New Online Tool Indicates Internet for All Can Be Achieved with Available Public Funding
WASHINGTON, December 12, 2023 – Today, Vernonburg Group unveiled its Broadband Funding Optimization Tool, a new, interactive online tool that shows state and territorial broadband offices in the United States of America need not settle for Internet for Almost All. The tool shows states and territories can achieve Internet for All, as envisioned in the bipartisan federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA or Infrastructure Act), by establishing a reasonable per-location upper limit on what they are willing to spend on end-to-end fiber networks, thereby preserving sufficient funding to connect community anchor institutions and fund digital equity programs.
Currently, approximately 10 percent of US households still do not have access to high-speed home broadband and about 20 percent of US households do not subscribe to home broadband. Over the last few years, the United States Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments have made unprecedented funding available to close that digital divide. That funding, allocated at all levels of government, will be used to enable internet service providers (ISPs) to extend high-speed home internet connections to all unserved and underserved households; to increase home broadband subscriptions and adoption of online services; and to increase digital literacy and skills training.
Vernonburg Group’s Broadband Funding Optimization Tool allows anyone, including state and territorial broadband offices, to see how to achieve the goals of extending high-speed (100/20 Mbps or better) broadband connectivity to all unserved and underserved locations in the United States, providing 1 Gbps access to community anchor institutions (CAIs), and furthering other deployment and non-deployment digital equity priorities.
The Broadband Funding Optimization Tool demonstrates that to achieve these goals state and territorial broadband offices need to set their Extremely High Cost Per Location Thresholds at levels that place a reasonable upper per-location limit on what they are willing to spend on fiber builds. Each state’s Extremely High Cost Per Location Threshold will be different based on a variety of factors, but all states and territories can set their Extremely High Cost Per Location Threshold at a level that enables them to achieve Internet for All using a mix of fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite technologies.
Vernonburg Group’s Broadband Funding Optimization Tool’s default settings estimate where state and territorial broadband offices can set their Extremely High Cost Per Location Thresholds and still close broadband availability and adoption gaps. The tool also allows users to manipulate simple sliders and assumptions to see the impact of different policy and programmatic decisions, such as the percentage of buried fiber, and how a given state or territory can achieve Internet for All.
The Broadband Funding Optimization Tool complements Vernonburg Group’s Digital Equity Map, which enables a user to visualize all publicly available US broadband data. The Digital Equity Map’s simple data visualization sliders empower users to better understand levels of broadband availability and adoption in their community. County, municipal, and local governments can use both the Broadband Funding Optimization Tool and the Digital Equity Map when developing broadband deployment and digital equity plans and programs.
“Solving for the digital divide means addressing access, affordability, and adoption challenges. Vernonburg Group’s Broadband Funding Optimization Tool demonstrates that Internet for All can be achieved through informed and prudent policy and programmatic choices”, said Greg Guice, Vernonburg Group’s Chief Policy Officer. “This is great news for state and territorial broadband offices which have been concerned that they do not have enough funding to extend high-speed internet connections to all unserved and underserved households and address their other deployment and digital equity priorities. The key to success is setting a reasonable upper per-location limit on what states are willing to spend on fiber builds, using a mix of fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite technologies, and freeing up sufficient funds for connecting community anchor institutions and providing digital equity programs.”
About Vernonburg Group
Vernonburg Group is a full-service consulting firm 100 percent focused on closing the global digital divide. Vernonburg Group works with companies, governments, non-profits, and other organizations that have a vested interest in seeing billions more people and things connected to the Internet. The work Vernonburg Group performs for its clients encompasses digital equity programming design and implementation, large scale broadband project feasibilities, public sector and private sector fundraising, broadband mapping and economic modelling, broadband policy and regulation, and market research and risk assessment. Vernonburg Group believes that affordable broadband access should be a human right. Vernonburg Group also believes that technologies and business models already exist that could be used to close the broadband gap and increase adoption. Vernonburg Group believes that, with the right technologies, policies, and partnerships, the broadband gap can be closed once and for all.
