Broadband is the Future of New Hampshire

“Each New Hampshire resident, enterprise, and group ought to have entry to quick, dependable, and inexpensive broadband to make sure our present and future prosperity and high quality of life.”

—Broadband: The Connection to New Hampshire’s Future 2015

In accordance with U.S. Information & World Report, New Hampshire is tenth total in entry to broadband, However the state ranks thirty fifth for information velocity. BroadbandNow estimates that solely 30 % of the state has entry to fiber-optic service and solely about 7 % has entry to 1-gig service.

New Hampshire’s Broadband Plan

The New Hampshire Broadband Mapping & Planning Program (NHBMPP) is a complete initiative that started in 2010 with the objective of understanding the place broadband is presently out there within the state, how it may be made extra broadly out there sooner or later, and the way to encourage elevated ranges of broadband adoption and utilization. This system is an American Restoration and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) challenge funded by means of the Nationwide Telecommunications and Info Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Division of Commerce.

In 2015, NHBMPP printed Broadband: The Connection to New Hampshire’s Future, providing dozens of suggestions to make sure that high-speed broadband is out there to everybody within the state, that it’s inexpensive, and that folks know the way to use it successfully. The suggestions may be broadly summarized:

1. Set up a Broadband Authority and Broadband Council: New Hampshire wants an official entity that’s accountable for growing and advancing the state’s strategic broadband plan, for persevering with to gather information and map broadband use, and for looking for funding to assist infrastructure enlargement—a statewide authority. It additionally wants a broadly consultant stakeholder group to advise the authority and different public officers—a broadband council. Creating an official state authority and an advisory council to plan, promote, finance, assess, and assist expanded broadband deployment and adoption efforts is a essential first step to making sure that every one New Hampshire residents and companies have entry to inexpensive broadband.
2. Get rid of Obstacles to Broadband Availability: Presently about 70% of New Hampshire residents, and fewer than half of households in rural areas, have entry to broadband at speeds larger than 100 Mbps, the velocity mandatory for the simultaneous use of a number of gadgets, cloud-based enterprise purposes, telemedicine, and so on. Along with growing speeds in areas which are presently served, New Hampshire wants to increase broadband service to areas of the state which are presently unserved or underserved. Making certain that quick, dependable broadband service is accessible to all New Hampshire residents, companies, and organizations who need it’s important to attaining prosperity and a top quality of life in New Hampshire. One technique to encourage broadband enlargement is to remove obstacles to broadband availability. This consists of working with service suppliers, utility pole homeowners, regulators, and legislators to 1) streamline the pole attachment and tower siting processes; 2) enhance using freeway rights-of-way; and three) streamline utility pole licensing procedures.
3. Encourage Competitors to Enhance Broadband Affordability: The price of broadband service makes it unaffordable to a big variety of New Hampshire residents. A lot of the state has protection from just one or two wireline broadband suppliers, and this lack of competitors can result in increased costs. New Hampshire must encourage competitors amongst suppliers to convey the bottom attainable value to customers.
4. Coordinate, Promote, and Sponsor Trainings to Enhance Broadband Adoption: New Hampshire must coordinate, promote, and sponsor trainings for residents, companies, and organizations on the advantages of broadband utilization. Elevated expertise and data of broadband purposes encourages broadband use and can result in a well-educated, affluent, wholesome, and protected New Hampshire.
5. Monitor Broadband Availability and Adoption: New Hampshire wants to observe, stock, and consider its broadband availability, affordability, adoption, and aggressive place on an ongoing and common foundation. Grant funding from the NTIA for the NHBMPP resulted in early 2015. Persevering with to gather statewide broadband availability and adoption information is important with the intention to measure the effectiveness of broadband efforts and to offer a transparent image of New Hampshire’s broadband aggressive place compared to different states and international locations.

COVID Accelerates New Hampshire’s Digital Divide Efforts

Utilizing $50 million from the CARES Act Coronavirus Aid Fund, Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH) launched the Connecting NH—Emergency Broadband Enlargement Program in June 2020. This system sought to present high-speed web connectivity (outlined as 25 Mbps obtain and three Mbps add) to as many unserved New Hampshire properties as attainable in any case value to the state. This system demanded fast motion from broadband suppliers: requiring tasks to be accomplished as quickly as attainable, however no later than December 15, 2020. Funded tasks might be wired or wi-fi entry, however had been required to be public/personal partnership collaborations between present suppliers and municipalities.

