Rural Telecommunications Congress Members Release Report on 50 State Broadband Initiative Entities

AUSTIN, Texas, April 10, 2014 - Members of the Rural Telecommunications Congress on Thursday released a comprehensive report on the state of the 50 State Broadband Initiative entities.

The report was compiled by Galen Updike, immediate past president of the RTC, with the assistance of state broadband leaders. It assembles data about the programs of the governmental and non-profit entities that have been engaged in broadband mapping and planning over the past five years.

Among the questions that the report seeks to address, for each of the 50 states, are the following:

1. [Is there an] ongoing State BB Leadership Org or Council to Coordinate with Rural BB Champions and Providers ?
2. Is the State BB Map Identifying deficit areas per identified  standards available for use by the public and Policy makers?
3. Are State and Regional BB Plans created and  being widely used?
4. Is there a Separate State BB PPO for Financing, Bonding & Grants in Deficit areas?
5. Are there State Funding Programs for Matching [dollars] and for Financing grants/loans to Political subs & Providers?
6. Is Formal Coordination  taking place with State  PUC to reduce Regulatory barriers for providers?
7. Is there adequate Collaboration W/ Rural political sub-divisions on ROW issues and for Aggregation of Demand for Providers?
8. Is there Formal  State Collaboration with Health & Education Institutions  (USF LEA's) to optimize FCC subsidies?
9. Are there Sustainable Infrastructure Programs directed at Unserved and Underserved through a State USF fee?
10. Is there frequent Legislative Collaboration for BB Policy Initiatives and Program Leadership Funding?

The report is a prelude to the discussion on "The Bandwidth of the States," which will be kicked off in a keynote address by Anne Neville, the program director of SBI of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The formal program for Thursday's event is available online:

The report about broadband in the states by Galen Updike, broken into more than a dozen data-sets and spreadsheets, is available at the following links:

10-Cover page to Attributes Workbook

20-States BB Data Table - Attibutes of Successful State Broadband Programs

30-Links to State NTIA SBI programs

31-SBDD Grant Recipients by State

40-All BTOP Infrastructure Grants per list of States

50-Individual BTOP Infrastructure Grants by State - Linked to NTIA website

51-BTOP Infrastruct Tot dollars by State Population - ranked

60-By State - SBI Governance abstract - Linked

61-State Statutes Impact BB by State- 2011

62-State Statutes Impact BB by State-2013

63-Governor 2014 St of St Speech - by State - BB as topic

70-States with Municipal BB Pre-emption laws - linked to Citation

71-US Map of States Indicating States with Muni Contraints

81-AKAMAI State by State Connect speeds and Ranking 2013

82-AKAMAI State by State IP Count and Percent gt 10Mb Connections

83-AKAMAI State by State Speed test results - percent gt 4Mb

91-Maps of USDA BIP Middle and Last Mile Project locations and Tech types

92-Map - USDA BIP and BTOP infrastructure TOT Dollars by State

99-NTIA CAI Report to States-2011