---

Before you read this post, we highly encourage you (beg you, frankly) to please, please, please take this broadband survey that the consultant created: click here. After which, please share it widely!!! We need this data if we are to salvage this study.

TLDR version of this post: The County awarded the RFP for its broadband study in late March. The winner, Televate LLC, does not appear to be interested in seriously studying municipal broadband and the current course and scope of the study could very well reproduce the same work on broadband that has been done in the past, without moving us forward in any meaningful way. Residents and civic groups that are interested in community broadband for all, should reach out to the County Board members and let them know.

---

RFP – Wait and See

Thanks to robust community advocacy (with a not so little contribution from the ArlFiber coalition, we might humbly add…) and a few forward-looking County Board members, Arlington County government appropriated funds in the 2022 budget to undertake a formal broadband study. The call for proposals opened in early December 2021 and ended in mid January (why the County Manager’s Office/Purchasing Office initiated the RFP process in the middle of the holiday season with such a short turnaround time is beyond us, but we digress).

If we’re being honest, the scope of the RFP [click here] was not exactly what ArlFiber had envisioned. We had advocated for something like this one from Hillsboro, since that kind of RFP would be far more direct in terms of really assessing the very complicated question of whether Arlington can use its existing resources to take control of its broadband future by building a community-owned fiber-to-the-home network. Instead, the RFP that the County did put out asks the consultant to gather a daunting amount of granular statistical data on internet access and availability throughout the county (some of which feels like a repeat of work the County’s digital equity team already paid a different consultant to do and a study that local affordable housing providers already commissioned), and then, taking that data into account, asks the consultant to research a relatively long menu of options for addressing any outstanding needs. Those gripes aside, however, the RFP did at least ask the consultant to study different broadband implementation models, one of which is a county-provided service using a “wireless service authority” (i.e. broadband authority):

Of course, as you can see from the above, that is not the only model to be considered, with some of the competing options being less than desirable in our opinion (options 3 and 4 have both been tried already and produced less than satisfactory results – hence the study, no…?).

In any event, based on the results of our FOIA, it appears that a total of six vendors* submitted responses to the RFP:

• Accenture | response here
• Athena | response here
• CTC | response here
• Magellan | response here
• Televate | response here
• Tilson | response here

While at least two of these vendors are well-known and well-respected consultants on community broadband networks (e.g. CTC and Magellan), the winner of the bid ended up being Televate, LLC [award notice], who will be partnering with Strategic Networks Group (SNG) on the study. To be fair to Televate, having reviewed the other bids, it appears that Televate provided the most detailed, non-cookie-cutter response to the County’s RFP, but it’s hard to know whether the other bids may have been better if they hadn’t been solicited in the middle of the holiday season. We’ll never know.

Upon perusing the Televate website, it does not appear to us that Televate has all that much experience with advising on the kind of municipal network development that we would like to see here in Arlington (mostly they seem to write white papers on wireless technologies). SNG, on the other hand, has at least authored a few studies that positively evaluated the outcomes of community owned networks (such as the famous Ammon model), but their role in this study has seemingly been relegated to data collection [once again please take their survey].

Televate: Old Wine, New Bottles?

Televate’s detailed and highly-tailored response notwithstanding, a simple skim of key parts of their bid reveal that they (and, most likely by extension, the County’s selection committee) have a certain bias against municipal broadband solutions. As the Televate team writes in their cover letter to County Procurement Officer Sy Gezachew:

Our approach will be to maximize competition with sustainable infrastructure [remember this term!!!] and to create solutions that minimize the need for County staffing and oversight. Our vision is a marketplace with robust competition for a valuable customer base where there is ample incentive for multiple providers to sustain high-quality broadband services that continually meet the demands of a diverse population.

One could potentially assume that robust competition might include a not-for-profit, municipal provider that sets the baseline for service and pricing, but the bit about minimizing staffing and oversight already seems to remonstrate against that. Indeed, elsewhere in their bid Televate implies that Arlington should steer clear of providing service themselves, stating that the advantages of such would be “limited need for staffing personnel to maintain service quality, repair fiber cuts, and generally be accountable for broadband service in a very competitive labor market.”

We should pause now to review some history. In the early 10s, Arlington made the very wise decision to end their long-standing reliance on subpar and expensive cable telecom service from Comcast. Taking advantage of federal funds available at the time, we opted to build our own high-capacity, publicly owned/operated, fiber optic network to provide service to County schools and buildings (i.e. ConnectArlington). As they were building that network, they made the decision to lay oodles of extra fiber, conduit, and “handholds” in strategic corridors with the intention of leasing said excess infrastructure to private entities for economic development purposes. Unfortunately for the County, however, there has never been much interest from private entities in using that infrastructure. Many have blamed the County’s onerous leasing agreement for this outcome, but the recent relaxation of such leasing arrangements – evident in the Crystal City deal – have seemingly not brought all the telecoms to the yard, as the old song goes. Meanwhile, attempts to use the network for the purpose of closing the local digital divide have frequently faltered due to legal constraints, pressure from Comcast, or a stubborn obsession with unworkable wireless schemes (more on that in a moment). Of course, these many of these failures could have been avoided or mitigated by forming a broadband authority.

With this history in mind, we at ArlFiber read Televate’s winning bid with no small sense of resignation. In that bid, Televate tells us that, where so many other County efforts on this front have previously failed, they will provide us with solutions “that achieve multi-vendor, competitive broadband service environments”. How will they do this? Easy – by having the County “install conduit and dark fiber along key routes that the operators could ‘light’ with their own electronics”, or “alternatively, the County could install conduit making it easier for both retail and middle-mile service providers to install their own fiber.”

For those of you keeping score at home, the County has done this in spades already…with zero results so far. And despite all our failures in making wireless infrastructure work, Televate likewise offered to do evaluations of the potential of using wireless solutions to meet our broadband needs…although they qualify that offer:

While wireless solutions are more effective for low-density areas, where appropriate, Televate will use radio propagation simulation software to predict where optimal tower locations could be sited to serve those areas.

The County paid a previous consultant New Urbana to do such a study in the past. It did not pan out. The County’s own attempt to deploy CBRS antennas (what Mark Schwartz described at a County Board meeting as “wifi blasters”) along Columbia Pike during the remote school period of the pandemic was likewise ultimately abortive. Why we should pay Televate $250,000 (or more) to repeat such work is a very relevant question for County officials.

