After Weeks-Long Internet Outage, Detroit Hangs Hope on Publicly-Owned, Privately-Operated Network

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2022 – Experts at an Internet Governance Forum on July 21 expressed hope that Detroit’s pilot program creating a publicly-owned, privately-operated broadband network would prove successful at bridging the digital divide.

The private sector will not solve the digital divide, said Kimberly McKinley, chief marketing officer at fiber company UTOPIA fiber, referring to the gulf between those with internet access and those without. Privately owned businesses are looking to increase profit, which will discourage them from builds in hard-to-reach, poor areas, said McKinley. Municipalities, however, have interest in getting low-income communities connected, she added.

Detroit’s Hope Village experienced an internet outage for 45 days during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, it will serve as the testing ground for its plan – announced in March – of building a citywide fiber-optic network owned by municipalities and run by private internet providers. The 18-month construction began in May of this year, with the first Detroiters being connected as early as August 2023. The city will use American Rescue Plan Act funding to kick start the project and estimates that the fiber optic system will last for more than 50 years.

“It’s a pilot, but at the same time, as we get these larger funds, we hope to expand it out to other parts of the city that have had historic disinvestment and to do it in the name of digital equity where our profit is a public good,” Joshua Edmonds, director of digital inclusion in Detroit, said in a meeting with state and local leaders in May.

“Relying on private industry solutions to address these critical public needs alone has only delayed the development of effective solutions and exacerbated inequalities,” the city plan states.

The future and viability of municipal broadband networks continue to be debated among experts. Some local governments are more willing to help a partner organization establish a broadband network than they are to oversee construction themselves, while others are pushing for municipal builds. Last month, New York announced its first municipal fiber project as part of its ConnectALL initiative. The state awarded a $10 million grant to the project.

Alan Davidson, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said he looks to “pressure” states with restrictive laws on municipal broadband builds to use infrastructure money for that end.