Public electric utilities can play a vital role in the effort to make broadband accessible and affordable across the country, Mike Hernon, Public Sector Partnership Company, opined yesterday in American City & County.
“There will never be a better time, or more money available, for broadband projects than there will be in the coming months,” Hernon wrote. “By leveraging this available funding, public utilities can play a critical role in meeting a national goal while providing enhanced services to their customers.”
Some public electric utilities are providing residential broadband. For example, over a decade ago the public electric utility in Chattanooga, TN, began a network that brought in more than $1.3 billion over its first five years of operations. But many more public power utilities, 2,000 in 49 states and five territories, have not taken up the broadband charge, he noted.
Hernon wrote that he understands why some may be wary about going outside their core competencies to tackle broadband, but public power utilities are well suited for broadband for a number of reasons.
“You already operate a data network,” he wrote. “The grid, of course, increasingly operates on data, a trend that is only going to grow as smart grids expand. As such, your network is becoming more of an Internet of Things (IoT) network than a traditional SCADA network.”
Public electric utilities have the essential elements for broadband, including rights-of-way, network management, engineering talent, billing systems, and customer relationship management systems and expertise, according to Hernon. “These capabilities are critical to a successful network deployment and support two very important criteria that grant reviewers need to assess—a project’s credibility and sustainability,” he wrote.
Public electric utilities can deploy extra fiber over existing infrastructure or double the fiber count for much less money compared to other would-be broadband companies that would have to build a network from scratch. “As a result, less money will be needed for building the core network which can go instead into other aspects of the service such as high-performance electronics,” Hernon said in American City & County.
Providing broadband fits into public power utilities’ broader mission of contributing to the economic development, education, health and safety of the community, according to Hernon. “As a result, by leveraging your existing utility infrastructure to expand your service offerings into customer broadband you will significantly enhance your ability to support those critical causes,” he wrote.
Legislation is being considered that will provide more than $100 billion in federal funding. Billions more will be available through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration grants and other programs from the Rural Utilities Service of USDA, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the FCC.
“These existing grant programs have already provided significant funding to public power utilities for residential broadband infrastructure,” Hernon wrote. “For example, the RUS ReConnect program awarded the public Easton Utilities Commission in Maryland $13 million in 2020 and the Harrison Rural Electric Association in West Virginia $19 million in 2019, among others.”
A utility doesn’t have to be classified as a telecommunications carrier to get broadband funding, Hernon noted. “It must only be able to meet the minimum broadband standard — which a fiber-based infrastructure can easily do,” he wrote. “If a utility still doesn’t feel comfortable with providing this new service, it can partner with a traditional telecom provider.”
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