Role of Community Leadership

Community broadband leadership can emerge from the top down—by either elected officials or top-level administrators—identifying community broadband as either a proactive strategy for economic and community development or a reaction to community complaints—or from the bottom up—with organized efforts by community activists advocating for better broadband networks. In either case, community broadband initiatives require active engagement and advocacy at all community leadership levels.

From the very start, broadband advocates need to focus on messaging that targets leaders from all sectors of the community—government, schools, health care, chambers of commerce, agricultural interests, and others. Specific messaging should be developed for key demographic groups, like senior citizens and parents of school-age children. This kind of messaging can help to build a coalition that can provide both input and support through combined community connections.

Over the past decade or more, many communities have pondered the best approach to improving their broadband access. For some, getting better access to broadband is the goal and how it is achieved is not considered important. For some, the question is defined primarily as “How can we get incumbent Company A to improve broadband service in our community?” Others might say, “We need Company B to come to our community because Company A refuses to do the job.” Yet another community might say, “If we want this job done right, we need to do it ourselves!” In this category, there are some people who might think that this is the best possible approach; for others, it is a choice of last resort.

Over time, each community finds its individual path to better broadband taking into account its own unique mix of factors around geography, demography, past community experience, incumbent providers and prospective provider partners, community asset base, and community leadership. Adjacent and/or similar communities may make very different choices in achieving broadband improvements. One may take a strictly private-sector approach; another will engage in a public-private partnership; a third community may pursue a municipal or county utility model. These communities likely undertook steps like those below and came out in very different places. But what is most critical is that each community has the freedom to choose the broadband network that meets its residents’ needs.