Mississippi Addresses Allegations of Inequitable Outreach in BEAD

The Mississippi broadband office is responding to allegations raised by a legal organization that claims the state is failing to conduct equitable local coordination and outreach with underrepresented communities in preparation of allocating $1.2 billion to expand broadband infrastructure. The Mississippi Center for Justice is alleging that the state office did not include “strategies to address the state’s racial disparities in broadband access” in the state’s initial Volume 1 proposal prepared for the Broadband, Equity Access and Deployment program. The group further contends that the office has not engaged with “diverse stakeholder groups, specifically the incarcerated community,” which represents 1 percent of Mississippi’s population. Sally Doty, the director of Mississippi’s Broadband Expansion and Accessibility ‘BEAM’ office, acknowledges and shares many of the concerns raised by MCJ in its recent filing to the Federal Communications Commission. Doty pointed to the fact that several of the counties mentioned by MCJ have received significant grant awards under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, rendering certain parts of these regions ineligible for BEAD funding. She emphasized the state is actively engaging with RDOF winners to navigate how to best collaborate and work around the other federal programs.