Image
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
North Carolina League of Municipalities Releases Report On Better Connectivity Through Partnerships
By
on
The North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) released a report in March with several recommendations designed to help the state boost connectivity for residents, businesses, and organizations. NCLM Legislative Counsel Erin Wynia and CTC Technology and Energy President Joanne Hovis authored the report that offers policy changes to encourage smart partnerships.
Download the report, Leaping the Digital Divide: Encouraging Policies and Partnership to Improve Broadband Access Across North Carolina.
The report dedicates time describing different public-private partnership models and the elements that make them distinct. In recent years, the term has been used to describe a broad spectrum of arrangements. We've highlighted partnerships in places like Westminster, Maryland, and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, where both partners invest and share in risk and reward.
The North Carolina Situation
Wynia and Hovis spend time on the gap of coverage in rural areas vs coverage in urban areas. They compare data from the North Carolina Broadband Infrastructure Office and the FCC’s form 477. The authors explain why FCC data is so flawed and provide examples of real people who’s lives are impacted due to access to broadband, or lack of it, in their community.
Fiber is the best option for future-proof, fast, affordable, reliable connectivity. Wynia and Hovis compare fiber to other technologies and explain we can’t let hype cloud our long-term thinking. We were happy to supply our map of private ISP fiber availability in North Carolina so readers can see where it’s currently deployed in the state.
The report looks at the state’s existing law that limits local authority regarding municipal broadband infrastructure. As the authors point out, state law does not expressly address local communities’ authority as it relates to public-private partnerships. They recommend the law be clarified to allow municipalities the unquestionable authority to raise and spend funds on broadband infrastructure. They also recommend communities be expressly allowed to lease the infrastructure to private sector partners.
Wynia and Hovis also recommend that state law be amended to ease current restrictions on cooperatives that wish to offer broadband service. As we addressed in our report, North Carolina Connectivity: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, North Carolina electric cooperatives have their hands tied by financial limitations from state law. These barriers need to be resolved. Rural cooperatives are quickly emerging as a strong force for fiber optic deployment in areas where traditional corporate ISPs won’t serve.
The authors also recommend that the state establish a grant fund, similar to the Minnesota Border-to-Border Broadband Program, that would allow entities to compete for resources to help deploy infrastructure projects.
From the report conclusion:
Two decades into the digital revolution, it has become clear that private-sector solutions alone are not going to close this gap, and that large private-sector providers and their investments will continue to primarily focus on densely-populated areas. At the same time, local governments – as experienced providers and builders of infrastructure – are uniquely positioned to help close the digital divide. They cannot accomplish that task though without help at the state policy level.
At a March 21st news conference to share recommendations from the report, NCLM President Michael Lazzara said:
“Broadband is crucial 21st century infrastructure, no different than water and sewer, electricity and roads. It is critical that everyone have access to it, and that businesses in towns and cities of all sizes have access to the internet speeds that they require to conduct commerce across the country and around the globe.”
Download the report and read the recomendations for North Carolina.
Video from the press March 21st press conference:
Image of the Wilson, North Carolina Train Station by DanTD (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Image
Related Stories
Documentary: The Municipal Broadband Wave and Monopoly Response
In January, we released our new census of municipal networks in the United States for 2024, and the significant growth that we've seen over the last two years as more and more cities commit to building Internet infrastructure to add new tools for their local government, incentivize new economic development, and improve connectivity for households. The trend has not gone unnoticed by the monopoly players and their allies, and a new short documentary by Light Reading does a great job of outlining the stakes for local governments, residents stuck on poor connections, and the incumbents as the wave of municipal networks grows.
New Resource: Fact Sheet on Broadband Basics from Center for Digital Equity
The Center for Digital Equity has published a new fact sheet for digital navigators that explains commonly used words related to Internet access that are not so familiar to those outside of the tech industry.
State BEAD Plans and “Chilling Effect” of Municipal Broadband Restrictions
One major barrier to providing universal access to fast, reliable and affordable Internet service–long recognized by ILSR, telecom experts, and a growing number of ordinary citizens–are the monopoly-friendly preemption laws that either outright ban or erect insurmountable barriers to municipal broadband. Here’s a look at what three of the 17 states with preemption laws are saying about those barriers in their BEAD Five Year Action Plans.
Initial BEAD Proposals and Five Year Action Plans Come Into Focus
The key for states to unlock their portion of the $42.5 billion in federal BEAD funds is the submission and approval of their Five Year Action Plans and Final Proposal. Today, we will look at two states (Maine and Louisiana) and follow up with the others as we are getting a clearer picture of how each state intends to put this historic infusion of federal funds to use.
Timnath, Colorado and Loveland Team Up to Further Expand Celebrated Municipal Fiber Network
Officials in Loveland and Timnath, Colorado recently announced the ratification of an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) that greenlight’s a plan to bring ubiquitous, affordable high-speed Internet access to yet another community in the Centennial State, as an increasing number of Colorado cities and towns embrace municipal broadband after years of frustration with the inadequate, high-priced service from the region’s monopoly incumbents.
More than Just a Coupon: The ACP Could Promote Infrastructure Investment in Low-Income and Rural Communities
A recently published report should help bolster the case that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) – which subsidizes the cost of monthly Internet service for income-eligible households – won’t just help more Americans get broadband access, it can also incent Internet service providers (ISPs) to make infrastructure investments in unserved and underserved areas. The report suggests the ACP might be more than just a temporary solution to an immediate need for affordable access, and has the potential to promote something more structural – investment in communities that would have previously been bypassed by ISPs.