By Francella Ochillo
TL;DR: Unlike previous federal grant programs that expanded access to high-speed Internet, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires coordination with local stakeholders. Resources and best practices for state broadband offices looking to collaborate with local leaders are emerging across the country.
Over ten years ago, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched a four billion dollar Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP) to expand access. It was one of the first federal broadband grant programs that recognized the importance of state and local coordination.
BTOP applicants were asked to detail plans for engaging and partnering with local governments, community organizations, and community anchor institutions, and NTIA solicited input from states on qualifying projects. However, there were few accountability measures in place to ensure that awarded projects actually reflected community-based needs.
Times have changed. With billions in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding in the balance in 2022, a re-energized NTIA has increased manpower and the political will to make community outreach a standard feature in federal broadband grant awards. The agency has incorporated several layers of review into IIJA funded programs, ensuring that local leadership and impacted populations have a say in how resources are spent.
Injecting millions of federal dollars into broadband planning and execution will be transformational in some states. That may be why NTIA is not only looking for proof of compliance this time around, the agency is conducting a nationwide public outreach campaign to ensure that local needs are the cornerstones of state broadband deployment and digital inclusion strategies.
States will have to do more than announce plans to coordinate with local leaders. To qualify for their share of approximately $65 billion in IIJA funds, states must commit to “close and ongoing coordination” with community-based stakeholders, a point that has also repeatedly been emphasized by NTIA leadership.
While NTIA is neither designed nor equipped to lead local engagement efforts, state broadband offices are natural liaisons and better positioned to reach communities that federal programs aim to serve. Accordingly, NTIA convenes and facilitates the State Broadband Leaders Network (SBLN), a community of practitioners who are not only indispensable partners for local government and community outreach but can help to ensure that NTIA awards reflect state and local collaboration.
Still relatively new in places like Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, and others, state broadband offices play an essential role in directing investments and mapping connectivity needs, oftentimes on tight timetables and across agencies. They are uniquely positioned to triage local concerns and unearth partnership opportunities among public and private stakeholders. Additionally, some local leaders rely on state broadband offices for ideation and implementation support, especially in unserved and underserved areas that lack broadband expertise, capacity, or resources.
State broadband offices have direct access to communities that are beyond the federal government’s reach. The Colorado Broadband Office, for example, provides data, policy, and planning resources for local and tribal leaders and hosts a Broadband Advisory Board to promote coordination to facilitate state and local coordination. Washington’s State Broadband Office’s efforts to build relationships and partner with local leaders enabled state leaders to match shovel-ready projects with funding opportunities. That kind of targeted outreach adds longevity to community-based programs.
The North Carolina Broadband Office published a Community Broadband Playbook, a tool for local leaders to take inventory of assets, strengths, and weaknesses, a key starting point. When its Governor challenged counties statewide to develop their own digital inclusion plans, 14 communities used the playbook as a template. Wisconsin’s Broadband Office frequently works with communities to improve broadband mapping. Collaborating with local leaders on state policy recommendations, state officials documented the need to increase partnerships with community-based anchor institutions and reduce barriers to publicly owned infrastructure.
Broadband challenges rarely surface in isolation. Communities must tackle connectivity issues as they relate to other policy priorities including small business development, transportation, or health care. State leaders – like those in Utah’s Broadband Office – recognize broadband’s intersectional impact on economic development, energy efficiency, telecommuting, education, and telehealth. Through its Broadband Alliance, Utah officials regularly convene public and private stakeholders, including local and Tribal leaders, to develop broadband plans and policies based on community needs.
It is worth noting that economically distressed and hard-to-reach areas are not only facing infrastructure challenges but must also cope with a trust deficit when federal and state officials have previously been unwilling to take ownership or create lasting solutions for persistent connectivity gaps. Particularly in those circumstances, close state and local coordination is the only way to ensure that federal funding programs live up to stated goals.
Federal resources, state leadership, and local engagement can be a powerful elixir for providing unserved and underserved areas, including those in Michigan, with viable options. Federal resources will give hundreds of projects spanning from the Upper Peninsula to Wayne County a chance at success. Michiganders are depending on its High-Speed Internet Office to help improve mapping, promote funding opportunities, and take the lead on community engagement.
While overlooked communities search for answers, The Michigan Moonshot, an initiative hosted by the Merit Network, is leveraging public and private partnerships that make aspirational broadband goals a reality. At its inception, it represented a call to action for policymakers, public-private partners, local leaders, and impacted residents to set their eyes on closing Michigan’s digital divide. It has since provided expertise for local data collection projects and equipped community leadership with policy, funding, and educational resources. Most states do not have a Moonshot initiative, but they have concerned residents and problem solvers that understand what is at stake when their own families and neighbors cannot get online. Weaving their perspectives and community outreach protocols into the fabric of federal and state broadband plans makes them more effective and boosts sustainability. It is long past time for state and local coordination to be a prerequisite for federal funding.