Sustainable Infrastructure and the Digital Divide

In light of all the above, ArlFiber went into its own meeting with the Televate team with some apprehensions, but there was a vague notion on our side that the consultant was looking at the situation “globally” and was holding these meetings to gather information from groups on the ground who had been digging into the various problems of broadband throughout the County. And, to be clear, we had a reasonable expectation that the scope of this study was community-wide, as the RFP included such language. For instance, the RFP asks the would-be consultant to gather data on the following:

• Assess current and future needs of broadband for businesses, organizations, anchor institutions, and households throughout Arlington; and
• Identify targeted broadband speeds to meet the existing and future needs of the County, categorized by household and business size.

Most importantly, in the section on strategic recommendations, the RFP states:

The recommendations should include at a minimum:
3.1 Propose the most appropriate internet delivery model(s) for Arlington County that addresses broadband needs. Discuss how the proposed model(s) will position the County to ensure the community has reliable, affordable internet, now and for years to come, and to further Arlington’s Digital Equity goals.

Despite these sign posts of a more wholistic approach to assessing broadband and proposing solutions, we learned that the Televate team has a far narrower scope in mind. In our meeting with them, we were asked to lay out our own proposal for bridging the digital divide, which can summarized accordingly:

• Arlington County needs to form a broadband authority [“wireless service authority”] in order to have maximum flexibility in using its existing publicly owned telecommunications network (too many past projects have been hobbled/hindered by lack of legal authorities) and, if feasible, use this as a vehicle to create a municipal fiber-to-the-home network;
• Investments of public money in broadband infrastructure should prioritize technology that will have the greatest longevity and future scalability (i.e. optical fiber to the home/premises);
• The most sustainable solution to the digital divide would be to create a not-for-profit (municipal) provider that seeks to provide service to the broadest array of customers possible (i.e. both served and “under/unserved”) within a project area, so that operating costs and subsidies for low-income subscribers are manageable over the long-term;
• As such, the solution should be scalable to the whole county, but should start with some pilot projects in the communities that are nearest to the existing resources.

The Televate team recorded these points and asked some follow up questions, but when a member of our group asked whether they were actively investigating the option of providing service to the served and unserved alike so as to defray costs, we were told unambiguously “no”. The Televators explained that their mandate was to come up with solutions for the “under/unserved” only (which they seemed to define as subscribers/households who had less than 100 mbps down/20 mbps up – Comcast’s preferred standard). When we asked how service to only low-income subscribers could be sustained without a more universal approach, the Televate lead treated us to a harangue about how a municipal provider that seeks to provide service to anyone and everyone throughout the County using optical fiber would cost “billions” and pit us against four or five big league telecom companies with highly sophisticated business models and economies of scale. That would require a completely different study involving market analysis, engineering plans, business modeling, etc. (none of this was news to us, as this was exactly what we asked the County to study – using a consultant with a proven record on launching a municipal broadband project). Suffice it to say, this did not leave ArlFiber feeling as though Televate was prepared to provide a “neutral” assessment of municipal broadband as an option for bridging the digital divide. Nor were we likely to get a solution for “sustainable infrastructure”.

In the end, the only conditional points of agreement that we managed to find with the Televate team was that 1) the Televate team consider outlining as part of the study a digital divide project that would seek to provide service universally in an area that is disproportionately un/underserved and is located particularly close to existing ConnectArlington infrastructure; and 2) the Televate team consider using Hillsboro as their case study for providing fiber-to-the-home/premises through a “wireless service authority” (Hillsboro is the best apples-to-apples comparison, since they are of similar size, geography, demographics; moreover, they built their Hilight network using existing public fiber and are competing – like we would be – in a duopoly telecom market – watch our forum with Hilight general manager Brad Nosler).

Whether we even get that, of course, is an open question and will likely depend on the degree to which the County Board members lean on staff to produce meaningful outcomes. Right now, however, ArlFiber fears that this study will merely recommend that the County cobble together a mix of state and federal resources to subsidize the under/unserved through existing providers and/or make vague suggestions about how to attract private companies to use the existing dark fiber/conduit to improve competition (something that, as we noted above, has been done before).

The long and short of it is that we need more voices in the community calling for a serious study of municipal broadband. Arlfiber believes fervently that we need to treat broadband like a utility and public infrastructure (i.e. like water). This means that everyone should have access to the same level of high-quality infrastructure and hence that we should not maintain a utility arrangement where some have access to fiber (Fios), some to cable (Xfinity), and others to shared wifi in a lounge. The only way to achieve that would be to build a fiber-to-the-home broadband network that is capable of providing service directly to every residential and commercial entity in the County. This is not pie in the sky. Many other cities have done it successfully and are willing to share their recipes. And those cities now have world class broadband service.

Televate is currently reaching out to various constituencies and groups in the community for feedback. We would encourage anyone reading this to get in touch with the Department of Technology Services (jhunger[at]arlingtonva[dot]us and Hhartell[at]arlingtonva[dot]us) if you have a story to tell about broadband in Arlington.

---

* In full disclosure, when the RFP first dropped in early December, ArlFiber reached out to a number of competent broadband consultants with a proven record of advising successful community networks and asked them to submit a response. After reading the RFP and/or attending the County’s info session for interested vendors, several of the consultants walked away, citing the unfocused nature of the RFP and the dubious prospects for gathering meaningful data for the County based on the requirements. In the end, only one of those consultants submitted a response.

We have great news! 

Based on conversations with Arlington County Board members this summer, the Board and County Manager decided this fall to use leftover ARPA funds​ to increase the amount of funding for the broadband study​ (that was initially included in the 2022 budget) by $150,000​ [pdf – p. 10], bringing the total allotment to $200,000. The scope and goals of the study have likewise been refined to better match the U.S. Treasury Department’s guidelines for ARPA local recovery funds​ spent on broadband infrastructure. Here is the summary in the budget document:
__
Broadband Study (one-time): $150,000 in FY 2023
The Broadband Study presents an opportunity for Arlington to lay groundwork for broadband investments and develop a broader framework in setting long-term policy goals. Arlington plans to engage a third-party consultant to conduct a thorough needs assessment that evaluates the County’s available broadband resources and their ability to meet existing and future resident and business needs. A second component is a case study comparison of several internet delivery models that considers leveraging the County’s middle-mile network, appropriate technology applications, and high-level costs. A final component would offer a more detailed feasibility evaluation of the selected internet delivery model.
__

The County’s Department of Technology Services and the Purchasing Office are currently working to create an RFP that will be subjected to public and vendor community input. We have been told that ArlFiber’s criteria ​[pdf] for the RFP will be taken into consideration. We will keep you updated as we get more information.

