The National Broadband Mapping Coalition monthly call series continued with a call on October 23. After the opening welcome and housekeeping announcements, Dustin Loup shared a brief agenda of topics to be covered:
- Framework for Regular Budgeting for Community Forums for Broadband Mapping and Outreach
- Post-BEAD Realities
- Community Updates
On the first topic, Dustin invited Layton Olson of the Internet Public Trust to share his work under the Safe and Healthy Communities Project. His report included information on funding sources for local community forums, prompting comments from Dustin on related work by the Benton Institute, as well as Connect Humanity’s work in Appalachia. Layton is also looking into other organizations working in Alabama.
Moving on to post-BEAD realities, Dustin mentioned a session proposal he submitted with help from Nick Pappin and Alexis Schrubbe for the NDIA Net Inclusion 2025 program. He then shared a flowchart he created to map the progression from Pre-BEAD Realities to Post-BEAD Status, traversing Challenge Outcomes along the way. This led to a brainstorming session, including an observation from Tom Reid of Reid Consulting Group that FEMA does not currently broadband restoration in its disaster relief response. Ryan Johnston of Next Century Cities responded that FEMA may consider broadband as it takes comments on an updated disaster preparedness framework.
Other questions and comments stemming from Dustin’s flowchart followed, with Kevin Sievert of Calix asking about a mechanism for taking sites that don’t qualify of the BEAD-eligible list. Dustin described a $0 bid workaround as one way to address this issue. The inclusion of “planned service” and “decaying infrastructure” along the flowchart path also drew attention. On decaying infrastructure, Bryan Darr of Ookla described some ongoing monitoring and field-testing activities, pointing to South Carolina’s use of BEAD funds to build “resiliency rings” into their broadband infrastructure. Bryan also remarked on the expense of measuring ISP performance and enforcing standards, noting that the Ookla technology built into some customer premises equipment can mitigate this to a degree.
There were no additional community updates.
A recording of the call is available to Coalition members on request (info@marconisociety.org). Due to the upcoming holiday season, the next two National Broadband Mapping Coalition calls will take place a bit earlier in November and December, on Wednesday, November 20, and Wednesday, December 18.
