It is clear now that the $42B Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds, while significant, will not provide universal fiber coverage for all communities. If BEAD is indeed going to be the last big infusion of federal or state funds for broadband deployment, public sector leaders will need to explore creative local solutions to keep making progress in areas BEAD will miss. With this in mind, we want to share some lessons from our recent work developing a fully locally-supported county-wide deployment in Storey County, Nevada.
Storey County was almost entirely un- and underserved when we first began work with the community. RISI supported the County Commissioners in finding an ISP partner willing to deploy a fiber network, negotiating a public-private partnership agreement, vetting and estimating costs, and guiding all parties to an equitable financing and cost sharing agreement. Through this work, three lessons emerged that can help public sector leaders with broadband expansion in a post-BEAD funding landscape.
Lesson 1: Choose an ISP that will be a partner and ally – not just a vendor
Unlike some federal grants or BEAD where the ISP needs relatively little interaction from the public sector to apply and build, building without BEAD will require intense collaboration and creativity, and so choosing your partner is perhaps the most important decision as part of the process. In Storey County, we spent a long time finding and building trust with the right partner — Churchill County Communications. This was well worth the effort, because the path towards funding and deployment was anything but straightforward, and working with a compatible entity meant that we could navigate these difficult situations with a partner and ally, not just a vendor.
Lesson 2: Look hard at municipal budgets for leverage.
With little to no external resources post-BEAD, municipalities may need to come up with funding in creative ways. In Storey County, the IT department was purchasing enough data and networking services yearly that transferring those contracts to the new ISP partner as part of the partnership agreement provided meaningful leverage and resources to extend the residential deployments farther.
Lesson 3: Build partnerships that consider your long-term goals.
In Storey County, the phase 1 build focused on the denser Virginia City, as it was the most cost-effective starting point. However, the partnership agreement included language to ensure scalability for future expansions to the rest of the county, which was much sparser. Since post-BEAD deployments will likely require filling in remaining gaps with phased or piecemeal approaches, partnership agreements will need to be structured based on the logistics and economics of the entire deployment region. Structuring a partnership around serving the easiest to reach locations can make it harder later on to reach a deal for serving the most challenging areas.
Investing in broadband without grant support can be daunting, but that shouldn’t stop municipalities from trying to facilitate broadband deployments to residents in need. With good partners, creative financing, and a thoughtful approach, local public sector can make a real difference in their connectivity landscape.