Given the guidelines coming from Treasury on the ARPA Capital Projects Fund​ and the Congress’ recently passed infrastructure bill​, there should be opportunities for Arlington to leverage an array of funds for meaningful community broadband projects. 

In addition to that news, we wanted to inform you that the Arlington Civic Federation is hosting a panel discussion on whether to form a broadband authority for Arlington. ArlFiber’s Tim Dempsey will be a participant. 

We urge all of you to sign up and come ask questions.

 Click here to register​. [Copy and paste this link if the hyper text does not work: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkcOGqqzgpHtOMvXBEGqyjdbi03fk2TLyX ].​

Here are the details from the CivFed flyer​:

__
Considering an Arlington Broadband Authority

Internet access has become increasingly essential to modern life. During the pandemic, almost overnight, more residents needed good access to work from home, students required good access to participate in virtual learning, and the government needed better internet connections with both government facilities (particularly schools) and to private-sector partners.

Arlington is a highly digital community with extensive private sector network services and infrastructure. In addition, as one of the few municipalities to own its own dark fiber network, Arlington seemed better positioned for rapid expansion of some network services. Many of our residents were able to transition to work from home and school from home seamlessly due to the robust broadband service most of our residents use. Through public-private partnerships, APS and the County were able to connect ALL students so they could continue their learning on-line. However, there are still residents who have not adopted broadband service at home for a variety of reasons and there have been challenges to expanding connections.

In 2020 Arlfiber, a recently established group that lobbies for broadband access, met with the County Manager Schwartz and proposed to expand Arlington’s limited dark fiber backbone, ConnectArlington, to create a publicly owned fiber-to-home network. After more discussion, the County 2022 budget approved funding for a feasibility study of $50,000, subsequently raised to $200,000. Arlington staff is currently working on the request for proposal (RFP) for the study. The next step is more extended public discussion and consideration of the options.

At the December 14 Civic Federation meeting, the Public Services Committee will host a panel to provide context and perspectives on the key issues. Should Arlington create a public Broadband Authority? What needs would it fulfill that cannot be accomplished now? What risks should we consider? What should be the primary mission and scope? What is the extent of underserved? What are the financing options and associated costs and who will pay those costs? Who will have accountability for building and maintaining the infrastructure and providing customer services? What are other alternatives? What is the most cost-effective way to fill these needs and mission?

Panelists will include:

• Jack Belcher, Chief Technology Innovation Officer / Director Department of Technology Services. Mr. Belcher will provide the Arlington digital context for the Arlington Broadband including scope of needs such as underserved and assets such as the County-owned broadband fiber optic network, ConnectArlington.

• Tim Dempsey, the Arlfiber Collective. Mr. Dempsey will provide an overview of the Arlfiber proposal and the benefits they see for creating an Arlington Broadband Authority.

• Ray LaMura, Broadband Association of Virginia (VCTA), President. Mr. Lamura will provide the perspective of current internet providers and the state and Arlington-level context for establishing a Broadband Authority or other public-private options to address services including cost and access for the underserved.

Following the panel, there will be Q and A from Public Services and from members in the Chat. Mike McMenamin will moderate the panel on behalf of the CivFed Public Services Committee.

If you would like to submit questions in advance, please send them to public.services.chair[at]civfed[dot]org
__

On Monday, October 4, 2021 we had an amazing panel discussion on the benefits of community broadband. As the Arlington County Board takes tentative steps toward exploring the creation of a public option for broadband for all its residents, we thought it would benefit our Arlington friends and neighbors to hear how other communities are making use of their community-owned and community-oriented broadband networks to spur economic development, foster innovation, and bridge the digital divide. Our assembled group of public broadband practitioners from around the country talked to us about how their networks are making a major difference in their communities and gave us a great opportunity to learn and be inspired.

In addition to our, speakers we also heard from County Board member Christian Dorsey, who expressed the need to treat broadband as a utility and not a luxury commodity.

For a copy of Brad Nosler’s slides, click here.

For a copy of Bruce Patterson’s slides, click here.

Video version:

Audio-only version:

Speakers and topics:

As we noted in our last post, County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti allocated $50K of the 2022 County Budget to study the feasibility of creating a broadband authority to provide internet service to low-income residents here in Arlington. After having met with several Board members after the fact, we learned that the agreed goal of the study would be to establish a “basic set of facts”, although what those facts are exactly was not really explicated. In light of that, ArlFiber took it upon itself to create a set of recommentations to inform the feasibility study’s investigations, the text of which can be found below.

To be sure, this is an auspicious time to pursue this feasibility study (but also increase its limited scope). The County has many unallocated millions left over from its share of the federal ARPA dollars, which can be used for infrastructure projects like broadband. As we point out in our proposal, the U.S. Treasury guidelines state explicitly that there is a preference for that money to go to not-for-profit providers doing fiber-to-the-home projects that provide at least 100/100 mbps symmetrical service. The Treasury guidelines also state that businesses and currently served residents are eligible to be connected as part of these projects.

Another potential wind in the community broadband sail is that the Congressional infrastructure bill indefinitely extends the Emergency Broadband Benefit program by allocating $14.2 billion for a “sustainable” (and re-named) Affordability Connectivity Benefit that would provide a $30 per month voucher for eligible low-income families to use toward any Internet service plan they choose. While there are some caveats with this program, it is a potentially encouraging development, since it would allow a future Arlington broadband authority to provide a high-level of internet service to low-income households without much financial burden to itself. One need only look to Hillsboro, OR, which is currently able to use its community network to provide symmetrical gigabit service to its low-income residents for $10/month, so the $30/month from the Affordable Connectivity Benefit should be enough for Arlington to provide a similar level of service (one that is leagues above Comcast’s 50/5 mbps service under its low-income Internet Essentials plan, which is too slow for work/learn from home situations).

In any event, $50K will only get us so far. If the County truly wants to create a community-owned, county-wide, fiber-to-the-home broadband provider, this will likely only serve as a pre-feasibility study at best, as the County would need other information on engineering and the like. That said, this is likely good enough to do a few non-exclusive projects around the existing dark fiber network’s access points that could grow into a wider network.

---

ArlFiber Proposal for Feasibility Study on Forming a Broadband Authority

For a PDF version of this proposal, click here.

