Meet Oklahoma’s New Broadband Director Mike Sanders

When Mike Sanders started his job as Executive Director for the Oklahoma Broadband Office in May 2023, the state’s broadband office had four employees. At the end of June 2023, he expected that number to hit 15. Previously, Director Sanders served six terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, where he chaired the House Utilities Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, was vice-chair of the Human Services Committee, and served as House Majority Leader. Prior to that, he worked for President George W. Bush (R-TX) and served in senior management with the US Department of Agriculture. Among the projects on Sanders’ Oklahoma broadband to-do list:

• Spearheading the award of $382 million that the state received through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for broadband deployments. Oklahoma received 133 applications requesting $4 billion in funding for the ARPA-funded program. Decisions will be made by a governing board and Sanders expects awardees to be announced in late summer or early fall. Those applicants that don’t receive funding will be able to apply for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) or Capital Projects Fund (CPF) dollars, he noted.
• Implementing the state’s plans for how it will use CPF dollars. The state is still waiting for the US Treasury’s approval of the plan.
• Planning for and administering the $797 million that will be coming from the federal BEAD program for broadband deployments.

The state was pleased with the $797 million in BEAD funding that it was allotted. Oklahoma was able to maximize its allotment by challenging the Federal Communications Commission's broadband map data. The state is doing its own map, which is expected to come out early August 2023.