Ohio Anticipates Statewide Broadband Policy, Plan

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted wasn’t surprised when an OH Department of Transportation report, released in late Sept, indicated that his state has valuable assets that can lead to broadband expansion.  “Actually, it largely confirmed what we believed,” Lt Gov Husted said. “That the public infrastructure, particularly the rights of way, have value, and we need to leverage that value to extend broadband…to places that don’t presently have it.”  Like most states, OH has been aware that a significant portion of its population, mostly in rural areas, has little to no access to high-speed Internet. But it wasn’t until the latest administration, led by Gov Mike DeWine (R-OH), that OH sent out an RFI to carve out a path to a statewide broadband policy and plan. After reviewing the results of the RFI, which garnered replies from more than 20 respondents, it’s now more than clear to Lt Gov Husted that OH must confront the challenge of convincing different parties, “who have no specific interest in working together,” to come to the same table in order to better society. Put another way, the state has no interest in competing with the private sector.  “You might have a telecommunications company, you might have a data center company, a cloud services company, a utility, a local cable provider — all of these companies have the ability to help us solve the aggregate problem,” Husted said. 

Lt Gov Husted said OH is working on a more accurate broadband coverage map, a goal that further underscores the importance of forming strong bonds with every relevant player.  “What we need is for the private-sector providers to help us fill in those gaps [in coverage data] by providing that information,” Husted said. “Some of them will suggest that they can’t do it because it’s proprietary. But frankly, if you’re talking about infrastructure like that, I don’t really believe that it needs to be secretive. They should be very forthcoming with what they have done. And we hope to create a better partnership with them to do that.”