Executive summary

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how essential high-speed internet at home is. Even before the pandemic, however, an unacceptably high number of households had no access to internet at home, which, given the demographics of those households constituted a serious civil rights and equity issue. The County’s attempts to mitigate the impact of this digital divide, while laudable, were largely hampered by the reliance on existing for-profit providers to solve the problem. In order to address this issue once and for all, the County must explore how it can provide futureproof broadband service to all residents at home in a way that treats this as a utility and essential public infrastructure; e.g. like water. To be sure, communities across the U.S. have made tremendous strides in bridging their digital divide by forming a community network that puts public need over private profits. Using the $50,000 set aside in the 2022 budget for a feasibility study of this issue, the County should obtain a certain set of facts through reputable, independent third parties. These facts should be: 1) the legal considerations of establishing a utility authority for this purpose; 2) the technology(ies) most able to meet the U.S. Treasury Interim Final Rule’s standard of scalable symmetrical 100 mbps service; and 3) the cost of deploying a public network over the broadest possible area, with a focus on the underserved areas already identified by county staff. The findings of this study should allow the County Board, County staff, and the community at large to make an informed decision on whether to create a community network for Arlington.

Why this is needed

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that having affordable access to high-speed, low-latency, reliable internet service at home is essential to participation in modern life. The mass transition of work, school, government services, civic participation, health care, and the like to an online format during the pandemic left many of our fellow citizens behind, often with dire consequences for them. Doubtless, many of these online practices are likely to endure and deepen after the pandemic has finally subsided.

It must be emphasized, however, that there was already a glaring digital divide before the onset of the pandemic – particularly among school-age children – that constituted a crisis in its own right.[1] In the summer of 2020, Arlington’s Department of Technology Services published a study that revealed that 16 percent of households in our county had no home internet access, and that these were primarily elderly residents, people of color, recent immigrants, and families with multiple school-age children.[2] In light of the fact that many of the school-age children who lack home internet are from vulnerable and/or minority populations, this state of affairs must be viewed as an unacceptable civil rights violation.[3] Indeed, national research shows that school-age children without home internet struggle to keep up with their internet-rich peers.[4]

The Arlington County government must be applauded for taking swift and decisive action to find and employ an array of stop-gap solutions to mitigate the digital divide during the height of the pandemic, particularly as concerns APS students in need of access to remote learning. That said, these solutions, as should be clear to all now, were neither sustainable nor adequate. This is because those solutions generally relied upon using the existing private telecommunications networks to provide service to those most in need.[5]

This all stems from the fact that the U.S. telecommunications market is dominated by a handful of large, for-profit providers. These large incumbent providers have tended to build networks in densely populated areas where they have little to no competition, which in turn allows them to charge high prices without worrying much about quality of service.[6] These high prices are directly responsible for the adoption issues in urban areas like Arlington.[7] Moreover, incumbent providers use the excess profits generated from these de facto monopolistic arrangements to lobby local/state governments and Congress to reduce consumer protections, fend off competition, and obtain public money for buildouts that often never materialize.[8] Arlington – and Virginia generally – is no exception to this rule. Outside of certain newer commercial buildings, Arlington’s commercial and residential broadband internet market is dominated by two companies and in many places only one. Meanwhile, the state government continues to throw up barriers to community internet solutions and give public money to incumbent providers to continue to build and/or expand legacy networks using outdated technology.

What is needed

Multiple communities across the United States have worked to solve their internet problems by building a community network.[9] Several of these networks are now considered to be the among the fastest and cheapest not only nationally, but globally.[10] Chattanooga’s publicly owned and operated fiber-to-the-home network earned that city the title of “best work from home city” in North America during the pandemic.[11] Moreover, many of these networks have implemented nationally recognized digital inclusion programs.[12]

In light of this, Arlington would do well to consider the creation of its own community network. Under the current legal framework in Virginia, it appears the best approach to this is for the county government to form a “broadband authority” to utilize currently unused portions of its existing county owned optical fiber network to provide broadband internet as a utility service.[13] Indeed, multiple municipalities and counties in VA have already formed broadband authorities (individually or as a group) to begin addressing their connectivity problems.[14] 

Under the initiative of the current Chair of the Arlington County Board, $50,000 was allocated under the 2022 budget to study the feasibility of establishing a broadband authority to provide broadband internet to underserved households. In accordance with the discussion of the nature of these funds at the budget hearing, such a feasibility study should establish “a common set of facts”.[15] While the “set of facts” was not explicitly identified by the board members, we believe this study should explore the following:

1. The legal considerations for establishing a broadband authority in Arlington County to utilize its existing county-owned optical fiber network to provide internet as a utility service;
2. The proper technology to use to provide scalable and reliable broadband internet service at least at the level recommended by the U.S. Treasury Department in its Interim Final Rule on American Rescue Plan Act funds (i.e., service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps and is scalable to meet future data needs);
3. The potential cost/revenue of extending service to all residents in Arlington using currently unused portions of the existing county-owned optical fiber system, while prioritizing the underserved areas already identified by County staff.

This study is very timely as it coincides with the arrival of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that encourage investment in broadband infrastructure in areas that are underserved, especially since the U.S. Treasury’s Interim Final Rule on ARPA funds “encourages recipients to prioritize support for broadband networks owned, operated by, or affiliated with local governments, non-profits, and co-operatives—providers with less pressure to turn profits and with a commitment to serving entire communities.”[16] In addition, President Biden’s recent Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy instructs the FCC to implement policies that would prohibit landlords from entering into exclusive deals with ISPs, which is a major stumbling block in terms of reaching the high-density, high-revenue apartment buildings.[17]

Legal considerations

It is well established that political subdivisions of Virginia have the legal right to create a “wireless service authority”, (hereafter: broadband authority). These broadband authorities have wide discretion to directly build, own, and operate telecommunication systems (including optical fiber and wired systems) that provide high speed data and internet access service to customers. Aside from the living practice of existing broadband authorities in Virginia, this right was confirmed by a State Corporation Commission Final Order in 2019[18] and in the guidance that the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development issued to localities with regard to their options for bridging the digital divide during the pandemic.[19]

Nonetheless, there are legal nuances that should be explored as part of the study, such as the transfer and/or leasing of assets from ConnectArlington to a broadband authority, the negotiation of rights of way, etc. This legal study must be conducted by an independent party with specific expertise and experience in telecommunications and sufficient experience in advising other broadband authorities in the state.

