January 10, 2024

Calhoun County staff on behalf of the Broadband Task Force continues to work to enhance broadband access in our community. For expanding broadband networks in Calhoun, our goal remains to work with private providers to ensure residents have reliable, affordable, and high-speed internet access for all residents. Here’s what’s going on related to these efforts: 

The federal Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program is the largest single investment in closing the digital divide in the history of the country, with Michigan receiving $1.556B in funds for expanding access and improving digital inclusion.

The Michigan High Speed Internet (MIHI) Office will administer these funds in a sub-grant process beginning in mid-2024. Calhoun County staff is taking steps now to ensure we are in the best position possible to work with interested Internet Service Providers (ISPs) when the BEAD application starts.

In preparation of the grant process, the federal agency in charge of the BEAD funds has put forth guidelines for states to run their own map challenges to ensure all eligible households are captured for funding.

MIHI will conduct a statewide Mapping Challenge beginning sometime in the near future that will run for 90 days. This process will determine what households are served, unserved, and underserved. Only households meeting the criteria of unserved or underserved are eligible for funding.

In Calhoun County, a number of households are considered served by fixed wireless technology, despite that technology sometimes lacking speed or reliability. If challenges show that actual speeds or availability are not what the federal broadband maps show, those households will become eligible for BEAD funds. 

To make the challenge process easier, Calhoun is collaborating with Merit Network, a Michigan leader in networking, security, and internet technologies, to offer a speed challenge that can be added to your browser to make it easy to capture the three days’ worth of speed data. Residents will be asked to check their internet availability, run speed tests, and submit their results, which will help us understand whether rural homes are actually receiving “served” broadband options.

Following the Map Challenge process, the state’s list of eligible households for BEAD funding will be finalized.

In addition to our infrastructure-focused efforts, the Digital Equity Subcommittee has worked in the last year to increase awareness about the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and gather data about current resources for digital literacy in our community.

The Subcommittee sent a digital resources survey to numerous community partners. The results were compiled into a digital resources website for public use on the County’s broadband site. Results will also be sent to MIHI to be added to their state-wide digital resources inventory.

The Subcommittee has identified its goals in 2024, which are primarily to study options for increasing solutions for Calhoun residents. By understanding models for digital literacy centers in the state and nationwide, as well as evaluating what currently exists and what organizations are interested in offering more, we can see what possible solutions might be best for our County.

Information about the 2024 goals and information about the ACP can be found on the County’s broadband website.

County staff is committed to taking steps so that Calhoun County receives the amount of BEAD funds appropriate for all residents to gain access to high-speed, reliable internet. That means, we will need residents, especially in rural areas, to complete the state challenge process when the time comes. We will send information on how to this email list when the challenge is available. 

Estimated BEAD Timeline:

• January-March: State challenge process will begin, and we will have 90 days to collect as many complete challenges as possible
• March-June: County staff will meet with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to discuss application possibilities to ensure that all unserved and underserved households receive access
• Summer-Fall: Sub-grant application process begins. County will support strategic ISP’s applications for increasing access in Calhoun County
• 2024-2028: County will take steps to assist ISPs with installing fiber to the premise in areas where BEAD funds were awarded. This assistance could include permitting coordination, workforce development, communications, and other creative options.
• 2029: BEAD-awarded ISPs have four years from the award to complete construction. 

In 2024 and beyond, we will also continue to work with the Digital Equity Subcommittee on finding holistic solutions for digital literacy in Calhoun County. 

Thanks for reading. We will send more information about the map challenge as they are available. 

For more information, contact

Calhoun County Communications Department

[email protected]; 269-781-0926