Sustaining Broadband Networks: A Toolkit for Local and Tribal Governments
National Telecommunications & Information Administration, US Department of Commerce - November 01, 2017
For the federal stimulus, NTIA distributed over $4.7 billion through its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) for infrastructure and other broadband projects. Although funding was distributed to projects in every state and many U.S. territories, not every proposal for funds was approved.
Because large swaths of the United States remain underserved with broadband infrastructure, particularly tribal lands, NTIA wanted to gather best practices that had been learned through the BTOP project and create a series of publications that would tell local governments and tribes how to enhance their jurisdictions with broadband infrastructure and associated initiatives.
One publication could not contain everything that the BTOP grantees had learned. I assisted the NTIA team to conceptualize the types of publications most useful to their stakeholders.
I developed, co-authored, and edited a series of toolkits for NTIA’s BroadbandUSA group to assist tribal, county, and local governments to implement broadband infrastructure and facilitate access in their communities. Summarizes lessons learned from grantees participating in the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (Obama stimulus).
Topics include planning, public-private and other partnerships, implementation, and sustainability of large-scale infrastructure projects. This sample is the toolkit on how communities can sustain large broadband infrastructure projects.