If the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, program is to be a game changer for digital equity, grant makers must ensure government dollars go where they’re needed most. They should start by looking at the growing movement of community connectivity providers whose primary purpose is to help people meet their digital needs at affordable prices. These municipal and community networks and social enterprises are demonstrating that they can deliver low-cost, high-speed internet for all households. All but one of the 10 fastest internet service providers in the United States run on municipal or community-owned broadband infrastructure. While such providers are in a far better position than big telecom companies to reach America’s least connected communities, they have historically lacked access to the necessary financial capital. BEAD is an opportunity to inject billions of dollars to overcome those funding challenges. But these community connectivity providers need far greater support to stand a chance of competing for government dollars against big telecom. A new study from the nonprofit Connect Humanity, on whose board we both serve, found that just 0.05 percent of overall giving from large U.S. foundations went to digital-equity programs from 2010 to 2019. Now is exactly the moment for grant makers to step up their support for these efforts.

[Lynette Bell is president of the Truist Foundation and serves on the board of Connect Humanity. Larry Irving served as assistant secretary of commerce and head of the agency’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration under President Clinton. He is a board member of Connect Humanity.]

Construction of apartments in large, multiple-dwelling-unit (MDU) buildings by nongovernmental builders could set another record this year. Builders received more than 18,000 permits for MDUs with five dwelling units or more in 2021. The properties would contain 552,000 dwelling units, up from 532,000 in 2020. That’s great news for broadband deployers – MDUs are now almost always designed for fiber, and connecting an apartment is far less expensive than stringing fiber along streets and tying it to single-family homes through individual drops. New MDU construction has been the sweet spot for broadband deployments since the 1990s, specifically for fiber deployments. But only about half of new construction has used fiber since the technology became widely available 15 years ago. Now that is quickly changing. COVID-19 is the main reason. It directly brought more work, education, and even health care to many households. It also got federal subsidies, lower-cost deployment technology, cheap financing, and new municipal concern: resilience against future pandemics. Thus, even the least-technologically savvy developers have prioritized broadband since mid-2020. However, incomplete Census data and other related factors that may affect reporting on new MDU construction numbers clouds an accurate picture of broadband needs for MDU owners and managers. The best advice is for existing MDU owners and managers to survey the needs of their tenants and prospective tenants.

As part of our $2 billion commitment from 2021 to 2023 to help close the digital divide, AT&T is launching the Bridge to Possibility: Closing the digital divide, together campaign. It is a month-long, company-wide initiative to drive awareness of the digital divide and the collective response needed to address it. We must demonstrate how broadband connectivity tangibly improves lives. We’ll share stories of how we’re continuously tackling the challenges of access, affordability, and adoption. Additionally, thousands of AT&T employees and our Employee Groups (EGs) will mobilize to give back to their communities. We’ll recognize their commitment to social good with city celebrations where employees will assemble 10,000 connected learning kits for students in need and host device distributions across the nation, along with additional volunteer activities.

MetroNet's focus on building quickly and considerately is helping it win over mayors and other local officials in an increasingly competitive fiber market. The operator currently has construction underway in all 14 of the states where it operates, with work covering more than 90 cities. States with the most projects include North Carolina, Minnesota, and Iowa. But MetroNet isn’t just focused on building contiguous markets; it is increasingly targeting underserved tier 2 cities across the country, with its market identification team already in conversations with officials in states outside of its current territory. Over the next year and beyond, MetroNet expects to add several new states to its construction list. As it works to lock in new build targets, it is having conversations with city officials behind the scenes that have changed. While there was a time when MetroNet was entering cities as the only fiber provider, it’s increasingly going into markets where smaller regional fiber players are making inroads and city officials have more fiber options to choose from. MetroNet proactively invites residents to mark out underground systems with flags the company provides and allows citizens to submit questions and concerns via an online ticketing system. It also pays for any restoration work itself, he said. The idea of all of this, he said, is to make construction as painless as possible for both municipal officials and residents alike.

Fiber internet service providers and manufacturers across the US have been building their strategies toward sustainability since as early as 2015. The evolution from hardware-based to software-based networks began in the early 2000s. That was a step toward energy efficiency, lower carbon emissions, a smaller eco-footprint, and the use of more environmentally friendly materials. As the technology evolved, so did environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies. However, one type of network infrastructure has always been sustainable: fiber optics. And it’s not just about clean energy. Fiber’s contribution to global sustainability goes above and beyond other broadband technologies because of its unlimited capacity, reliability, and societal benefits. Fiber optics has aided in the sustainable operation of precision farming, wastewater treatment plants, telemedicine, and more. Additionally, the low latency and unlimited capacity of fiber broadband mean it has the power and speed needed to transmit data that informs the communications systems of the required action; which has accelerated the efficiency and effectiveness of educational institutions, thus positively affecting innovation. Ultimately, the societal benefits of fiber – health, safety, education, etc. – are clear.

[Deborah Kish is the vice president of research and workforce development for the Fiber Broadband Association.]