State officials attending the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition’s annual conference this week told officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration about initiatives that have grown out of their now-expired State Broadband Initiative funding administered by NTIA.

 For example, Utah’s Broadband Outreach Center in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development “created an Advisory Council, which convenes broadband providers— who are often competitors—to hear directly from communities about areas of need and to ask for support from the state to expand their networks. These conversations often inform state strategy. One such suggestion from a broadband provider gave vital suggestions on how to structure Utah’s Economic Development Map and combine fiber availability with utility information, transportation assets, population statistics and lifestyle features,” Lynn Chadwick and Brian Gibbons, senior communications policy specialists at NTIA, said in a blog post today.

“And Jeff Sural from North Carolina’s Department of Information Technology discussed the multi-agency planning effort his office is leading to develop a statewide broadband plan, which will be published in the next few months. His team surveyed 3,500 leaders, conducted two dozen listening sessions and consulted with 60 experts. Part of their planning includes preparing communities to engage with broadband providers. The state has a traveling team of technical experts to help instruct communities on promoting broadband deployment by aggregating demand and identifying funding opportunities,” they added. —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily