Summit Subject-Matter Expert Kenneth Kuchno Speaks on Panel at the Broadband Communities Summit

At the Broadband Communities Summit held in Houston, Texas, from May 6 to 8, 2024, I participated in a panel titled “How Do You Ensure the Long-Term Sustainability of Rural Projects?”.  With so much federal funding coming from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Rural Utilities Service, the Federal Communications Commission, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury to extend broadband services to every household and business in the United States and its territories, there is concern that some of these projects in the most rural areas of the country will not be sustainable over the long haul and people in rural America will be left behind if they fail.

The panel’s focus was to discuss how to ensure that rural connectivity projects are sustainable in the long run and how to engage with the right stakeholders to make sure that broadband projects thrive for years to come.  The panel’s moderator was Hilda Legg, a rural economic development consultant. Members included myself, Kenneth Kuchno, a senior adviser at Summit Consulting; Jim Baller, a partner at Keller and Heckman LLP; Charles Dennie, a principal consultant at Broadband Solutions West Virginia and Misti Willock, vice president of strategic partnerships at Resound Networks.

Summit subject-matter expert Kenneth Kuchno (second from right) presents on the panel “How Do You Ensure the Long-Term Sustainability of Rural Projects?” at the Broadband Communities Summit in May 2024.

The panel identified a number of provider considerations to ensure a sustainable project, including critical early preparations. Provider considerations include:

• Profit margins in these areas are low but can still sustain a business plan with proper preparations.
• Providers must bring a strong understanding of the markets in question and what a reasonable price would be for customers to pay for the broadband service.
• Providers must plan for the proper facilities to be used to deliver the service.  Although fiber is preferred, that is not always practicable and other technologies like fixed wireless and satellite must be considered in some high-cost areas.
• Providers must incorporate community involvement in bringing the service to an area. Communities may take the lead or partner with a service provider to make residents in the area aware of the efforts, and they should consider providing cash funding or a tax incentive.
• As with any venture, there is also a need for service, construction, and operating agreements between the parties involved in delivering the service. These agreements can be simple or complex and could be for an entity to design and build the facilities with another entity operating the facilities. A community could also construct and own the facilities but use an open-access concept where multiple providers will then share the facilities to offer customers multiple choices.

Because these facilities are expensive to construct in rural areas, local economic development is critical to long-term success. These efforts should bring new businesses into an area that bring jobs and income to support broadband adoption, but they should also bring new investment, increasing the base of revenues for expanding broadband service to rely on. Overall, building the facilities is the first step to bring high-speed broadband to an area, but it will take a combined effort of many entities (communities, providers, engineers, construction crews, and others) to sustain systems well into the future.