Merit’s Michigan Moonshot broadband initiative is certainly not a typical activity for a Research & Education (R&E) network. In fact, Merit was the only R&E network in the nation working on such a statewide program in 2018, years before the pandemic significantly amplified the need for residential broadband connectivity. Now, every state in the nation and many sister R&E networks are endeavoring to find ways to improve internet service to their residents. Homes are the new classrooms, offices and medical consultation rooms of the 21st century.
Merit is the nation’s longest-running R&E network, having been started in 1966 by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, when researchers at those schools conceived of a new method of sharing digital information between their campuses. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merit operated the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) — the precursor to the modern internet. Merit’s mission is to connect organizations and build community, and today we serve about 400 anchor institutions across Michigan — universities, colleges, K-12 schools, libraries and governmental entities, among others — providing high performance internet service regardless of locale.
Given our mission, Merit will never be a residential internet service provider. Why, then, did Merit begin to think about helping improve connectivity to peoples’ homes? There were two events in my tenure at Merit that convinced me we needed to help our great state. The first happened in 2017 as I was driving around the Upper Peninsula meeting our members. At the end of one of my long daily trips as the sun was setting on a very cold, clear winter day, I was leaving a small rural library. I noticed the parking lot was full of running cars despite the library being closed. I asked someone what this was all about, and they told me that townspeople were using the library’s Wi-Fi so their children could finish their homework because they didn’t have internet service in their homes. This stunned me, and I had a hard time believing this was possible in America in the 21st century. My mother and father grew up near this place, and I thought about people like them today who must have an incredibly difficult time with educational and work-related activities, given the need to use the internet for these things in the modern age. Lack of access to information could have life-changing consequences for many, I thought.
The second event involved my participation in 2018 on then-Governor Rick Snyder’s broadband taskforce, the Michigan Consortium of Advanced Networks. I worked alongside policymakers, local community leaders, business leaders, educators and residents to help develop Michigan’s first long-term broadband plan. During local community outreach events, I heard moving stories about the real plight of people who did not have internet access. It was this civic work that compelled me to ask my capable team at Merit how we could get involved to help communities. The result was our Michigan Moonshot initiative.
Today, through this program, we’re helping educate communities on how to tackle the broadband problem. We’re working with policymakers and funding agencies; we’re providing accurate broadband maps and sentiment surveys through crowdsourced citizen science; we’re working with university researchers on gauging the impact of broadband on residents and students; and we’re finding novel ways to use our advanced network to help local communities and internet providers connect more people.
Our goal is to have no student or resident left behind in the 21st century, with people in places like Newberry, Ironwood and Bellaire having the same high-speed connectivity as those in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Ferndale. I hope you’ll join us on our quest to make Michigan the best connected state in the nation.
Joseph Sawasky
President & CEO, Merit Network, Inc.
