Best questions for citizen survey about broadband internet access

Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about broadband internet access, plus solid tips for writing them. If you want to build your own in seconds, you can use Specific’s AI to generate a survey instantly and tailor it to your needs.

Best open-ended questions for a citizen survey about broadband internet access

Open-ended questions help uncover true experiences and perspectives, especially for complex topics like broadband access. They let people share details you’d never surface in a checkbox form—perfect for identifying gaps, frustrations, and ideas. For broadband surveys, they’re especially valuable in diverse communities where access and expectations vary a lot. Here are 10 open-ended questions that spark meaningful insights:

1. Can you describe how reliable your current internet connection is at home?

2. What activities do you rely on broadband internet for in your daily life?

3. Have you faced any barriers to getting broadband internet at home? If so, what were they?

4. How does your internet access impact your work, education, or communication?

5. What would you change about your current broadband service if you could?

6. Have you ever had to go elsewhere (like a library, coffee shop, or friend’s place) to access better internet? Please tell us about that experience.

7. Do you feel the cost of broadband internet is fair for the service you receive? Why or why not?

8. What would make broadband more accessible or affordable for you and your neighbors?

9. Have outages or slow speeds ever affected important activities in your household? Can you give an example?

10. Is there anything else you want to share about your needs or frustrations with internet in your area?

This style of question helps address persistent access gaps. For example, while 90% of U.S. households have a broadband subscription, only 71% of American Indian and Alaska Native households on tribal lands do—a crucial detail only uncovered through targeted, nuanced questions. [1] [2]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a citizen survey about broadband internet access

Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal for quantifying experiences and quickly pinpointing issues. They speed up completion (always helpful in citizen surveys!) and give everyone an easy place to start. Short, clear options work best—later you can dig deeper with follow-ups. Here are three great multiple-choice questions with choices:

Question: How would you rate your current home broadband internet speed?

• Very fast

• Fast enough

• Too slow

• No broadband at home

Question: What is your biggest challenge when accessing the internet at home?

• High cost

• Poor reliability

• Limited options/providers

• Service not available

• Other

Question: How affordable do you find your current broadband service?

• Very affordable

• Somewhat affordable

• Not affordable

• I don’t have broadband

When to follow up with “why?” It’s powerful to follow up “Not affordable” or “Too slow” with “Can you share more about what makes it unaffordable or slow for you?” Open-ended follow-up questions dig beneath the checkboxes and uncover real needs and pain points.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when you suspect the list may not capture every citizen’s experience—say, in a diverse city or rural area. Following up lets someone explain an uncommon issue. For instance, 43% of households earning less than $30,000 lack broadband at home—some may be coping with unique local challenges not on your list. [3]

Should you use an NPS question in a citizen broadband survey?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple, proven way to measure satisfaction and track public sentiment over time. For broadband access surveys, it’s practical for benchmarking: “How likely are you to recommend your current broadband service to others in your community?” on a scale of 0–10. The open-ended follow-up—“What’s the main reason for your score?”—yields highly actionable insight for governments, ISPs, or advocacy groups.

If you want to try this, use this NPS survey generator for broadband access—it creates an NPS-ready citizen survey in seconds.

The power of follow-up questions

If you want deep, usable insights, nothing beats smart, contextual follow-up questions. Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions feature turns your survey into a natural back-and-forth that feels like a real conversation—not a boring form. Its AI asks sharp follow-ups based on each response, so you collect exactly the context and details you need, right away. This is invaluable for making sense of big issues like broadband affordability or rural coverage gaps, where every citizen’s situation is different.

• Citizen: “My internet is too slow to stream video.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share a recent example where slow internet caused a problem? What were you trying to do?”

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 contextual follow-ups are plenty. If your survey platform (like Specific) lets you, set rules to end follow-ups once you’ve got sufficient detail. This avoids overload for both sides.

This makes it a conversational survey: every follow-up feels like a real dialogue, not a cold form. That keeps people engaged—especially busy citizens who don’t want to write lengthy essays unless it feels worthwhile.

AI survey analysis is a game-changer—even though open responses are messy, AI survey response analysis lets you summarize and chat about citizen replies instantly. This is the key to turning hundreds of stories and complaints into clear, actionable insights.

Want to experience the difference? Try generating a broadband survey with follow-ups and see how much richer your data gets.

How to write better prompts for AI to generate broadband survey questions

The best way to get great questions—whether you’re using ChatGPT, Specific’s AI survey maker, or another GPT-based tool—is to give as much background as possible. Try:

Prompt 1: Basic request

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about broadband internet access.

Prompt 2: Add context about your goals, location, or target group

I work in a municipal government in a rural US county. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a citizen survey about broadband internet access. My main goal is to understand affordability barriers and gather ideas for improving access for families and seniors.

AI always generates sharper, more useful questions when it knows exactly who you are and your purpose.

Prompt 3: Categorize questions for easy review

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

After reviewing, identify which categories you care most about—then prompt:

Generate 10 questions for these categories: Affordability, Reliability, and Unique Local Barriers.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys use AI to interact just like a human interviewer—clarifying, probing, and adapting each question to previous answers. For citizen broadband access, this means every respondent has a unique, relevant experience, and your survey feels less like busywork and more like a real conversation. Compare this to traditional surveys:

Why use AI for citizen surveys? AI removes bias and labor—it crafts smart follow-ups, clarifies murky answers, and helps you chase the real story. For example, the digital divide in the US persists, with only 87% of rural households and 71% of tribal households accessing broadband at home—AI-powered citizen surveys quickly expose not just “if” someone has broadband but “why not” and “what needs to change.” [1] [2]

If you're designing a broadband access survey, the fastest way to see the difference is to use an AI survey generator. Setup takes seconds and you don’t have to invent questions from scratch. Check out this guide to creating citizen surveys with Specific—we cover everything from survey design to follow-up logic.

With Specific, you get a best-in-class experience for both the survey creator and your citizens. The result? Higher response rates and truer, more actionable insights—key for tackling the digital divide.

See this broadband internet access survey example now

Create, launch, and analyze a broadband internet access citizen survey as a natural conversation—Specific’s AI makes it personal, thorough, and easy to act on. Don’t just collect data; capture real stories and opinions that can drive change.