‘No silver bullet’: Mesa tackles digital equity from multiple sides

When scanning the Federal Communications Commission’s latest broadband maps for funding opportunities, city staff in Mesa, Arizona, struggled to find places that still needed access. Mesa’s diverse geography includes older neighborhoods that lacked modern internet services as well as new developments with high-speed fiber. Some legacy providers had mixed coverage that was inconsistent from block to block, Harry Meier, Deputy CIO for Innovation at the City of Mesa. Previously, the city had some “assumptions” and data from the American Community Survey but during the pandemic, schools put out surveys to families to understand connectivity gaps. The data showed around 10 square miles in the city with the highest need that also met low-income requirements for federal aid funding. The city partnered with the school district and used CARES Act funding to buy around 7,000 laptops and 3,000 hotspots for students. Building on this, Mesa is using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to expand public Wi-Fi and bring private cellular coverage to the most underserved parts of the city, The city partnered with Motorola to roll out a free Citizen Broadband Radio System (CBRS) network in priority areas. Over half of the 21 towers have been deployed so far. The longer-term next step was about working with existing providers and attracting new ones. The last leg of the stool is wrapping a digital equity program around all the work, to help people get online, including accessing subsidies, devices, and training.