Monday, December 2, 2024
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced, in late October 2024, that Indiana would receive over $15 million through the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program created by Congress through the Digital Equity Act. With this funding, the Indiana Broadband Office (IBO) is able to implement its Digital Opportunity Plan for the state, created in partnership with the Purdue University Center for Regional Development (PCRD) and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA). Broadly, the plan's objectives include initiatives to:
Here is a look at all the activities included in IBO's Digital Opportunity Plan, when state residents can expect the see the activities launched, and how the effectiveness of programs will be measured.
Indiana's vision for digital equity: Indiana residents trust and use innovative connectivity for improved quality of life, resulting in inclusive and resilient communities that ensure opportunities for all.
IBO organizes its implementation timeline by the major activities fulfilling the measurable objectives in the state plan. For each objective, IBO includes benchmarks to track alongside its timeline. IBO notes that its final implementation timeline depends on the amount of funds it receives from the federal government.
Plan activities:
Objective 1's Long-Term Metrics:
Plan activities:
Objective 2's Long-Term Metrics:
Plan activities
Objective 3's Long-Term Metrics:
Plan activities:
Objective 4's Long-Term Metrics:
Plan activities:
Objective 5's Long-Term Metrics:
IBO sees digital equity as a hyperlocal issue impacting how people participate in the digital economy and society. Cookie-cutter approaches, IBO believes, will yield limited impact. The state aims to expand digital equity-focused capacity at the local level, building resilient and equitable communities by supporting new and existing ecosystems for local prosperity. These digital equity goals, then, will contribute to every Indiana community’s quality of life and economic development.
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.
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The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, which help the Department assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public’s reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to the Office of Management and Budget. The purpose of the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program (SDECG) is to promote the achievement of digital equity, support digital inclusion activities, and build capacity for efforts by States and U.S. territories and possessions relating to the adoption of broadband. NTIA will use the information collected from each applicant to the SDECG to effectively review the proposed applications and budgets. To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed information collection must be received on or before January 28, 2025.
While Minnesota will be receiving $652 million from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to help fund broadband access projects across the state, many internet service providers might not opt-in over frustrations with the program. “My members are telling me they’re not going to participate,” said Brent Christensen, president and CEO of Minnesota Telecom Alliance. “The way that BEAD is structured. I don’t know how anybody’s going to participate.” His group represents 70 companies that provide advanced telecommunications services, like wireless video and high-speed internet, to Minnesota’s rural and metropolitan regions. Members vary in size, with the largest, Century Link, serving metro customers and the smallest serving a little over 200 customers. Many of the companies have built out broadband in rural locations with the help of state funding, but the requirements of the federal program, which is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), are much more “onerous,” Christensen said. The industry is frustrated with the federal body because of these requirements and the amount of time it’s taken to set up a program. Melissa Wolf, executive director of the Minnesota Cable Communications Association, said Minnesota already had programs that worked well with internet service providers and that if BEAD had more closely modeled those programs, projects would have already been completed. One of the requirements is that any property or equipment improved with the funds will have to be held in trust by the NTIA, meaning the providers record liens on what they install. Christensen said many MTA members can’t do that.
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