient's health. In our case, we want to learn if our businesses and households are using broadband and online practices to their full potential and, if not, what they are missing out on.

Just like pixels of a picture, the more data points we collect, the clearer the picture we will have of St. Helens and our needs. Before undertaking a digital infrastructure initiative, we want to have as clear a picture as possible of how it will benefit our businesses, our residents, and our community.

Although the survey is long, we are hopeful that the majority of St. Helens residents and businesses will agree that the time spent providing their input is valuable. We will also be sharing the highlights on this research so that everyone can stay informed.

Who is SNG and why are we partnering with them?

Founded in 1998, Strategic Networks Group is globally recognized as the leader in helping communities and regions transform their economies through broadband, digital infrastructure, and smart community services.

SNG's vision is that broadband and digital infrastructure are a required platform for future economic sustainability, local growth, and community vitality. By taking a longer-term, community-benefits approach to investing in infrastructure, next generation connectivity can be made available ubiquitously and affordably – at SNG they call this the economic case for investing in broadband and digital infrastructure.

SNG's mission is to help communities and regions understand the local economic growth opportunities and quality of life improvements enabled by meaningful use of digital infrastructure and smart community services. With the empirical evidence that SNG collects and actionable planning intelligence they develop for communities and regions, SNG helps their clients make evidence-based decisions, build buy-in, and build an action plan focused on outcomes that engage the community and providers to:

1. Work together in new and creative ways to maximize local benefits as communities and regions invest in their digital future.
2. Address gaps in broadband and digital infrastructure availability and utilization without raising taxes, nor taking on unsustainable debt.
3. Grow market demand and drive network sustainability by driving demand for smart community services and online business applications.
4. Identify opportunities to implement smart community services that pay for themselves and enhance local quality of life..

SNG has worked with governments at a local, regional, state, and federal level, as well as public and private sector clients across North America to develop strategies and programs to assess and address their digital infrastructure challenges, with the goal of driving local economic growth and community benefits. Using its one-of-a-kind solutions, SNG measures and analyzes digital infrastructure use at the individual business, organization, and household level.

SNG is recognized as the world leader in the econometrics of broadband and digital infrastructure and how to maximize the benefits from online applications. Applying their proven tools and methodologies across the globe, SNG helps maximize the impacts of digital infrastructure investments.

For more information on SNG, visit their website at www.sngroup.com.