With an unprecedented opportunity for local communities to build their own ubiquitous high-speed Internet infrastructure, a new national organization has been formed to advocate on behalf of municipal broadband initiatives and to give local governments a seat at the table as federal and state officials craft legislation and grant programs to close the digital divide.

Today, at the Broadband Communities Summit 2022 in Houston, the group’s founding members held a press conference to announce the birth of the American Association of Public Broadband (AAPB).

“We were formed by a group of municipal officials in order to advance advocacy efforts for public broadband and to make sure they have a voice in Washington and in all 50 states,” said AAPB board member Bob Knight.

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Knight went on to explain that while AAPB will be advocating for municipal solutions to local connectivity challenges, “we are model agnostic, whether you want to partner with a large ISP (Internet Service Provider), build your own network, or form a public-private partnership.”

A ‘Voice in the Conversation’

Noting that AAPB will work closely with ally organizations and industry groups, AAPB was founded primarily “because municipal networks didn’t have much of a voice in the conversation around broadband funding in the American Rescue Plan Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” even as there was significant lobbying efforts on behalf of the big telecom companies.

AAPB Secretary Kimberly McKinley added that lawmakers are often assailed with stories about municipal broadband failures but that it was important for lawmakers to hear the whole story.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.

This week’s episode of our Community Broadband Bits podcast is particularly insightful for communities considering how to leverage the broadband expansion funds embedded in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

Although the funds will likely not be allocated to state grant programs until the end of 2022/early 2023, the time is now for state and local leaders interested in building community-owned networks to best position themselves to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation investment.

Christopher is joined by Nancy Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), an under-the-radar organization that advises local government officials on telecommunication issues.

During the conversation, the two talk about NATOA and its role in supporting community broadband projects with a particular focus on how the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program contained in the infrastructure bill is structured. Christopher and Nancy zero in on exactly how BEAD grant money can be used. Although the bill was written to first focus on mostly rural communities who do not have access to minimum broadband connections of 25/3 Megabits per second, they delve into the nitty gritty of how the funds can be used to prioritize bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units even in densely-populated urban centers.

As Christopher notes:

This is important because this is a question of whether we are going to spend the vast majority of this money in areas that are more rural … or if we are going to spend any money in urban areas ... It is incontrovertible that we have neglected the many more millions of people in urban areas. This is a time to make sure that we are not just picking one or the other.

The show ends with an exploration of the promise and shortcomings of taking a simplified approach to setting Right-of-Way and franchise fees, which are areas that are notoriously difficult waters to navigate as new networks are being built.