news-record.com

WENTWORTH -- The Rockingham County Business & Technology Center will hire up to 18 people to survey North Carolinians about their Internet access.

The e-NC Authority, North Carolina’s lead agency on broadband Internet mapping, awarded the center a $36,000 federally-funded contract to survey residents in 50 counties.

The call center will operate out of the center's computer lab, which also served as a call center for the Rockingham County Board of Elections in 2008. Foothills Connect in Rutherford County was awarded a separate contract to survey the state's remaining counties.

The call center's 18 employees will work full time for about two months and start by early February. UNC-Chapel Hill will manage survey design and Web site development for the research effort.

The broadband mapping contract corresponds with the Business & Technology Center's efforts to expand high speed Internet access in the county. Rockingham County Commissioners recently approved a $49,000 engineering study to determine how the county could best accommodate the fiber optic cables or wireless transmitter sites needed for broadband service.