Technology

            The language in the budget authorizing the $50,000 for a feasibility study states that the study shall determine the feasibility of forming a broadband authority to provide broadband internet service to low-income households utilizing Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) technology.[20]

This stipulation must be amended. A study of this nature must be relatively technology neutral and must instead identify which technology or technologies arecapable of meeting the requirements of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Interim Final Rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the American Rescue Plan Act. That rule stipulates that “projects are expected to be designed to deliver, upon project completion, service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps”. Per the Treasury’s guidance, these speeds are necessary to “ensure that broadband infrastructure is sufficient to enable users to generally meet household needs, including the ability to support the simultaneous use of work, education, and health applications, and also sufficiently robust to meet increasing household demands for bandwidth”. Moreover, the Interim Final Rule encourages fund recipients to “focus on projects that deliver a physical broadband connection by prioritizing projects that achieve last mile-connections”.[21] As such, any public investment in broadband infrastructure must be focused on technology that is “future proof”; i.e. being the most capable of meeting increases in data demand well into the future, including speeds well in excess of 100 Mbps.[22]

Scope

            The current budget language states that the focus of the study will be the feasibility of the “introduction of broadband high-speed internet service to those tenants in committed affordable units”.[23] While any project should focus on getting affordable or free service to such households, the digital divide exists beyond committed affordable units, as evidenced by the County’s own project to provide wireless service to several market rate apartment buildings along Columbia Pike.[24]  This study must be as broad as possible and should arguably consider the county as a whole – or at the very least the areas closest to the existing county owned optical fiber lines and access points.[25] Signing up full-freight customers along with highly subsidized ones will improve the financial footing of the authority. Moreover, residents and businesses should have the option to be connected by any last mile connection passing them. Indeed, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Interim Final Rule encourages projects that expand high-speed access to “businesses”, which it interprets as including non-residential users of broadband, including private businesses and institutions that serve the public, such as schools, libraries, healthcare facilities, and public safety organizations.[26] The feasibility study could potentially utilize the Community Network Quickstart Program to obtain preliminary data on the cost of a county-wide buildout.[27]

Conclusion

            Arlington County has a unique opportunity to build a digital landscape that provides world-class connection to all, is sustainable, privacy-enhancing, rights-preserving, innovative and democratic by design. The results of this feasibility study, if conducted as outlined above, will provide the “set of facts” we need to make an informed decision about creating a community network that would allow us to accomplish that. With the trend of work from home rising all over the country and the County’s desire to attract tech companies and workers, while also ensuring digital equity, it is imperative for Arlington to pursue an earnest investigation of creating a community network that could definitively achieve those goals. Indeed, if we wish to remain a world-class community that is dedicated to fairness, justice, and innovation, we have no other choice.

---

[1] “America’s Digital Divide”, Pew, July 2019, https://tinyurl.com/37xjw272.

[2] “Arlington County Digital Equity Access Project (DEAP): Final Report, August 2020”, https://tinyurl.com/cwd4tkjv.

[3] “Study Examines Digital Divide Impact on Black Families Amid COVID-19 Pandemic”, August 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ye7pd49h.

[4] “How the Digital Divide Made Inequity in Education Systems”, October 2020, https://tinyurl.com/259b84t2.

[5] “Amend SB 1225”, January 2021, https://tinyurl.com/u722p92.

[6] “The Problem(s) of Broadband in America”, July 2021, https://tinyurl.com/7fjcnxy.

[7] “Focusing on Affordability: What Broadband Adoption Rates in Cities Tell Us About Getting More People Online”, April 2021, https://tinyurl.com/dafrm3vd.

[8] “ISPs spent $235 million on lobbying and donations, ‘more than $320,000 a day’”, July 2020, https://tinyurl.com/4v7dbaw3. See also, “Oh Look, More Giant ISPs Taking Taxpayer Money for Unfinished Networks”, January 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ydw9zzmj.

[9] “Community Broadband: The Fast, Affordable Internet Option That’s Flying Under the Radar”, May 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y22bbrxh.

[10] “PCMag’s Fastest ISPs in America List Once Again Proves the Value of Cities Investing in Internet Infrastructure”, June 2021, https://tinyurl.com/8uehexw8.

[11] “The Best Work from Home Cities for 2021”, February 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4xn64k49.

[12] “Municipal Fiber Networks Power Digital Inclusion Programs”, October 2019, https://tinyurl.com/kjvn973s.

[13] “Wireless Service Authorities and the The Virginia Wireless Service Authority Act”, 2008, https://bit.ly/33czKqJ.

[14] “Virginia Broadband Authorities”, August 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yym4zpu7.

[15] VIRTUAL County Board Budget Mark Up Work Session, Apr 15th, 2021, (01:07:00), https://tinyurl.com/5mjasr3c.

[16] United States Department of the Treasury Interim Final Rule – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal

Recovery Funds, May 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yyen77wn.

[17] “Biden Executive Order on Internet Service”, July 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2kebwhdk.

[18] Commonwealth of Virginia State Corporation Commission Final Order (Case No. PUR-2018-00200), September 2019, https://tinyurl.com/ct7ttehk.

[19] Letter from Director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Erik C. Johnston to Chair Kory, October 2012, https://tinyurl.com/h2pz5e3a.

[20] “FY 2022 County Board Adopted Budget Guidance”, April 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3ayr62ts.

[21] United States Department of the Treasury Interim Final Rule – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal

Recovery Funds, May 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yyen77wn.

[22] In reality this means a fiber optic cable to the home. See “Why Fiber is Vastly Superior to Cable and 5G”, October 2019, https://tinyurl.com/8txeu4 and “Why Slow Networks Really Cost More Than Fiber”, June 2014, https://tinyurl.com/4wt6j5n6.

[23] “FY 2022 County Board Adopted Budget Guidance”, April 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3ayr62ts.

[24] “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Arlington County Government

and Arlington Public Schools for Arlington Public Schools’ students Internet Access”, November 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2skajzae.

[25] The new connectivity maps from NTIA should make it easy to determine good starting points in the county. See NTIA, Indicator of Broadband Need, https://tinyurl.com/xfx3cz6n.

[26] Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: Frequently Asked Questions AS OF JULY 19, 2021, p. 29, https://tinyurl.com/kf22ceut.

[27] Community Networks Quickstart, http://cnquickstart.com/.

After almost a year of tireless advocacy, ArlFiber has finally netted a tangible win in its campaign for community broadband for Arlington. Yesterday (Tuesday, April 20), the Arlington County Board passed their budget for 2022, which includes $50,000 for a feasibility study on forming a broadband authority:

The backstory to this achievement is that members of ArlFiber met with the County Manager Mark Schwartz a few months back to discuss the possibility of forming an authority to start building a publicly owned fiber-to-the-home network. Suffice it to say, the County Manager was open to the idea, but slightly skeptical that such a network would be successful. Ultimately he asked us to show him some examples of cities that have done this that really looked like us; e.g. urban but without a public electric utility and with two entrenched incumbent internet service providers.

