Regional Utility Districts Can Help Fill Gaps in Broadband Service

Regional utility districts formed among multiple towns or municipal entities represent one of several emerging frameworks for providing broadband service to unserved or underserved areas, particularly in more rural parts of the country. Historically, such utility districts have been formed to build out infrastructure and provide essential services. This has been a common model in rural America, used to provide a variety of services, including water or emergency medical services. In recent years, states such as Vermont and New Hampshire have adopted policies to support the formation of such districts to provide high-speed internet to residents. Bringing broadband to rural areas is difficult because of the economics; the infrastructure is expensive to deploy, and sparse populations mean a small customer base for traditional internet service providers. Creating regional districts raises aggregate demand by combining the populations of multiple towns. This provides myriad benefits: It increases the number of potential customers, mitigates the risk facing individual towns, and allows services to be provided more efficiently through one regional network rather than individual systems. This article is part of a series that looks at three approaches to expanding broadband access to rural areas that lack sufficient service.

[Anna Read is senior officer and Lily Gong is an associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts' Broadband Access Initiative.]