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CenterFuse Broadband Feasibility Report <br /> For a survey to produce valid results the calling must be conducted randomly, meaning that the calling <br /> shouldn't be clustered around any one particular portion of the study universe. For example, the survey <br /> would not be considered to be valid if all of the calls were placed only to one portion of the city. We <br /> used the list of telephone numbers in a way to make sure we got random results. We called every fifth <br /> phone number on the list and cycled through the calling list until we got the desired number of <br /> completed surveys. <br /> Most business and political surveys strive to achieve an accuracy of about 95%with results that are plus <br /> or minus 5%. In layman's terms, this means that the results of such a survey are reliably accurate (the <br /> 95% number) and you would expect to get the same results (within 5%) if you could ask the same <br /> questions to everybody in the city. <br /> CCG uses an online survey tool to determine the number of surveys needed to achieve the desired <br /> accuracy. The tool is provided by Creative Research Systems and is found online at <br /> https://www.surveysystem.eomisscalc.htm. We've used this tool for many years and have manually <br /> done the mathematical calculations that demonstrate that the tool is accurate. This tool told us that we <br /> needed 367 completed surveys in Ellensburg to achieve the desired accuracy of 95%, plus or minus 5%. <br /> In the US we know that many people distrust the results of surveys, mostly due to results obtained from <br /> political surveys. This speaks to the issue of bias. When callers are asked about sensitive topics like <br /> politics, religion, or anything personal or controversial, it's well-known that many respondents don't <br /> answer questions honestly to a stranger like a survey taker. The best example of this is when surveyors <br /> ask people for their household income. Survey companies have often said that as many as half of <br /> residential homeowners do not give an accurate response to the salary question. <br /> However, experience shows that there is high reliability with surveys that look at non-emotional topics, <br /> such as this survey talking about a routine product purchased by most households. We have anecdotal <br /> evidence that broadband surveys are good market predictors because CCG has been giving these surveys <br /> for 20 years and we've had many opportunities to see the broadband penetration rates in communities <br /> that have built networks to compare achieved customers to the predictions made by our surveys. Surveys <br /> are never 100%accurate because sometimes an ISP does something to change the public perception. For <br /> example, an ISP that has problems during a network launch might underperform a prediction made by a <br /> survey. In general, we've learned to have faith in the predictions made by these broadband surveys. <br /> If there is an issue that might slant your survey, it's that it was administered during the pandemic. It's <br /> possible that more people will say they need better broadband now and that response could possibly <br /> change after the pandemic has passed. Because of this, and in general, we always recommend being <br /> conservative in using the results of a survey. <br /> Survey Results <br /> The survey produced some interesting results. A full copy of the survey questions and the responses are <br /> included in Addendum I of this report. Here are highlights of the survey results: <br /> Page 20 <br />