Given that criteria, we were hard-pressed to produce an abundance of examples, since the bigger cities like Chattanooga that have a successful public network deployed it through their electric utility, whereas many others are much smaller or more rural than Arlington and only had one major incumbent (usually a cable company without a fiber-to-the-home network). We compiled a list, but were not entirely satisfied with it. But then, lo and behold, the closest apples-to-apples example that we have ever seen emerged on the community broadband horizon: Hillsboro, Oregon.

Hillsboro is situated just outside of Portland and has a tech heavy business environment. While its population is smaller (105K), its size (25 sq miles) and demographic make-up (tech, higher degree holders) are similar. Moreover, they have two established incumbents: Comcast and Ziply Fiber (the latter having been spun off the now defunct Frontier). Like Arlington, Hillsboro already owned fiber optic resources that it used for municipal facilities, schools, traffic signals, and other purposes. In 2018 they formed a new communications utility to establish a fund and execute a dig-once policy for installing conduit in new construction areas (something that we have been doing for almost a decade). Now, after much study and planning, Hillsboro is finally executing fiber-to-the-home/premises buildouts in two separate neighborhoods as an expansion of the local government/school network. Of particular note is that one of the two pilot communities is a low-income area, where they will set a up a “bridge” program to provide $10/month gigabit FTTH connections to these households (utilizing a network of non-profits to do the verification and digital literacy work). For regular residential customers, Hilight is charging only $55/month for symmetrical gigabit service and even offers 2 ($125/m), 3 ($200/m), and 4 ($300/m) gig service. The public network offers VOIP and internet, but not video (which is what an Arlington Broadband authority would do, since state law prohibits broadband authorities from providing video service).

We forwarded the news about Hillsboro to the County Manager, and Department of Technology Services (DTS) staff quickly set up a meeting with HiLight principals Greg Mont and Brad Nosler (ArlFiber had a separate meeting with them). We then sent our notes to County Board members Matt de Ferranti and Takis Karantonis and scheduled a meeting with them. At that meeting, Matt and Takis agreed that a feasibility study made sense, and had us go back to Hillsboro to get information on their RFP and the cost, which was $50,000 and performed by a consultant called Uptown, so that became the magic number.

To be clear, this money for a feasibility study is just the beginning and hardly guarantees that the County will move forward with forming an authority and use it to build a publicly owned fiber-to-the-home network. We need to get the RFP right so that we ask the right questions and get a good consultant with a proven track record (and this feasibility study may only be the preface to other more thorough and expensive studies). Nevertheless, it’s an essential first step and the first real indication to us that certain Board members are genuinely interested in solving the digital divide through decisive public action and long-term, strategic planning.

If the feasibility study comes back with positive results and Arlington County is able to move forward on planning and even initial deployment, we will be well poised to take advantage of any federal money that comes out of President Biden’s infrastructure plan. In case you haven’t read that, here is what is being proposed:

Revitalize America’s digital infrastructure:

The President believes we can bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American through a historic investment of $100 billion. That investment will:

• Build high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach 100 percent coverage. The President’s plan prioritizes building “future proof” broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas so that we finally reach 100 percent high-speed broadband coverage. It also prioritizes support for broadband networks owned, operated by, or affiliated with local governments, non-profits, and co-operatives—providers with less pressure to turn profits and with a commitment to serving entire communities. Moreover, it ensures funds are set aside for infrastructure on tribal lands and that tribal nations are consulted in program administration. Along the way, it will create good-paying jobs with labor protections and the right to organize and bargain collectively.

It is not a foregone conclusion that the infrastructure bill will come out of the sausage making process entirely intact, but if a fraction of the above gets through, there is going to be a mad dash by localities to acquire personnel, equipment, etc. to start building broadband infrastructure. It would be wise to get out ahead.

The Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association (VCTA) is one of the staunchest opponents of public broadband in the state. They are a top donor to politicians like Kathy Byron, who famously tried to kill broadband authorities in the state with her 2017 Virginia Broadband Deployment Act. Moreover, in 2020, members of ArlFiber got to witness VCTA’s president Ray LaMura preside like a mafia don (flanked by a small army of telecom/cable lobbyist goons) over a meeting brokered by Del. Steve Heretick with a trio of his constituents from Portsmouth. The Portsmouth contingent had managed to cajole Del. Heretick to put in a bill that would make a small change in the VA Code that would allow Portsmouth’s city government to provide free wireless internet service at a couple of public housing units, which produced a ferocious reaction from the VA telecom industry. Shortly after that meeting, Heretick dropped the bill, and Del. Levine essentially shelved his far more extensive municipal broadband reform bill (there was a happy ending for Portsmouth – they formed a broadband authority not long after that and used CARES Act money to execute that public housing wifi project).

In light of all this, ArlFiber was quite surprised (and borderline amused) to find – via a FOIA request – a memo from Mr. La Mura informing Arlington County that VCTA’s reading of the VA Code says it’s perfectly legal for Arlington Public Schools to extend their wifi network to students in privately owned buildings:

While we are not privy to all the details, the background on this as we understand it is that Arlington County wanted to use new fixed wireless technology (CBRS) to provide free “private LTE” service to several buildings along Columbia Pike that APS and the Department of Technology Services had identified as being populated with students whose families were broadband deprived. Normally this would be impossible, since it would be a government-only network providing internet service to a private entity/subscriber, something that Article 5.1 (Provision of Certain Communications Services) of the VA Code does not allow unless the locality forms a separate entity called a “wireless service authority” or goes through the arduous process of being certificated as a municipal local exchange carrier (MLEC) (aside: we do not meet the qualifications for the latter, nor would the restrictions imposed on MLECs allow us to provide free service). Once Mr. La Mura sent the aforementioned memo blessing this, the County clearly felt reasonably comfortable moving forward with this project, which the Board approved at its November 2020 meeting.

So what does the memo say? According to the crack legal team at VCTA (who, granted, probably ghost wrote this law in the first place and thus should be considered authorities on it), Arlington County would not be in violation of the VA Code here, because this highly targeted wifi project does not quite meet the definition of “qualifying services” (as defined under the aforementioned Article 5.1):

On the face of it, this may seem like a rare instance of the telecom industry putting the public good ahead of returns for its investors; however, a close reading of the next page of the memo appears to us to reveal a different motivation: stop the County from considering a “wireless service authority” or anything else that might make this a permanent affair.

