Spending Rescue Plan Money on Broadband: The Needs and the Challenges.

• Author: Barrett, Katherine
• Position: PERSPECTIVE

The hunger for reliable connections to the Internet has been growing steadily in the United States since the word "broadband" entered the national vocabulary. But until relatively recently, the growth has been incremental.

And then came COVID.

Suddenly, and without warning, absence of broadband connectivity became "an obstacle to school, work and healthcare," said Silas Chamberlin, vice president of economic development and work for the York County Economic Alliance in Pennsylvania.

Further, when broadband provision is subpar, it can have powerful economic impacts on a community. "As businesses come into the county and they decide to make an investment, and they find they don't have high-speed fiber, that becomes a problem," said Chamberlin. "They're still interested in tax incentives or local zoning, but Internet access has become a major determinant when corporations are trying to provide remote work."

"The pandemic supercharged these issues," said Sean Gonsalves, senior writer, editor, and researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative. "It made it apparent to many people that broadband is a kind of utility and should be thought of as such."

This notion was clearly in the minds of the people who designed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which listed broadband as one of the primary outlets for the money--like other infrastructure items such as sewers and other water systems. "Eighteen months ago, we didn't have a prospect for connecting every home in America with a wire," said Christopher Mitchell, director of community broadband networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. "The money is available from a variety of sources, with the bulk of it coming from the Rescue Plan."

Naturally, given the size of their Rescue Plan packages, the largest sums are coming from the states. For example, the State of Maryland has allocated about $300 million of its $3.7 billion in ARPA money to broadband infrastructure expansion and digital inclusion initiatives. Of this, according to Kenrick Gordon, the state's director of the Office of Statewide Broadband, some $45 million will likely be used to provide grants to local jurisdictions for municipal broadband projects.

But while the states may be the biggest spenders, towns, cities, and counties are moving in the same direction. Although many localities are still at the early stages of determining how their ARPA money should be spent, newspapers are...