Broadband expansion tabbed for rural Ohio
Over 1 million people in state lack basic access
Talk of improving infrastructure across rural America has dominated the news since the pandemic began — waking the country up to the massive inequities between urban areas and the small towns and villages that dot the outskirts of major U.S. cities.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike Dewine’s administration has made historic investments in the form of rehabilitating roads, bridges, water systems and public transportation. But the focus of Dewine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s infrastructure efforts have centered on increasing internet speeds and building out broadband.
In a state where over 1 million Ohioans lack basic access — whether that’s in terms of high-speed internet or even the technology required to lay fiber-optic cables — the governor’s office established Ohio’s first broadband grant program and restored a $250 million “down payment” toward funding expansion projects.
At the federal level, President Joe Biden $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill may bring over $1 billion directly to support broadband projects in Ohio, in addition to the money allocated from the $6.6 billion in federal funds Ohio’s 88 counties will receive under the American Rescue Plan.
Plus last year, the Federal Communication Commission announced that the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), a $20.4 billion investment from the federal agency to expand broadband across the country, allocated over $170 million to service 191,000 homes and businesses in Ohio by 2030.
It’s a lot of money — at least $1.5
billion in state and federal dollars to expand broadband across the Buckeye State.
However, advocates say it it will take an estimated $1.7 billion to build out fiber-optic broadband to underserved Ohioans, and total between $3.9 billion to $5.2 billion to subsidize the cost for those who can’t afford it.
So, of the money that’s been proposed so far, where do the state and federal government stand in terms of breaking ground on projects?
Dewine and Husted’s broadband investment will target access and affordability across the state.
After a series of tense negotiations, the legislature restored the $250 million set aside for broadband expansion in the 2022-23 state budget, which will be doled out by the state’s Broadband Expansion Program Authority this spring.
That mechanism, established in House Bill 2 this year, allows the authority to receive and review applications from telecommunication companies to break ground on broadband projects across the state, with a special emphasis on rural Ohio.
A spokesperson for Husted confirmed that the Broadbandohio office, a division of the Department of Development, is in the process of reviewing applications.
It will award projects chosen by
March 2022 and hope to break ground shortly after.
As of Dec. 13, 49 internet service providers have made requests for the program’s funds, according to a “completed application” list on Broadbandohio’s site.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he believes that Biden’s infrastructure bill will have a rippling effect for internet access, job creation and expanding market connectivity in rural America.
“As a former governor and small town mayor, I understand challenges both those elected officials have, and I’m hopeful we will have willing partners with states and communities that appreciate the unique opportunities here,” he said.
“And,” Vilsack added, “that we begin to see the benefit as quick as possible.”
The federal bill allocates $60 billion toward broadband — $42 billion of which will be used to build fiber-optic cables and expand internet access across the country, while the remaining $18 billion will be used to subsidize the cost of access.
The agriculture secretary was unable to confirm how much Ohio is expected receive from that ratio.
But Tom Reid, a broadband consultant with Buckeye Hills Regional Council, a coalition of local governments that serves eight Ohio Appalachian counties, estimates the president’s infrastructure plan will provide over $1 billion for broadband in Ohio.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “But it may get a little confusing because it’s supposed to be allocated based on Ohio’s share of unserved households, which is based on new FCC maps that haven’t been drawn yet.”
Before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency distributing these funds, can dole out money, the FCC is required to create new maps that accurately reflect how telecommunication companies are currently serving each state.
Historically, Reid said, FCC mapping has been inaccurate because the agency relies on private telecommunications companies to report their service coverage without verifying if those providers are overstating how well they serve rural Ohio.
The delay in mapping could also push back the installation of fiber-optic cables in Ohio from anywhere to 2023 to 2024.
Meanwhile, Gayle Manchin, the cochair of the Appalachian Regional Commission who visited Ohio this summer, has committed the ARC to assisting Ohio’s counties, municipalities, towns and villages parse through the $6.6 billion allocated to the state from Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Manchin said in an interview with The Dispatch in July that her top priority is promoting equity in Appalachia, which starts with broadband access.
“The money being given doesn’t have to be spent until 2024,” she said. “So the question for us is how can we create partnerships and programs that will get you the biggest bang for your buck?”
In 2020, the FCC pledged to provide over $170 million to service 191,000 homes and businesses in Ohio over the next decade.
The majority of that money, a small portion of the agency’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a $20.4 billion investment across the country to increase broadband access, was awarded to Charter Communications, better known as Spectrum.
Spectrum won 15,000 census blocks, the measurement the FCC uses to record which households have access.
Last year, Reid, Buckeye Hills’ broadband consultant, predicted Spectrum would start building out infrastructure in July 2021. However, those efforts remain to be seen.
“The RDOF auction was in November 2020 and almost nothing has been built yet,” he said. “It’s very frustrating.”
A lot of vague timelines have been set by the federal government, Reid explained, and these are the kind of difficult conversations folks involved in bridging the digital divide have had for the past 30 years.
“All we can do is the best we can and just keep working within the constraints of the programs,” he said.
Céilí Doyle is a Report for America corps member and covers rural issues in Ohio for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fnsgaz. cdoyle@dispatch.com @cadoyle_18