Comcast’s concern here most likely stemmed from the fact that the County had been informed in late October by the Director of the VA Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that forming a broadband authority would be the best option for most communities looking to provide service to low-income families during the pandemic. Here is an excerpt from that memo:

Unfortunately, the County took the path of least resistance and went through with the project on the strength of what essentially is a promise from Comcast not to sue. This certainly expedited execution, but now we are left in a somewhat awkward position where Comcast will decide the fate of this fixed wireless setup once the COVID-19 emergency has officially ended. It’s possible that Comcast will allow this to stand even after the pandemic, but the cable lobby’s bill this past session (championed by Sen. Boysko) that essentially gives private providers exclusive right to partner with schools on low-income service projects would suggest that they are not likely to continue to turn a blind eye to our Columbia Pike “wifi blasters”, as County Manager Mark Schwartz is fond of calling them.

The County, of course, has one option open to it: form a broadband authority. As was mentioned above, Portsmouth formed an authority to do wireless projects at its public housing complexes. We could just transfer ownership of the CBRS equipment to the authority who would continue to provide (and could potentially upgrade this to a fiber-to-the-home setup) to low-income families in these buildings (and without all the “students-only” restrictions). In fact, cities across the U.S. that do have a community network have been doing exactly that even before the pandemic.

If you think forming an authority to safeguard these investments and working toward bridging the digital divide once and for all is a good idea, please sign on to our petition to the County Board to form a broadband authority for Arlington.

Two of our esteemed members of ArlFiber published a great op-ed in ArlNow’s Progressive Voice column this week. Check it out:

Progressive Voice: Municipal Broadband – Better, Faster, Cheaper

TLDR Version (Update below): State Senator Jennifer Boysko has introduced a bill (SB 1225) in the 2021 session of the Virginia General Assembly that will establish new rules for local schools on partnering with an internet service provider to connect households with disadvantaged students. These rules would exclude public broadband providers by virtue of only mentioning “private” broadband providers. In addition to a number of stopgap solutions, during the pandemic local school districts have partnered with public providers to get kids connected. For instance, Arlington Public Schools partnered with Arlington County’s public dark fiber network to extend wifi to several buildings with a high-concentration of low-income families. Boysko’s bill, if passed in current form, would at best complicate future such public-public partnerships and at worst eliminate them entirely. Update below.

The Pandemic and Public Education

Anyone scrolling through the headlines in VPAP’s VA News morning roundup since March would have noticed a goodly number of articles about schools throughout Virginia struggling to connect all of their students during the transition to online learning.

While certainly some of the most dire situations were in rural parts of Virginia where broadband internet service is completely absent, the highly wired urban parts had their own problems with home internet access for their students. A Washington Post article provided the following illustrative example back in May:

Yenifer Alvarado Portillo liked doing homework. School, the 5-year-old said, made her feel good. But ever since Arlington Public Schools shuttered, kindergarten has become a cause for tears. While other kids find their assignments online, Yenifer’s teacher has to relay them by phone. Even then, she can’t complete most of them because her family’s Northern Virginia home lacks Internet. She and her mother, Maria Silvia Portillo, huddle by the hotspot on Maria’s Galaxy cellphone. But the signal is just too weak.

The Portillos are hardly alone. A recent study commissioned by Arlington’s Department of Technology Services conservatively estimated that at least 16% of Arlington households do not have access to a fixed home broadband Internet connection. Moreover, the report found that those who are typically digitally underserved include older adults or adults with disabilities who typically have fixed incomes; lower-income households; and members of recent immigrant groups – particularly Hispanics, who are also more likely to have multiple school-age children. At the state level, a recent study by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia found that nearly 40% of all students without broadband live in or around Virginia’s cities.

This, of course, is the least talked about aspect of the digital divide: cost. While rural areas suffer from the telecoms’ neglect (despite years of public subsidies), the suburban and urban areas suffer from the telecoms’ monopoly pricing power. Now we are all paying the price for failing to treat broadband as a utility and essential infrastructure.

It is important to note, however, that, while the pandemic has turned the digital divide into a full blown catastrophe, the lack of home internet for so many was already a national crisis in need of urgent rectification. Studies on the “homework gap” have shown that students with internet at home consistently score higher in reading, math and science. According to a study conducted by the Quello Center at Michigan State University and Merit Network, which looked at the homework gap in 15 rural school districts in Michigan, students without home Internet access also had lower grades and test scores, demonstrated less digital skills competency, and were less likely to plan to attend post-secondary schooling, even after accounting for socioeconomic differences. And, this being the U.S., the digital divide and homework gap disproportionately affect children and communities of color.

StopGap Solutions

Given the need to transition all schooling to online platforms, local schools and governments scrambled for solutions to get all of their students connected. These solutions ranged from public hotspots to take-home mobile Wi-Fi devices (“MiFis”) to public subsidies for private low-income service packages like Comcast’s Internet Essentials.

These solutions, of course, all have their flaws. Public hotspots at schools and libraries presuppose things like means of private transport and/or favorable weather. MiFis tend to have insufficient capacity for multiple hours of streaming. Low-income internet packages from the big telecoms tend to have all manner of limitations on who can apply, in addition to providing inadequate customer support, especially for families who suffer from language and/or digital literacy barriers. And even if a low-income family could overcome those barriers, the slow speeds (e.g. 15 mbps down and 2 mbps up) are likely inadequate in situations where multiple students were trying to stream simultaneously.

Here in Arlington, the County government and APS pursued all of these avenues. What is relevant for this post, however, is that in May the County Board inked a deal with Comcast to use $500,000 of its CARES Act money to subsidize the $10/month for Internet Essentials for low-income families. As part of this deal, Comcast bumped up the speed to 25/3 mbps and relaxed some other fees and restrictions that usually accompany the service. It is not clear what the take rate on this program was or how many families were unable to take advantage of it because Comcast did not service their territory or building, but, given the urgency of the problem, it was still worth doing.

In addition to the County’s deal with Comcast, Arlington Public Schools signed an MOU with the County government to use the public dark fiber network ConnectArlington to extend wifi service to several buildings with low-income families at a cost of roughly $1.2 million. The students in those buildings will be able to access the network with their APS credentials and are expected to enjoy speeds of around 45/15 mbps, which is a considerable improvement over the speeds provided by Comcast Internet Essentials. Arlington County could likely do more using ConnectArlington, but it is currently hampered by state laws that place onerous restrictions on public networks (incidentally, the network would face no restrictions if County formed a broadband authority).

