Utah working to fill Internet 'doughnut holes'

Brice Wallace 

The Utah Broadband Center is seeking help from all Utahns to ensure the accuracy of a map showing where high-speed Internet is available in the state.

It’s a precursor to determine how much the state will get in federal funds to fill broadband availability gaps during the next few years.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board{mprestriction ids="1,3"}, Rebecca Dilg, director of Utah Broadband Center, said a recent state assessment indicated that 70,000 Utahns do not have access to the Internet in their homes.

“So, we think, ‘Oh, we’ve got really good Internet here in Utah,’ and we do. I love to compare it to a box of doughnuts: We have some delicious, cream-filled, well-frosted doughnuts, and yet we still have holes — doughnut holes and gaps — and so we are working to get rid of those,” Dilg told the board.

The broadband center is part of Go Utah.

Some of the federal funds will be apportioned to states based upon a national broadband map created by the Federal Communications Commission in coordination with Internet service providers. Utah is expected to get between $300 million and $500 million in federal money to improve broadband infrastructure, affordability and use.

The map shows broadband service availability at individual addresses rather than census tracts and helps states identify areas where broadband service is unavailable. If any data is incorrect, Utahns are encouraged to submit corrections to the map directly to the FCC by visiting broadbandmap.fcc.gov.

Dilg has said the effort is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure high-speed Internet is accessible to all Utahns, and we want to get this right.” If the map is inaccurate, it could affect the amount of funding Utah receives.

Refining that FCC map is expected to take several tries. The first “challenge period” is through Jan. 13 and is designed to correct errors related to serviceable broadband locations, meaning any structure that has broadband service or could potentially be served by broadband providers. At some future point, the map will be used to determine the amount of funding allocated to each state for broadband expansion projects.

“For years, we’ve struggled to determine the exact contours of the digital divide,” Alan Davidson, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in a prepared statement. “The FCC’s new map provides the most precise assessment to date of Internet haves and have-nots. Since this map is the first draft, we encourage consumers, companies and government leaders to dive into the data and give feedback to the FCC. Together, we can craft a map to guide us to our goal of connecting everyone in the U.S.”

Dilg said Utah has unserved areas, with no Internet access or access under 25 megabits per second for downloads and 3 megabits per second for uploads. It also has underserved areas with under 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads.

“The state of Utah is ahead of the game. It really is,” Dilg told the Go Utah board. “We have wonderful coverage in rural areas. It’s just not everywhere.”

Among the benefits of high-speed Internet are people being able to work from home and to access telehealth and educational opportunities, Dilg said.

The broadband center also is encouraging Utahns to access a survey at speedtest.utah.gov to help it with a map showing high-speed Internet availability and affordability.

“This is another layer that is allowing us to compare, because we need to identify the specific areas where there’s a need,” Dilg said. “We know that there’s a lot of areas where maybe it’s underserved but the unserved areas are harder to get to. We’re not sure necessarily where they all are based on just the maps, and we need some feedback.”

It’s all part of “Connecting Utah,” which will develop a five-year statewide digital connectivity plan to improve Internet throughout the state by identifying infrastructure needs and developing goals, strategies and initial measures to meet those needs.

To help Utah formulate its plan, it has hired consulting firm Horrocks, which is conducting outreach activities with cities and the public and private sectors to get feedback about where service needs exist. The state plan is due next summer to the National Telecommunication and Information Association.

The federal funding is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. About $42.45 billion will be allocated nationally for broadband equity, access and deployment, designed to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to all unserved and underserved areas in the U.S. About $2.75 billion will be used to support the closure of the “digital divide” and promote equity and digital inclusion so that people can fully participate socially and economically. About $2 billion will be used to expand access and adoption of broadband service on tribal lands. About $1 billion will enable a “middle mile” broadband infrastructure program.

The Utah Broadband Center recently was awarded $10 million in federal funding through the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund as part of the American Rescue Plan. It is part of $10 billion awarded to states, territories, freely associated states and tribal governments to fund capital projects that enable work, education and health monitoring in response to the public health emergency.

The $10 million will be used for broadband infrastructure, estimated to connect 3,080 households and businesses, or roughly 5 percent of locations in Utah still lacking high-speed Internet access. It will fund the Broadband Access Grant, a competitive program designed to address gaps in broadband infrastructure.

The Utah Broadband Center has already awarded five rural recipients that without the grant funds would not have broadband infrastructure. The areas include Box Elder County, Croydon, Millard County, West Mountain, and Montezuma Creek in the Navajo Nation in San Juan County.{/mprestriction}