US Ignite

 US Ignite curates the best practices in designing and delivering smart city projects with leading-edge municipalities. These five practices on handling partnerships can help any smart city service, project, or application – at any phase – find success:

Seven communities officially joined the US Ignite network thanks to a $214,000 investment by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. US Ignite will support the communities by identifying federal funding opportunities for broadband and smart city projects, and by providing expert guidance on how to address connectivity and related service needs in under-resourced areas.

Previously, US Ignite provided an overview of funding opportunities and highlighted a sample of current state projects. Here we explain the role of state broadband offices, where to find them, and how to initiate a successful partnership. Here are four suggestions we think will guide you in engaging your state broadband officials:

To help communities across the country navigate federal grant opportunities for broadband and smart city projects – including new programs created under the $110 billion American Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act –  US Ignite proudly unveils the new ‘Federal Funding Opportunity Tool.’ Using the tool, community leaders seeking federal funding can now target the grants that best match their needs based on areas of investment interest, funding availability, and funding requirements.

With the 2010 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Association’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI) created State Broadband Offices to support efficient and creative use of broadband technology to improve states’ digital economic competitiveness. When the SBI grant program officially ended in 2015, many State Broadband Offices thrived through local funding, while others closed.

US Ignite responded to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) request for comments on broadband programs created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Without in-depth technical assistance for State Broadband Offices (SBOs), combined with rapid local government support, this new Federal grant program will remain out of reach for too many underserved communities. To meet their goals, NTIA must collaborate with nonprofit coordinating bodies, like US Ignite, to support SBOs in their efforts to reach these underserved communities.

123NET, Michigan’s largest local fiber internet provider, announced its partnership with the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) and Grace in Action Collectives (GIAC) to bring high-speed, low-cost internet to an underserved Detroit (MI) neighborhood as part of the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) in an undertaking known as Project OVERCOME. The one-year project aims to create long-term sustainable infrastructure for digital services to the Southwest Detroit neighborhood.