All of these measures were just stopgap solutions to a problem that has been in the making for decades, but it sure was nice to have as many tools at hand as possible, right? You would think that, but sadly it appears some of our legislators think otherwise.

SB1225

Despite the clear crisis we have seen with regard to internet access (and options) during the pandemic, state legislators submitted shockingly few bills on this topic this session (we count a total of five bills related directly or indirectly to broadband, not including budget amendments). Worst of all, one of those bills, SB1225, is set to decrease schools’ options for ensuring home internet for their students. This bill was submitted by Democratic Senator Jennifer Boysko, who is happens to be the chair of the state’s Broadband Advisory Council, and is patroned by a number of other prominent/senior members of the Senate.

On the face of it, SB1225 is aimed at making it easier for schools to partner with internet service providers for the purpose of getting families with disadvantaged students connected. The summary of the bill reads as follows:

Broadband services; education. Authorizes school boards to appropriate funds for the purposes of promoting, facilitating, and encouraging the expansion and operation of broadband services for educational purposes. The bill authorizes school boards to partner with private broadband service providers to promote, implement, and subsidize broadband for educational purposes to the households of students who would qualify for (i) a child nutrition program or (ii) any other program recognized or adopted by the local school board as a measuring standard to identify at-risk students.

You will notice that we bolded a particular word above: “private”. The inclusion of that word and the exclusion of the word “public” could very well complicate or even eliminate public schools’ ability to partner with public internet service providers (as we saw in the Arlington example above). Alarmed by that prospect, we took to Twitter to voice our opposition directly to Senator Boysko.

Senator Boysko was quick to respond, replying both by Tweet and email. Her response boiled down to claiming that we misunderstood the bill and that it is irrelevant to the issue of public providers because they are already covered under a different part of the VA Code.

The importance of bill language in a dillon’s rule state

The problem with Senator Boysko’s argument here is at least twofold.

The first is that the VA Code also already allows private internet providers to enter into MOUs with schools (under the Virginia Public Procurement Act), so it begs the question what the purpose of this bill is (and more importantly, who asked for it…). You’ll remember from above that Comcast had no problem signing an MOU with Arlington County for this purpose.

The second is that Virginia is a Dillon’s Rule state, so authorizing language is vitally important. The portion of the law that covers public provider MOUs is very broad. This proposed legislation by contrast is very specific, which arguably sets up a new set of rules that specifies who can enter into MOUs with schools for this purpose. If this bill passes and the language specifies only private providers, that will almost certainly be used by the corporate telecoms to argue that public providers do not have the right to do this specific thing in MOUs (or at least threaten lawsuits against school districts), which, given the importance of this issue, should be avoided at all costs. So let’s adhere to the precautionary principle.  

And even this is not the only potential problem with this legislation. As one public attorney mentioned to us in a personal communication:

The 600 lb. gorilla issue here is the First Amendment/Free Speech Clause of the Virginia Constitution, both of which trump this statute. If a school district allows one private speaker to send home flyers, then it has created a “limited public forum,” in which “the government may restrict access to ‘certain groups’ or to ‘discussion of certain topics,’ subject to two limitations: the government restrictions must be both reasonable and viewpoint neutral.” Child Evangelism Fellowship of Md., Inc. v. Montgomery Cnty. Pub. Sch., 457 F.3d 376, 383 (4th Cir. 2006). There is no question that the schools have to be viewpoint neutral: In other words, any internet provider in the geographic area the schools serve would be in a position to say that they should have equal access to the schools’ intramural mail system for the purposes of advertising availability in the area. You’d have a tough time arguing it isn’t covered under the First Amendment.

Ultimately, we would feel better if this law was at least amended to remove the word “private”, although given the fact that nothing is currently stopping private or public providers from entering into agreements with local governments and schools on providing internet services to unconnected students, it is probably best that this bill just be killed or withdrawn.

---

Update

Thank you to everyone who sent emails. Those letters to the subcommittee members definitely helped as they were referenced by Sen. Dunnavant during the hearing and led her to suggest potentially amending the bill’s language. Unfortunately, the bill passed out of the subcommittee unaltered and was then rubber stamped by the full Senate Education and Health Committee without letting us speak on it.

Here is a video of Thursday’s hearing, which began with a presentation by Senator Boysko herself:

A few comments on Sen. Boysko’s presentation.

Sen. Boysko claims that we need this legislation to clarify that schools can partner with private broadband providers to help connect disadvantaged students at home, yet she cites several examples of schools partnering with private broadband providers without any problem (e.g. Cox with schools in Roanoke). She claims that the problem is that some schools were reluctant to partner with private broadband providers because they were not sure whether the law allows it. If that is the case, it makes sense to make sure the language is written in a way to make sure all providers are covered and enabled. If the language is changed to include all broadband providers, nothing about the intent of this bill changes.

Here is what the language should have looked like:

SB 1225 Broadband services; education. 
B. Any school board may:
1. Promote and publicize the availability of broadband services, including private for educational purposes to parents and students, including the availability of any affordability programs or sponsored programs;

2. Provide promotional or informational materials for broadband services, including private to parents, students, and potential sponsors including brochures, flyers, and cable, internet, broadband, or other public service announcements, in any media, regarding locally available broadband service, including private offerings, including the availability of any affordability programs or sponsored programs, to encourage student use of broadband services for educational purposes;

3. Accept compensation, or in-kind donations of materials and services, from any broadband service, including private to reimburse the school board or other public body for its actual costs incurred in providing the materials described in subsection B 2;

4. Enter into agreements with local businesses, charitable groups, or broadband service providers, including private to promote sponsored programs to provide reduced cost or free broadband services for educational purposes to households of qualifying students. Under such agreements, the school board may award grants or subsidies to broadband service providers, including private to reduce or eliminate the cost of sponsored program broadband services provided to qualifying student households;

In December, ArlFiber cosponsored a panel discussion on saving small business during the pandemic, and arranged for Christopher Mitchell, director of Community Networks project at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, to speak on the topic of broadband, small business, and economic development. See his presentation at 1:23:12:

Back in November, George Mason University held a panel discussion on the digital divide that featured Aneesh Chopra, an Arlington resident who will be Chief Technology Officer for the incoming Biden administration.

During his remarks, Chopra advised the assembled public servants, including Arlington County Board member and now Vice Chair Katie Cristol, to consider forming a broadband authority if they want to increase local options for improving broadband. (see his remarks at 00:28:00).

When Katie Cristol spoke, she praised ArlFiber for bringing this to the Board’s attention, and wondered aloud whether the community would like a public option for broadband (see her remarks at 1:13:40).