Finding the Right Private Partners for Your Municipal Broadband Journey

There are five main stages for municipalities in the journey of delivering broadband. All five stages are critical for anyone delivering broadband services. You can leverage partners from the private sector in any of the stages, and it may be highly beneficial for you to do so—as private partners can unlock new potential in your project. 

Stage One: Fund

Municipalities typically have access to a large amount of public funding and leverage it to support their network build and ongoing services.   
 

While municipalities may have access to more government funding, these programs are distinct from others. Look for a partner who could help you evaluate which programs are available to you and can help walk you through the application process. 

Stage Two: Design

Municipalities often engage with private partners who are familiar with conducting feasibility studies and designing network builds of all sizes.
 

At this stage, you may need to consider working with a consulting-engineering (CE) firm. They can help you plan out a network build, from start to finish, and start pointing you in the right direction for additional coverage.

Stage Three: Build

Municipalities will typically leverage outside partners with extensive experience in building networks. These partners can provide guidance on picking construction contractors, and even go as far as lining them up.
 

Skilled design and engineering partners can help you determine the specifics of your network and its construction. You may also need to partner with hardware manufacturers and infrastructure provider to acquire the necessary components, such as routers, switches, and fiber optic cables. Other technology vendors, including cybersecurity firms, may also come into play. 

Stage Four: Operate

Municipalities may outsource operations to a private partner, eliminating the worry of day-to-day management of the business side of broadband.
 

Many broadband service providers partner with third-party vendors for functions like customer support, billing, and network management. If you opt for an open access network, your RSPs may already have these vendors in place. In that case, you can rely upon your RSPs to manage their own day-to-day operations, leaving you with only the network to maintain.

Stage Five: Market

Municipalities often leverage private partners for the market stage, whether it’s to define the open access model or to promote services to subscribers.
 

If you need to promote your open access network to encourage RSPs to utilize it, you may need to find a partner with experience in promoting this type of network to the appropriate channels. If you are planning to also educate the community about the network’s arrival, and how they can use it, you might look for a partner with experience in go-to-market strategy who understands how to encourage subscriber (or end users) to sign up for high-speed internet. In an open access model, the RSPs will likely do a large portion of their own marketing to subscribers—but you may determine that it’s important to spread awareness about the internet options coming to your city. 

As you can see, there are many different types of private partners that can potentially come into play. Every municipality will determine what works best for them, but they can lean on the success of other municipalities who’ve gone down this broadband path before.
 

To learn more about private partners for delivering broadband as a municipality, download our eBook, “Building Public-Private Partnerships for Successful Municipal Broadband Deployment.”