Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SCTA Conference Provides Opportunity to Explore USF Reform and its Impact on South Carolina

By Wil Payton, Communications Specialist, Connected Nation

The South Carolina Telecommunications Association (SCTA) recently held the SCTA Fall Conference in Columbia. The event provided an opportunity for attendees to share ideas and insights about telecommunications technologies with other provider colleagues and peers.

Corey Johns, senior stakeholder relations manager for Connected Nation, presented at the conference and provided updates on the Connect South Carolina mapping and research efforts, the Universal Service Fund (USF) reform implications for the state, and the Connect South Carolina community engagement programs which are modeled on documented success stories regarding broadband growth.

Johns underscored the importance of provider participation in the broadband mapping program. “The Connect South Carolina broadband inventory will inform policymaker decisions about which areas are eligible or ineligible for future USF support,” said Johns.

The FCC now places more weight on Community Anchor Institution (CAIs) support as a criteria for USF funding. Johns outlined ways that Connect South Carolina can assist providers with future requirements to account for the connectivity needs of CAIs. “Connect South Carolina’s community engagement process makes it easy for USF recipients to meet these requirements,” said Johns.

Help us continue to bring broadband to more homes and businesses in South Carolina by getting involved. Follow Connect South Carolina on Facebook or Twitter.

Posted by at

Monday, November 7, 2011

Protecting Children Online

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,
below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. Keep the computer in a family room where you can monitor computer use (under 10).
2. Use parental controls. Parental Controls to help manage how your children use the computer. For example, you can set limits on your children's access to the web, the hours that they can log on to the computer, and which games they can play and programs they can run.
3. Teach children never to meet an online friend offline unless you are with them.
4. Find out what e-mail and instant messaging accounts they have and (while agreeing not to spy on them) ask them for their passwords for those accounts.
5. Teach them what information they can share with others.
6. Check your children's profiles, blogs and any social-networking posts.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

Posted by at

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Don't need broadband? Think again as providers look to educate consumers

By Samantha Bookman | Fierce Telecom
Published: October 28, 2011

A couple of years ago I was having dinner with my uncle during a stopover in San Francisco. The conversation, as it is wont to do, turned eventually to the Internet, specifically to Facebook, which my uncle had joined but was not posting to very much. Why? I asked.

"Because it takes too long to load," he replied. "I have dialup."

I found this pretty amazing, considering he lives close enough to the city to get high-speed Internet, so I quizzed him a bit more about his reasons for staying with a dialup service. He had fairly sound ones: the price was very affordable; he wasn't locked into a service contract--important because his carpentry work often took him out of town for weeks at a time; the service was reliable; and he didn't see much use for Internet access beyond checking his email.

That conversation took place just as the Obama administration's broadband stimulus effort was gearing up, an initiative that now is in full swing, with broadband rolling out--at various speeds--well beyond urban areas and into rural ones. So I was very interested to see the results of a recent study that found that not only did 28 percent of Minnesota residents not subscribe to a broadband service, a significant portion of them weren't that interested in subscribing: 29 percent of those without broadband said there wasn't enough Internet content worth viewing.

Only 8 percent of the survey participants said that they didn't have access to broadband, so in the parts of Minnesota surveyed, which included rural areas, broadband access was not the biggest issue.

Minnesota wasn't the only state surveyed as part of an effort by Connected Nation. In South Carolina--where a battle for municipal broadband regulation was fought recently--around 43 percent of residents do not subscribe to broadband. Again, only 8 percent said broadband was not available to them.

Posted by at

10 Ways to Avoid Phishing E-mails and other E-mail Scams

As a follow-up to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,
below are tips to help you stay safe online:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Be suspicious of unsolicited e-mail messages. If an unknown individual claims to be from a legitimate organization, try to verify his or her identity directly with the company.
3. Treat e-mail attachments with caution.
4. Don’t click links in e-mail messages.
5. Do not reveal personal or financial information via unsecured e-mail.
6. Don't send sensitive information over the Internet before checking a website's security.
7. Take advantage of any anti-phishing features offered by your e-mail client and web browser.
8. Configure your e-mail client for security.
9. Learn the e-mail policies of the organizations you do business with.
10. Take your time. Resist any urge to "act now" despite the offer and the terms. Once you turn over your money, you may never get it back.

Other Useful Sites and Information Sources

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)