Michigan Broadband Roadmap: Lots of Ideas for Improving Availability, Adoption

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A consortium established by Gov Rick Snyder (R-MI) has come up with a wide range of recommendations for increasing broadband availability in the state, which currently ranks 30th among the 50 states in broadband availability and 34th on broadband adoption. The consortium, known as the Michigan Consortium of Advanced Networks (MCAN), made its recommendations in a 100-page report titled “Michigan Broadband Roadmap.” MCAN’s goals include enabling all homes and businesses in the state to have broadband at speeds of at least 25 Mbps upstream and 3 Mbps downstream available to them by 2022 and speeds of at least 1 Gbps by 2026. In addition, MCAN aims to see a 95% broadband adoption rate for the state by 2024.

Recommendations include using a $20 million Connecting Michigan Communities grant to support between 50 and 100 projects annually that fund targeted investments that use broadband in innovative ways to increase economic activity. Another recommendation is to create an annual $500,000 fund to provide matching dollars to schools applying for E-Rate funding from the Universal Service Fund schools and libraries program.

Not surprisingly, cost was the top reason for households not subscribing to broadband, with 31% of households in that category citing it as their primary barrier. MCAN’s ideas for addressing this include reviewing the Michigan Telecommunications Act for possible enhancements to the Lifeline low-income program, exploring using surplus equipment to provide low-cost devices and increasing outreach and education for low-cost broadband programs such as Comcast’s low-income Internet Essentials service that provides broadband to qualified households for $10 a month.


Michigan Broadband Roadmap: Lots of Ideas for Improving Availability, Adoption Michigan Broadband Roadmap (read the report)