The Michael Jordan of Broadband: Meet the Indiana State Broadband Director

Stephen Cox was enjoying retirement in Florida when the opportunity to become Indiana’s broadband director arose. Like Michael Jordan, Cox is back better than ever after his initial retirement. Unlike Michael Jordan, he did not have big shoes to fill—when he came back to Indiana, the state broadband office was just Cox and one other person. Cox said the $868 million Indiana received for their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program broadband expansion is “right in the ballpark” of what the state wanted. After seeing the news from Arkansas that 98 percent of that state’s unserved and underserved locations would be covered after just one round of BEAD applications, Cox and his team think they will be in good shape. It also helps, Cox said, that the Indiana broadband expansion plans are supported by state and other federal funds. The state legislature allocated about $250 million for broadband after the Capital Projects Funds from the U.S. Treasury became available. Indiana has already reached 110,000 addresses with broadband service through state-funded programs. This has allowed Indiana Broadband to take some of their unserved and underserved locations off their BEAD list.