Who is responsible for universal broadband service?

[Commentary] Universal broadband service is hard. The cost to bring universal broadband service to Minnesota has been estimated at $1-3 billion dollars. That estimate comes from a few years ago – but for now I think that’s the best – albeit gaping – budget we have and it is primarily to serve high cost, low ROI areas – remote places with low population density and sometimes added challenges like communities built on granite or in the woods. It’s difficult for commercial broadband providers to serve those areas and make a profit. It’s difficult for government to serve those areas because their primary focus is not broadband service. Government will benefit when those people are connected – they will be able to provide services more efficiently (healthcare and education for example) and broadband provides greater economic opportunities for a home and/or business. Commercial providers have the know-how; government has the motivation. So who is (or should be) responsible for universal broadband service? The mantra has been public private partnership.

Where public private partnership has worked, it’s worked well to serve rural areas – but most of the success we’ve had in Minnesota has been from cooperatives and small independent companies. Public private partnerships to serve rural areas seems less successful with big providers who have billions of dollars invested in infrastructure – equipment and wires but I also staff, political relationships and previous funding channels from the Federal Communications Commission through earlier iterations of the universal service funds. Government funding has subsidized some of that infrastructure so I think they feel invested too.