Get ten times more broadband coverage per tax dollar invested
January 31, 2019How can funding agencies get ten times more broadband coverage per tax dollar invested?
– invest in planning and technical assistance
56% of rural businesses and 49% of rural households would likely relocate to get the broadband they need. Thousands of communities risk economic and social decline without broadband. What role can funding agencies play?
No funding agency can make the investment to bridge all the gaps in broadband and digital infrastructure, even with matching dollars or public-private partnerships. The best roles for public funding agencies are to help localities plan effectively so that they can support their own investments and partnerships, or fill digital infrastructure funding gaps where needed by making an economic case for investing.
By helping localities pivot to approaching broadband as digital infrastructure investments that pay for themselves over time, funding agencies can better leverage their efforts and funding budgets.
The up-front broadband demand aggregation, planning, and design is a fraction of the cost of network implementation. By funding the up-front planning and technical assistance, a locality can uncover existing budgets that when reallocated can finance digital infrastructure investments. These up-front efforts can be one-tenth, or less, of a total digital infrastructure project cost.
The result – the funding agency help more locally driven projects get off the ground toward success on their own, allowing scarce public funds to be spent more effectively and to help with infrastructure costs for those small communities that cannot do it on their own.
Read more at Invest in Digital Infrastructure, not Just Broadband Networks