Measuring Sustainability

I’ve seen folks around the country suggesting that state broadband offices ought to put a priority on sustainability when selecting winners of broadband grant funding. It’s a concept that has instant appeal, but I immediately asked myself what it means. How do you measure sustainability in a way that can be used to score grant requests? The first test of sustainability is the expected life of the assets being constructed. Another test of any internet service provider (ISP) on sustainability is the financial ability and willingness to replace those electronics. That’s hard to judge. A big factor in sustainability is the operating philosophy of the ISP that owns the networks. We know there is a big range of (what I would call) corporate responsibility between ISPs. If we go strictly by the past, then the ISPs that have the most likely chance of operating a sustainable network for the long term are cooperatives or small telcos. If sustainability was the most important factor in awarding a grant, I personally would give all of the money to cooperatives and none to big ISPs.