Progress Report: American Broadband Initiative Turns One

Federal agencies have made significant progress across government to improve broadband access for Americans in the year following the launch of the American Broadband Initiative (ABI). The Trump Administration announced the launch of the initiative in Feb 2019 with the release of the Milestones Report, which outlined commitments made by federal agencies to improve broadband resources. The White House plays a leading role on the ABI and is working to streamline the federal permitting process, leverage federal assets for deployment, and maximize the impact of federal funding, said Greg Watson, Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). 

Chad Rupe, Administrator of USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, said that USDA has developed streamlined permitting processes with the revised SF-299, enabling it to become a “common application form,” and released a mapping tool showing communications sites on Forest Service land. 

The Department of the Interior reported on developing its Joint Overview-Established Locations (JOEL) Map, which helps users get information on DOI communications assets on federally managed land that may be leveraged to deploy broadband to communities in need. DOI has also been proposing rule changes for streamlining broadband use on public lands while ensuring proper National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis.

Additional progress on broadband mapping is underway at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said Andy Spurgeon, Chief of Operations for NTIA’s BroadbandUSA. He provided an update on the National Broadband Availability Map (NBAM), which was launched in Sept 2019. The NBAM is a platform for developing visualizations of broadband data at various geospatial levels from multiple federal, state, and commercial sources. The map will support broadband planning, funding, and implementation for state and federal policymakers. Thirteen states are participating in the first phase of the project, and plans are underway to add business intelligence and machine learning features to help its users develop better insights on coverage gaps, Spurgeon said.