“This public-private partnership is a brilliant funding for communities throughout the Granite State in increasing broadband entry,” stated Gov. Sununu on the launch of this system. “As extra Granite Staters are studying and dealing remotely, and utilizing the web to entry telehealth companies, this important enlargement program ensures equitable entry to service for Granite Staters.”

By means of the Emergency Broadband Enlargement Program, almost $13 million was invested in essential broadband tasks using CARES Act funds to attach almost 4,500 beforehand unserved properties. The state had put aside $50 million in CARES Act funding; the December 2020 deadline for completion of tasks might have suppressed additional participation. 

“New Hampshire was one of many few states within the nation to make use of our CARES Act cash to put money into broadband throughout the state,” stated Gov. Sununu. “New Hampshire’s program was wildly profitable—bringing collectively the state, personal, and municipal companions—all to get the job performed and join our rural communities in a sustainable approach.”

In July 2021, New Hampshire enacted a brand new legislation establishing the Broadband Matching Grant Fund by means of the Division of Enterprise and Financial Affairs. Supported with state appropriations, presents, grants, donations, and out there federal funds, eligible tasks will present high-speed Web entry in unserved areas of the state that lack entry to broadband companies from at the least one broadband supplier. Any broadband supplier, political subdivision, or communications district is eligible for a grant of as much as 50 % of the entire eligible prices of a challenge. Utility analysis standards promote quicker service, as much as and together with gigabit service. The legislation permits communities to challenge low-interest municipal bonds to cowl their prices for tasks. 

“I anticipate we might see as a lot as $100 million in federal help to develop broadband over the following few years,” Gov. Sununu stated when signing the invoice. “This provides the state a terrific alternative to do all we will to increase service to that final mile all through New Hampshire.”

The Workplace of Strategic Initiatives inside New Hampshire’s newly-created Division of Vitality manages the trouble.

New Hampshire’s Capital Tasks Fund Award

On June 7, 2022, the U.S. Division of Treasury permitted New Hampshire’s plan to speculate $50 million of the state’s Capital Tasks Fund allotment for broadband deployment. Though the Capital Tasks Fund can assist numerous makes use of that straight allow work, training, and well being monitoring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Hampshire is concentrating over 40% of its allocation presently on deploying dependable, inexpensive broadband infrastructure. 

The state has created the Broadband Contract Program, overseen by the New Hampshire Division of Enterprise and Financial Affairs, to supply broadband service suppliers with a monetary incentive to convey service to unserved and underserved addresses in the state—areas/addresses the place it could be financially detrimental for suppliers to aim to develop. Purposes will likely be scored utilizing standards that encourage the utmost variety of properties to be served on the lowest value and prioritize broadband networks that will likely be owned, operated by, or affiliated with native governments, non-profits, and co-operatives.

New Hampshire estimates that investments made utilizing the Capital Tasks Fund will serve 50 % of places nonetheless missing high-speed web entry within the state.

The Broadband Contract Program is designed to fund broadband infrastructure that’s designed to ship dependable web service that meets or exceeds 100/100 Mbps symmetrical speeds. Suppliers will likely be required to:

• take part within the Federal Communications Fee’s Inexpensive Connectivity Program (ACP)—a $30 monthly subsidy for low-income households—and 
• provide at the least one low-cost choice at speeds adequate for households with a number of customers to concurrently telework and interact in distant studying.

U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) helped create the Capital Tasks Fund. “Entry to high-speed web is a necessity,” she stated. “From working a enterprise or managing funds to attending telemedicine appointments, individuals depend on web connectivity day by day. Sadly, many rural areas in New Hampshire nonetheless don’t have dependable web connections. That’s the reason I labored to arrange and safe this funding within the American Rescue Plan, so that each individual has the chance to succeed and in order that our state’s economic system can thrive.”

Extra Federal Funds on the Manner

Along with the $122 million New Hampshire was allotted from the Capital Tasks Fund, the state also can obtain at the least $100 million from the Nationwide Telecommunications and Info Administration’s Broadband Fairness, Entry, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

Asserting the state’s intention to take part in BEAD, Gov. Sununu stated, “New Hampshire was the primary state to speculate CARES Act {dollars} to develop broadband entry and we’re able to proceed that success with this extra funding. Greater than ever, our rural communities have to be related.”

See Additionally

American Rescue Plan Fuels Virginia’s Common Broadband Efforts

Treasury Helps Broadband for Everybody in Louisiana

Capital Tasks Fund Aids West Virginia’s Billion Greenback Broadband Technique

Kevin Taglang is the chief editor on the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.