The Village of South Jacksonville is working to increase cellular connectivity in the area.
South Jacksonville Mayor Tyson Manker met with 18th District Congressman Darin LaHood yesterday to discuss issues facing the village that included poor cellular connectivity in the village and neighboring areas to the south, like Lake Jacksonville.
In the announcement this morning, Manker also says he and LaHood talked about the infrastructure needs of the Village, IT Security among other topics important to the village.
Maker says he and LaHood had a productive meeting. He says LaHood offered to write a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the village’s behalf about misleading cellular coverage maps.
Manker says the aim is centered primarily at AT&T, and what he says is the serious impact of poor cellular connectivity on South Jacksonville Police, whose vehicles routinely cannot connect to AT&T’s network.
Manker says during the meeting, he informed the Congressman that under a previous administration the Village of South Jacksonville paid a ransom of taxpayer dollars to hackers in order to regain control of internal systems—a fact Manker says was kept secret from the public.
LaHood said in the release that he had a good meeting with Manker and he will continue to work with him to support South Jacksonville and rural broadband access and IT security issues.