The Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce, which represents nearly 900 members, has sent a letter to the Fredericksburg City Council in support of keeping the allocation it received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 and using up to $1.3 million to install redundant rings of fiber to expand
The Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce, which represents nearly 900 members, has sent a letter to the Fredericksburg City Council in support of keeping the allocation it received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 and using up to $1.3 million to install redundant rings of fiber to expand broadband coverage and improve reliability and connectivity speeds for the entire geography of Fredericksburg.
I would like to share how the organization came to this decision and why it is an issue of utmost importance to our members and the community at large.
For the past two years, the Chamber board has defined broadband improvement as one of its strategic priorities, based on the needs of our members. We are not alone in this opinion. For nearly a decade, broadband has been a key initiative in the Gillespie County Economic Development Commission’s program of work and it was defined as a community need in the City of Fredericksburg’s “A Path to the Future” community vision plan.
Last year, the 87th Texas Legislature created the Broadband Development Office (BOD), charged with broadband expansion, which includes establishing an official statewide plan for expanding access; and appropriated $5 million to the state’s comptroller to administer the program. The BOD will use $500.5 million allocated to Texas for broadband expansion through the American Rescue Plan Act along with at least $100 million expected through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
We are 20 years past the time when connectivity was something nice to have. The internet is now the utility, every bit as critical as water or electricity, on which the entire economy is built.
But despite the vital importance of broadband access, much of Texas, including Gillespie County remains underserved or unserved. Ask a mere handful of people and you will find those who have no connectivity (usually because of challenging topography), those forced to use unreliable forms of connectivity such as a cell phone hot spot, and those who are paying exorbitant fees because of limited competition and low-density population.
Even those within Fredericksburg’s city limits, which is generally better-served, frequently experience service disruption or insufficient connection speed when tourism swells our population much larger than the broadband delivery models are designed to accommodate.
A casual look at broadband access heat maps, could lead one to believe that Gillespie County enjoys ample connectivity, but that is not the case. Two weeks ago, State Comptroller Glenn Hegar awarded a contract to LightBox to create a broadband availability map for the state of Texas, citing “Federal Communications Commission maps are not an accurate representation of the served, underserved and unserved areas in Texas.”
In my role, I frequently hear first-hand stories of how gaps in our community’s broadband access, speed and resilience challenge local businesses and I can understand how those outside the business community could argue that it’s a private sector problem that needs a private sector solution.
I am a paid advocate for the private sector, but I would contend that broadband access is everyone’s NEED, requiring a collaboratively-funded global solution.
The internet is vital utility. Commerce could not exist without the water and electricity to make things, nor the roads, railways and shipping ports to transport raw materials to manufacturers and finished products out to consumers. The internet must also be considered critical infrastructure that has, throughout American history, been funded by both the public and private sector for the benefit of all.
And, just like any other utility, commercial users will always pay a premium price to keep access by individual users more affordable. Those same commercial payors generate the lion’s share of property taxes that fund public services and they generate sales tax receipts that are used, in part, to offset your and my property taxes. Not to mention the jobs they create and payroll taxes they pay.
Perhaps your home is not technology-driven. I get it. In fact, I am happiest when I can carve out time away from it altogether.
But it’s there. It’s always there. Driving business. Educating future generations. Safeguarding our national security. Giving us instant access to people and information. And powering innovation.
High-speed, always-on broadband Internet is not something that is nice to have, it’s something we must all have and the ARPA funds put generations of virtually unlimited access within our reach.
McBride is the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce.