Broadband Improvement Plan

‘Connectivity Improvement Plan’ aims to boost broadband access in local 10-county region

By Ashlee Green

It’s no secret that southwestern Pennsylvania’s infrastructure is crumbling: The Fern Hollow Bridge collapse on Friday, Jan. 28— the very same day President Biden came to town to promote his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—made this point loud and clear.

But Pittsburgh’s bridges aren’t the only problem. There’s another infrastructure issue in these parts, too—and one that’s less obvious to the naked eye. It’s a lack of equitable, high-speed broadband internet.

This is why the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) has joined with Northside-based Allies for Children and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to form a consortium called Southwestern Pennsylvania (SWPA) Connected. The goal is to address the gaps in broadband service in the region by developing a “Connectivity Improvement Plan” and, also, to make a statement:

“Connectivity is the new mobility,” Shannon O’Connell, director of SPC’s Office of Communications and Public Engagement, said in an interview last December.

O’Connell spoke with The Northside Chronicle along with Laura Stephany, health policy manager from Allies for Children, and Mara Kelosky, former research and operations manager from Allies for Children, about the present and possible future of broadband investments in the region.

O’Connell’s organization is in charge of creating the region’s long-range (20 to 25 years in the future) plan, which is updated every four years and anticipates the whole region’s needs for transportation and connectivity. SPC’s work, she said, was already heading in the direction of a broadband focus, but the COVID-19 pandemic took the topic’s urgency to a whole new level. Most people, O’Connell said, believe that access to the internet is a right.

“To participate in today’s world, you have to have [broadband] access. It’s a right, just like clean drinking water, electricity,” O’Connell said. So, until the federal government declares internet connectivity a utility that can be regulated, O’Connell’s organization—and the work of its partners—will focus on identifying internet “dead zones” and cost barriers, then on creating strategies and allocating funding to remedy them.

“We believe it is the first of its kind in the nation to use the existing funding model that we use for traditional ‘boots on the ground’ infrastructure to allocate and direct both state and federal funding to go out and actually build these projects,” O’Connell said.

Specific Projects

What do these projects look like? Sometimes it’s more cell towers in an area. Other times, and especially in urban areas, it’s all about affordability. But over the pandemic, the gaps that the lack of broadband connectivity highlighted were primarily access to education and health care, because both in-person classes and doctor’s visits went remote.

“You don’t want to have a pregnant mom go into a WIC clinic, where she could possibly have been getting exposed to a virus, when she’s already at a risk because of her

Photo: Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License

Agriculture, which is a huge asset to Pennsylvania's economy, is becoming increasingly reliant on the internet. 'To be able to compete in a modern agricultural market,' O'Connell said, 'you need to have... connectivity too.'

state,” said Stephany.

O’Connell also brought up agriculture. It’s a sector, she said, that people often don’t think about when they’re discussing highspeed internet. But outside of its urban areas, southwestern Pennsylvania is a heavily agricultural region; farming is a huge asset to the whole state’s economy.

“Agriculture is becoming increasingly automated,” O’Connell said. “The application of robotics and artificial intelligence in the agriculture industry is just booming…To be able to compete in a modern agricultural market, you need to have… connectivity too.”

Where It Stands Now

Aside from Allegheny County, SWPA Connected has conducted research in Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland counties to try to make sure when the investment in broadband happens, according to Kelosky, “it happens where it actually needs to happen and it really meets the needs of the community.”

Right now, SWPA Connected is organizing the data they’ve collected from a public survey as well as from various town hall meeting style “community conversations” they held at public libraries, community

Declining conditions of forests are no secret

Gov. Wolf announces support for several broadband projects

From Trees, Page 6

brand can they change the world? In short, yes: If billions of people have created the demand, then billions of people can dissolve that demand through their daily actions.

The reason forests began to be cut down in the first place is because people demanded it. They—for good reasons—prized the products that came out of forests and built an existence based upon them. Supply is only met by demand, and it is people who are creating the demand. Now more than ever is the time to pump the brakes on the consumption of forest products.

Awareness is the first step in reversing deforestation. Think about what is now an old adage: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Consider, for example, if you really need new furniture or if you can hold onto what you have until it becomes “retro.” If you are going to buy, you can buy used; by doing so, you can buy valuable time for society to transition to a better system. Every day, more sustainable brands become available on the market: With your business, you can support and reward the ones who are making a positive difference for everyone. By transitioning to a more conservative relationship with forests yourself, you can drive industries to take on better practices for the sake of the greater good.

Since people are unable to escape their dependency on trees and forests, it’s important to make that dependence a healthy one. Each person won’t be able to turn all of the industries around and eliminate all of the problems deforestation causes in their lifetime. What they can do, though, is pave the way for future generations.

The race is on. The facts are in. The declining conditions of forests are no secret. Many nations have initiated projects to restore forest lands and there is a growing industry of large and small-scale forest restoration going on in both the private and nonprofit sectors. Millions of people are joining the environmental movement for the sense of community it provides and the pride they feel for being a part of it.

In the next issue, I’ll highlight some of these organizations and their forest restoration efforts.

Jeff Karwoski is a certified arborist and the Executive Director of Reforest Our Future, a newly founded nonprofit focused on connecting people and trees. He works in the Pittsburgh area designing native plant installations and is a founding partner of the Leyte Reforestation Project on Leyte Island in the Philippines. You can reach him at reforestourfuture@gmail.com. n

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From Broadband, Page 7

centers, and even the 4-H building at the Greene County Fairgrounds.

Residents in the above-mentioned counties are urged to talk to their represenproviders claim to provide it.

“We’re always looking for anecdotal information because it helps tell the story around the data,” O’Connell said. “We work in a data-heavy world, but data doesn’t mean anything unless it has context.”

Photo: CC0 1.0, Public Domain

Lack of broadband connectivity can show up in access to education and health care.

tatives about their internet issues and visit the SWPA Connected website at swpaconnectedhub.org, where they can view interactive maps that show the kind of connectivity that’s available in their area. Feedback can also help to keep big internet providers accountable if people note that the internet is not actually available in an area where

The Bottom Line

Things are rolling now: On Feb. 14, Governor Tom Wolf announced the support for several broadband projects as part of the state’s nearly $14.2 million Community Development Block Grant-CARES Act (CDBG-CV) funding.

“It’ll probably be 8,10 months, possibly even a year before we’re actually putting any projects down on the ground, but that’s one of the reasons why we are moving very fast,” O’Connell explained. “We knew that this was coming and we want to be ready for when they say ‘OK, now.’

“We are going at a rapid pace right now and we’re operating on multiple fronts at the same time trying to get this thing done.”

The bottom line is this, Kelosky stressed: Internet connectivity opens up opportunities.

“It really is a matter of equity for children and adults; of education; of information; job opportunities; connecting with loved ones.” n

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