San Jose is building a plan for broadband implementation in its city.
The broadband strategy is meant to address the expanding uses for network connectivity across cities and minimize the digital divide.
Staffing, funding options and infrastructure are three main concerns around equity, according to Dolan Beckel, the city’s spokesman for Digital Inclusion and Broadband Strategies.
The city wants “to expand digital infrastructure to serve underserved and disadvantaged communities,” city spokesman Steve Cruz said last month at a Senate committee hearing for SB 649, small-cell technology placement. The placement of small cells on smart light poles was suspended at Tuesday’s City Council meeting until a strategy is developed.
The mayor’s office and the Office of Civic Innovation are working with PricewaterhouseCoopers to create recommendations and identify options for broadband-related programs, Beckel told Techwire.
“A quick win was a library checkout program for digital devices for students,” Beckel said.
About 5,000 students were given free devices and four years of free Internet service when the city won a grant from Sprint’s 1 Million Project. The project aims to provide 1 million high-schoolers with devices
The program’s assessment phase is complete, and the staff hopes to have a strategy study prepared for the City Council in September, Beckel said.
The assessment included a “broad group of stakeholders” such as city staff, private companies and community groups. Gaps and opportunities for broadband expansion were found through interviews, surveys and best-practice research provided by those stakeholders.
Two potential policies are a dig-once policy with Caltrans and other public services, as well as a device refurbishment program that could lower the cost of Internet access.
A master consultant agreement of $315,000 was recommended for the cost of consulting services on the strategy project by City Council staff.
