The states have the money, but to future-proof this historic investment and close the digital divide, they need to empower the right people to bring in the right technology that can carry the right communities across it for generations to come.
With $65 billion in critical infrastructure spending, we may be on the verge of closing the digital divide. Not since the electrification of rural America have we stood at such a precipice of potential progress and economic benefits. But it takes more than throwing money at something to fix it, and this isn’t the first time we’ve had money to spend on broadband.
The 1936 Rural Electrification Act worked to close the growing connection gap between urban and rural communities because it empowered communities to connect. When “Big Power” neglected to build out rural areas, local leaders stepped in to electrify their communities with their best interests, rather than profit, in mind.
In the same way, the states are positioned to empower community broadband - the right people to bring the right technology that their underserved and unserved communities need to carry themselves across the digital divide.
The money is now with the states
Since the 2021 Infrastructure bill announced it would include $65 billion in broadband spending for buildouts and affordability, the ball is slowly starting to roll. In rural America, at least 17 percent of the population lacks broadband access, and millions more in urban and rural areas cannot afford it. But without accurate maps, these numbers have always been estimates, reducing deployment effectiveness and efficiency.
The FCC expects to release its first drafts of broadband mapping in November 2022. Still, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) chief Alan Davidson expects to wait for that first version to go through at least one full challenge process, making it ready to use by mid-May 2023.
“We’ve heard from states and from communities they want [at least one] chance to challenge the map,” said Davidson. Local voices will have the opportunity to identify locations the first draft missed or call out providers saying they offer high-speed service on a street where people know from experience they don’t. With that foundation, we have a better chance of ensuring the money gets sent to the right places.
Community broadband empowers the right people
Mapping will reveal unserved and underserved markets, but we also need teams of people dedicated to doing the job right and on schedule, or we run the risk of wasting this valuable investment — this is where community broadband comes in. Community broadband comes from the service providers and local businesses who introduce the tools unserved and underserved areas need to overcome their regional limitations. With local voices setting expectations and creating defined plans with specific evidence, target dates, and accountability measures, each state can better target those areas with unique solutions best suited to their needs.
We were recently deploying product with one of our service providers in a county in West Virginia where less than 14 percent of its people had access to broadband before we brought it to their market. Take rates were very high, both because people were happy it was finally available and also thanks to the federal subsidies covering consumer costs. It may be too early to have data around their improved economic advantage, but we believe bringing broadband into that county will make a substantial difference. I can at least share with certainty the excitement and joy the people of that county felt from our deployment.
Future-proofing requires room for speed
The prospect of building a new highway in a different state may not seem to affect me today, but once I need to travel through that underserved market and use that critical infrastructure, I feel the burden. In the same way, we never realize how areas cut off from communication will affect us until we need to get information across those environments. Those underserved markets will feel like communication black holes in an increasingly digital world.
Larger companies may not prioritize low-density or low-income regions for lack of profitability. Still, while they wait, communication will continue to advance into the faster speeds of fiber-optic cables. Another major funding opportunity for new buildouts in areas with technology limited to lower speeds is unlikely to come again. Using this investment for anything but fiber risks deepening the digital divide down the line.
Already, experts and politicians are rallying around the need to future-proof this historic investment with technology that can accommodate increasing speeds. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has set in motion a proposal to raise the speeds considered “broadband” to 100 megabytes per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload and suggested a “national goal" of 1 gigabyte per second Gbps down over 500 Mbps up for the future. Congress has emphasized a priority for projects that can “easily scale speeds over time,” meet “evolving connectivity needs,” and support “other advanced services” like 5G deployment. While alternatives fall short, the NTIA has agreed that only end-to-end fiber meets all these objectives.
Even wireless internet service providers (WISPs) are seeing the writing on the wall and overbuilding their networks with fiber to become fiber-first internet service providers (FFISPs). This is what I love about FFISPs - they are part of community broadband: The pioneers and entrepreneurs reminiscent of the world 100 years ago, taking the initiative to make a difference at the local level instead of waiting around for someone else to do it. When we replicate that can-do attitude one small market at a time, it collectively creates quite a forest of coverage.
There is a lot of money up for grabs to build out broadband that will last for generations and close the digital divide. Now is the time to dream big for a better future — with more people accessing modern competitive communication, innovating, and taking advantage of greater economic opportunities. The markets that will emerge from closing the digital divide are as unprecedented as they were in the 1930s. As we saw with rural electrification, everyone stands to benefit from supporting the right technology and the right people. We can make it happen
