US Ignite, an organization which has spent the last decade helping cities across the country plan and tackle broadband projects, brought seven more communities into its fold. All told, more than 50 cities are now part of its network and it’s looking to grow that number as communities face a daunting challenge: navigating an influx of federal broadband funding opportunities.
In addition to money from the American Rescue Plan Act and various state-level grants, municipalities across the country are assessing how they might take advantage of the $42.5 billion set to flow through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. There’s just one problem. Many either don’t quite know where to start or don’t have the employee resources to tackle such projects.
“I think that the communities around the country need as much help as they can get from us and from lots of other organizations as well,” Mari Silbey, US Ignite’s Senior Director of Partnerships and Outreach, told Fierce. “One thing that’s really struck me over the last few months is that a lot of these communities in general don’t have the people capacity to deal with a lot of things that are showing up in front of them…Everybody’s doing a million things in their day job and this is just a huge new horizon to think about.”
US Ignite's latest cohort comprises seven cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Duluth, Minnesota; Long Beach, California; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and San Jose California. A $214,000 donation to fund their participation in US Ignite was provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Jonathan Beam, one of US Ignite’s Community Innovation Managers, told Fierce there are two main ways it helps communities. First, it helps them navigate the wide array of federal funding opportunities available to them, identifying suitable matches and eligible projects. And second, it establishes a pilot project with the community, which can be used to inform their grant applications and demonstrate what can be accomplished with the funding.
Beam and fellow Community Innovation Manager Domenick Lasorsa said most of the communities it is working with are pursuing fiber-based projects, though some may leverage other technologies where fiber is cost-prohibitive. They added each city is taking a slightly different approach to tackle their broadband issues. For instance, Philadelphia is looking to deliver fiber and Wi-Fi connectivity to all recreation centers across the city, while others like Detroit and Duluth have expressed interest in building municipal networks.
“It’s actually been really interesting to listen and watch the cities interact with each other…particularly it’s been really interesting to watch Detroit and Duluth interact,” Beam said. “They both are struggling with similar regulatory and legislative restrictions on who can operate…both cities have had quite a bit of investment in the past in their infrastructure but both are struggling with high costs and low speeds. And so there’s really been a lot of comradery among the cities in talking about the issues they’re dealing with.”
The Knight Foundation grant for the seven aforementioned cities covers a 12-month collaboration with US Ignite. However, Beam said it expects to remain engaged well beyond then and Silbey said communities it works with have lifetime membership in its network.