For Nevada, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment [BEAD] rural broadband funding program will essentially be the third and final phase of a plan to make high-speed service available to everyone in the state, explained Brian Mitchell, broadband director for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT), in an interview with Telecompetitor.
That final phase will be funded not only through the $417 million in BEAD funding coming to the state but also through other sources. “No single funding source will connect everyone in Nevada,” said Mitchell, who has been with the office since its creation in 2015. “We are bringing in multiple funding sources to achieve universal connectivity goals.”
Among the sources tapped for funding are the federal Capital Projects Fund and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, the NTIA middle mile funding program, state sources, E-rate, and other programs.
Nevada already has been braiding together various funding sources to cover awards made in Phase One and Phase Two of the state’s holistic universal broadband plan.
Mitchell likened the process to braiding a child’s hair: “A lot of screaming and grinding of teeth” was involved, he said.
The FCC E-rate program covers some of the costs of broadband connectivity for schools and libraries and, as Mitchell explained, OSIT organized an effort that enabled all 13 rural school districts in the state to convert existing wireless connections to fiber.
“We provided expertise in the E-rate process,” said Mitchell about OSIT’s role. In addition, the state covered some costs that were not covered by E-rate.
That initiative was followed by a comprehensive three-phase plan known as High-Speed Nevada (HSNV). Phase One targeted government facilities and community anchor institutions. The state awarded $100 million in that phase to a mixture of local and national providers. No further awards are planned in that program.
The goal of Phase Two, for which all funding has been awarded, is to construct a 2,500-mile fiber network connecting communities in the state.
As Mitchell explained, when state officials began planning High-Speed Nevada, “one of the first things we realized was that we lacked the middle-mile infrastructure to do high-speed last-mile deployments.”
Zayo won $150 million for the middle-mile network in Phase Two.
Phase Three of the three-phase HSNV initiative aims to make high-speed broadband available to the 53,000 unserved and underserved locations in the state — a goal that matches the goals of the BEAD program, which will be the primary funding source for that phase.
The state also will tap CPF funds for the awards. That’s a rather unique choice and one that would initially appear to be challenging, as CPF rules require all funding to be obligated by the end of the year.
As Mitchell explained, though, meeting that requirement won’t be a problem because the funding already was obligated to OSIT.
Talking Digital Equity with Providers
Nevada’s holistic approach to universal broadband also extends to digital equity.
The same federal bipartisan infrastructure act that created the BEAD program also made funding available to the states to promote digital literacy for “covered” populations, including minorities, the elderly, rural residents, and more. And while not all service providers are taking much interest in digital equity, Mitchell said he makes a point of explaining how digital equity can benefit the providers.
In doing so, he focuses on “uptake and adoption” as “complementary efforts” and on how potential customers who have learned how and why to use broadband are “more likely to subscribe when you leave a door flyer.”
A Unique Approach to Defining Project Areas
OSIT opted to define BEAD project areas using an algorithm based on a mathematical approach known as “K-means clustering.”
As Mitchell explained, “If you give it a number of points on a plane, it will draw lines to minimize the distance between each point within the lines.”
The process yielded 1,042 project areas, some with tens of thousands of locations and some with a single location. The goal was to make all project areas as attractive as possible to potential applicants to maximize the number of applications received.
The deadlines for applying for funding and for pre-registration recently passed and, according to Mitchell, “from here, the plan is to evaluate, score and make funding decisions as quickly as we can.”
He anticipates publishing a list of awardees before the end of the year.
Additional information about Nevada broadband, including state funding resources, awards made, and state-specific coverage, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
