By ANDREW M. FRASER
Los Alamos

An effort called Better Los Alamos Broadband NOW (blabnow) would like to bring your attention to the open letter at https:////www.blabnow.blog/petition/.

We encourage County residents to visit the website where we are collecting electronic signatures. The petition asks the Los Alamos County Council to make broadband a priority for 2021.

Here we review the major points of the letter.

Living with the ongoing pandemic we find both that our broadband connections are inadequate and that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) available in the County offer various combinations of high prices, hostile customer service and low data rates.

We link to a podcast from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that blames federal policy failures for poor broadband options in America. We also link to a recent County Council meeting where we found that neither the County Staff nor the Council have a deep understanding of the situation.

At a second meeting, we heard the Deputy Director of Operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory say that LANL plans to support having staff work remotely, and those arrangements will continue after the pandemic passes.

In the open letter we summarize the situation. The key point is:

• Because Los Alamos County already owns the right of way and much of the infrastructure necessary for and used by communications utilities, Council is in a position to address the

We also request several Council actions. The most important action is:

• At the January meeting to set priorities for 2021, establish broadband access in the County as a priority.
  

We hope readers here will visit the website and if they agree we need Better Los Alamos Broadband NOW they will sign the open letter and BLAB to their friends, neighbors, and colleagues about it.