The Benton Institute’s Jonathan Sallet examines how community anchor institutions can serve as a launching pad for community-based broadband access and more broadband competition. Communities may be able to share infrastructure in order to bring better commercial services to unserved and underserved areas.

This resource briefly evaluates data-driven state plans used by policymakers and stakeholders who had previously made assumptions about broadband access, which often led to ineffective solutions. The author indicates that data can show a more nuanced picture of the issues affecting broadband adoption rates in different states.

A paper that examines public-private partnerships (P3) as a promising alternative to the traditional municipal broadband or middle mile models for communities that lack the capital, the expertise, or both to deploy and operate fiber networks or act as internet service providers on their own. The paper also discusses major legal issues that may arise in broadband P3 projects.

This guide is intended to help communities plan or implement technology change. It provides a collection of experiences, case studies, and best practices that will be valuable in development sustainable, inclusive projects.

A paper from August 2021 detailing community-led broadband case studies of six communities that have succeeded in providing robust services that were not previously available or providing competition for incumbent companies.

This paper from the Benton Institute hopes to contribute to a national broadband agenda for the next decade. The resource argues that connecting the country through high-performance broadband will bring remarkable economic, social, cultural, and personal benefits and that affordable, robust broadband is key to everyone achieving the American dream. The resource examines the diverse strategies state and local leadership can use to improve broadband deployment and usage: competition, deployment, affordability and adoption, and connectivity to community anchor institutions.