Local/Municipal

Since the late 1990s Colorado has tried to expand access to high-speed broadband. It’s been done in starts and stops, and sometimes not at all. Now Colorado is getting a huge amount of federal money, more than $826 million in Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding that was part of the 2021 infrastructure law to help expand broadband internet across the state and the country.

Almost 20 years ago, the US Department of Justice observed that, “when government is constantly being asked to do more with less, the Internet is playing a vital role in allowing government to better serve all of its citizens.” For people lacking private internet access, officials should consider the options for public internet access and how to best educate community members on its availability. Online meetings “are another element of reaching people,” said Dan McLean, a communications professional based in Shelburne, VT.

Permitting has long been the bane of broadband deployments across the country, but a little-known federal council is working to change that.

After an apparent lull, the effort to have broadband access across the city of Holland (MI) looks to be back on the fast track. The Holland City Council unanimously approved the authorization of selling up to $23 million in unlimited tax general obligation bonds to fund the expansion of the Holland BPW’s broadband Internet transport services. The vote comes a year after voters approved the issuance of up to $30 million over 25 years for this initiative. According to Mayor Nathan Bocks, the financial effect on property owners won’t be immediately evident.

For the city of Albuquerque (NM), providing high-quality and affordable internet is a priority. The majority of households are connected, but that doesn’t mean everybody that needs it has it and it doesn’t mean it’s affordable or reliable. Albuquerque needs more competition, more providers, better infrastructure to fill in the gaps and more affordable options. What the broadband office is dong to fill in those gaps is:

In May 2023, the House Commerce Committee marked up nineteen pieces of telecommunications-related legislation.  One bill in particular, the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023 (H.R. 3557), represents what I’m seeing as a new trend of actions taken by big internet service providers (ISP) to preempt the authority of local governments.  H.R. 3557 would preempt a host of current rights of local governments to manage public rights-of-way for telecom infrastructure.

Unlike many communities in Michigan, every resident in Holland is served by one of two incumbent internet service providers. However, available speeds, network quality, and provider options negatively impacted educational outcomes, work-from-home opportunities, and overall quality of life in the area, particularly during the pandemic. Today, Holland has taken a significant step forward by awarding a contract to develop and construct a publicly-owned open-access fiber network that will span across the entire city.

From its inception, LinkNYC – the public WiFi kiosks that are run by a consortium of companies including Google subsidiary Sidewalk Labs – has always posed a threat to privacy. But after nine years of operation and a recent audit, it’s fair to say LinkNYC represents a barely mitigated privacy disaster.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to expand the city’s Big Apple Connect program — offering free broadband and basic cable to an additional 17 public housing developments in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The Big Apple Connect program, which Mayor Adams launched September 2022, had enrolled 100,000 households by last March 2023, with a 75% adoption rate across eligible housing developments

Digital equity—or, digital opportunity, if you prefer—is having a moment. The US is making an unprecedented investment to ensure that individuals and communities have the capacity to fully participate in our society and economy. This is a huge undertaking with momentous implications on the future of the Nation. Each state has been asked to envision how life there can be transformed by achieving digital equity.