Broadband Models for Unserved and Underserved Communities

A description of five viable models for municipally enabled broadband. Eight percent of US markets are “well served” with broadband are “municipally enabled.” The other 92% of well-served municipalities get broadband from private service providers. Moving forward, however, public and hybrid networks may be a viable alternative for bringing broadband to communities that are not well served, researchers said. The researchers estimate that there are 6,500 such communities nationwide. The five models for municipally enabled broadband:

• Full municipal broadband. This category includes more than two thirds (68%) of current municipally enabled networks. It includes deployments such as the one completed by EPB in Chattanooga in which a city or utility company owns and operates the network and serves end users.
• Publicly owned, privately serviced. With this model, which represents 17% of municipally enabled networks, one or more commercial partners serve end users and may operate infrastructure, but the municipality owns the infrastructure. An example of this comes from Westminster, Maryland and involves private service provider Ting.
• Hybrid ownership. With this model, the city owns middle mile infrastructure, but one or more private service providers own and operate last mile infrastructure, as well as serving end users. The white paper cites an example in Lincoln (NE).
• Private developer open access. This category includes municipalities where a private developer owns and operates broadband infrastructure, but private service providers serve end users. The researchers reference Fullerton (CA) – a market where SiFi networks, Ting and GigabitNow have established a network of this type.
• Full private broadband. With this model, one or more service providers own and operate the network, as well as providing service to end users. While this might sound like the typical commercial network that comprises 92% of well served markets, the difference appears to be that the municipality becomes actively involved in attracting service providers by, for example, simplifying access to rights of way. Boston offers an example of this approach, the authors said.
  • The latter three categories combined comprise about 15% of municipally enabled networks, according to the white paper, which also includes a decision tree to help municipalities considering public, private and hybrid options to make the best choice, depending on their specific situations.