Steps the states should take to achieve the infrastructure bill’s broadband goals

To accomplish the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's broadband goals, Congress made states the key decision-makers, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration providing oversight. This piece lays out nine actions every state should take in the development and implementation of its broadband plan:

• Publicly establish a vision for using broadband to improve residents’ lives
• Build institutional capacity to achieve the plan’s goals
• Develop and publish a comprehensive timeline
• Engage communities and stakeholders in development of the plan
• Improve mapping, data collection, and modeling—and bookmark the funding to pay for it
• Develop a comprehensive plan for availability, adoption, and utilization
• Coordinate state and local action to lower the cost of deployment
• Establish a competitive grant process
• Establish a process to enforce commitments

[Blair Levin is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro.]