Broadband internet task force pushing to finish report early

A task force intended to help improve broadband internet access in Idaho is pushing to get its report done sooner than scheduled in hopes of making it more likely the Idaho Legislature will address its recommendations during the 2020 session.

The task force, created by Gov. Brad Little earlier this year, and its some 40 members have been meeting monthly around the state this summer. The final report was originally scheduled for completion in November, said committee member Mike Kennedy, president of Intermax Networks, a Coeur d’Alene-based provider of internet service in North Idaho.

Director of Commerce Tom Kealey, who chairs the committee, asked for recommendations to be available for full vetting at the next committee meeting on Sept. 25 in Boise, where Little may attend. Even if the details have to be worked out, it would be valuable to go into that conversation with some things agreed on, Kennedy said.

In contrast to the first two meetings, where committee members primarily listened to presentations, the most recent meeting, held Aug. 28 in Coeur d’Alene, was more of a working meeting, with subcommittees representing a number of functional areas coming up with recommendations, Kennedy said.

Seven goal areas have been identified, with a subcommittee assigned to each, Kennedy said.

“Each subcommittee reported back on suggestions, in raw form, to get a sense from the committee where things were. In some cases, there was a fair amount of similarity to recommendations across committees on pretty low-hanging fruit.”

Ideas included setting up a state broadband office, which arose during the July meeting of the task force. It isn’t clear where the office would be located, though one possibility is in the Department of Commerce under Kealey, Kennedy said.

“We’re talking about a one-person or two-person office,” Kennedy said. “We need a political, diplomatic, technical, organized person.”

Moreover, expanding government, no matter how modestly, might be a hard slog in the upcoming legislative session. The most recent General Fund revenue projection for fiscal year 2020 from the governor’s Division of Financial Management is more than $128 million lower than January’s. With increasing concern about a recession, legislators may be loath to increase budgets.

Other broadly supported recommendations include increased collaboration with the Idaho Transportation Department to make it easier to use the state’s right of way for transmission, and remaining technology-agnostic. An example would be not requiring fiber optic cabling, Kennedy explained.

“In large swaths of the state, it’s fiscally not possible,” he said.

Another recommendation is creation of a broadband map.

“It’s difficult, and we’re not the only state struggling,” Kennedy said, partly because different organizations have different interpretations of the state of broadband internet access in Idaho.

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband internet access map goes only to the census block level, which means a block is considered to be served by broadband internet even if only a fraction of residents actually have access. But that may change. Future maps could go to the street block level instead of census blocks, he said.

A more controversial suggestion is using more of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to improve broadband internet access, Kennedy said. The FCC currently awards some of the USF in the form of grants to improve service in underserved areas.