Wisconsin PSC Drafts Broadband Playbook to Leverage Resources
Wisconsin is in the final stages of crafting a “broadband playbook” to sharpen its strategy and create a forum for state legislators and other stakeholders, state officials said. The playbook is a joint effort of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and its own broadband-focused initiative, LinkWISCONSIN, and has been in the works for months. Comments on the 13-page playbook draft, Wisconsin’s Playbook for Broadband Progress, are due Aug. 31 and the final version is expected to come out shortly after, the PSC said.
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The playbook promotes four initiatives now, the PSC said when releasing its Aug. 8 draft (http://xrl.us/bnmw6t): (1) Creating broadband provider incentives to invest in Wisconsin. (2) Reducing barriers to broadband investment. (3) Leveraging federal and state dollars. (4) Education, awareness and personnel to support broadband development in Wisconsin communities. In July, PSC Telecom Administrator Brian Rybarik told us a key goal of the playbook is to jump-start investment (CD July 9 p10).
The state’s efforts are “very regionally focused” and characterized by great grassroots enthusiasm, Wisconsin Broadband Director Tithi Chattopadhyay told us. She’s a new hire at the commission, which has received grant money to fund broadband efforts like the playbook and LinkWISCONSIN in recent years. The money comes from an NTIA grant awarded in 2009 as part of the State Broadband Data Development Program, LinkWISCONSIN said (http://xrl.us/bnmxdb). The role of broadband director is entirely new, according to Chattopadhyay, who described her first three weeks as positive and busy. The broadband playbook would benefit from all sorts of public input and comments will be helpful in knowing “what the gaps are,” she said. Its major goal is to bring public and private elements together in a forum, she said.
Such state organization also has implications federally and may become substantial as projects like the national FirstNet network advance. One of the major plays outlined in the draft involves convening Wisconsin’s governmental and private sector players. It wants these entities to “advocate collaboratively” on such issues as “coordinated statewide access to federal D-Block spectrum to advance public safety and provide an additional resource to fill Wisconsin’s broadband gaps,” according to the document (http://xrl.us/bnmwrs). NTIA indicated this August that states can prepare for its 2013 FirstNet implementation grants by coordinating these local stakeholders and establishing potential coordinators for grant funds (CD Aug 22 p14).
Other targets of such state organization are “maximizing Wisconsin’s use of available federal universal service resources where appropriate and desired,” particularly for the disabled and low-income, and “finding and exploiting opportunities to expand public computer and broadband access at libraries, schools and other identified public computer centers,” the report said.
The PSC “sought and accepted significant input from a variety of sources, including the broadband provider sector, education, health care, business, government and others,” the playbook draft said. The document was first developed in spring as the PSC formed a steering committee to provide guidance for the playbook through six focus groups, according to the playbook. What emerged from the focus groups are “ideas on actions that are realistic opportunities for Wisconsin to advance broadband availability, adoption and/or application,” the draft said, saying the ideas are “the foundation” of the playbook.
The Wisconsin PSC electronic filing system reveals feedback already. The playbook “looks pretty good,” said Rob Richardson, a member of Wisconsin’s region 9 planning group, on Aug. 16 (http://xrl.us/bnmwz4). “The key to success will be to make sure that local government agencies see the value in working to build better broadband in their community. In most rural areas wireless broadband will be the only economically feasible means to provide broadband in areas with low population density.” He said most successful plans “have a strong public/private partnership in place.” Local governments can utilize their assets “for wireless broadband vendors to locate their equipment” and may be able to “gain some revenue from permitting collocation” of public access wireless equipment, he said. But this revenue, he adds, won’t be comparable from cellular vendors. Wisconsin State Sen. Mary Lazich (R) urged people to comment in a Wednesday post on the blogging network MyCommunityNOW (http://xrl.us/bnmwye).
Initial feedback suggests people are “pretty happy” with the report but that may change by the comment deadline, Chattopadhyay said. After Aug. 31, staff hopes to consider and potentially integrate changes from the comments, then present the playbook to the PSC around mid-September and then to the Legislature, she said.