Viewpoints
Economic Development
Broadband leadership can be fractional, but it’s not optional. As Lindsay Miller writes, foresight can also be pivotal in a community’s economic future.
By: Lindsay Miller, Connected Future Consultancy, LLC
The mayor was proud to show me the village’s new sidewalks. He had every reason to be – beautiful, bricked sidewalks now lined their main road storefronts, a visible sign of investment and care to the community and its roughly 1,500 inhabitants. We were discussing the recent construction as we walked through the heart of their small Appalachian community. I was visiting as part of a larger group discussion on the digital divide in rural Ohio. While I agreed the sidewalks looked very nice, I had to know:
“Did you install conduit during the construction? For future broadband expansion, as we’ve been discussing?”
Unfortunately, they had not.
The town did not make the connection between the construction project and broadband infrastructure – conduit pipes could have been installed before the new sidewalks were placed, giving way for fiber to be run later. The project had been bid, funded, and scoped months before. An integrated approach to this construction project would have literally laid groundwork for improved connectivity in their community.
Unfortunately, this type of missed connection happens frequently when a community does not clearly define ownership of and sufficiently integrate its broadband leadership with other government functions.
Getting out of the project-based mindset
Many local governments have brought in consultants to create one-off strategic plans for connectivity. I played this role in many communities during my time as a lawyer and later as president of a broadband company’s consulting arm. In these roles, I always said that my “worst nightmare would be for a plan to end up on a shelf collecting dust.”
But, the reality is that broadband is often still treated as a discrete project—something to plan, fund, and complete—rather than a function to manage over time. When the plan is delivered, many governments shift responsibility to a staffer who may have the most technical knowledge, such as someone in IT, or another already overloaded department like economic development or planning.
These departments frequently lack capacity, resources, or connections to carry the strategy forward. The on-going integration is lost.
In my experience, clear, integrated broadband leadership is the difference between taking a daily vitamin versus an ibuprofen: one is proactive, the other is reaction. Municipalities that achieve this level of strategic integration and leadership achieve results that span far beyond the delivery of a plan:
- In Philadelphia and Louisville, for example, embedded staff have been able to increase connectivity, launch digital equity initiatives, and support innovation;
- In Chattanooga, integrated broadband leadership in the city-owned utility (EPB) helped foster its universal gigabit fiber and designation as the first U.S. “Gig City;” and
- Mesa, AZ has taken on connectivity-related development across several areas of activity, establishing the city as a tech center and attracting Google Fiber buildout.
The fractional broadband director
These kinds of strategic accomplishments are accessible for any municipality, not just larger cities with expansive budgets. Part-time broadband experts can embed just like full-time directors—owning strategy, funding, and execution—and become the necessary “broadband champion” to drive connectivity planning and execution forward. Hiring a “fractional broadband director” can be structured to a wide range of budgets so any municipality can benefit from a holistic broadband approach.
These fractional broadband directors can fill in gaps and offer capacity while not requiring the budgetary burdens of a full-time hire. Municipalities frequently hire outside counsel – such as lawyers, accountants, or consultants – and these broadband roles can be structured in a similar way, with a focus on strategy rather than project-to-project execution.
This integrates them into teams for oversight and capacity-building, far beyond project consulting. Structuring leadership in this way can be a budget conscious way to increase connectivity and compete economically. Communities don’t need bigger budgets to lead on broadband—they need better structure, clearer ownership, and the right expertise embedded at the right level.
