The Divide: Gigi Sohn on growing, funding and defending public broadband networksThe Divide: Gigi Sohn on growing, funding and defending public broadband networks

According to data from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), there are now more than 400 public broadband networks in the US, serving over 700 communities.

Moreover, several (but not all) communities have prevailed in recent years at changing existing state laws preventing the launch of public broadband networks, including most recently Colorado and Minnesota. That leaves 16 states with legal roadblocks still in place, according to Community Networks.

That's a fair amount of progress ... but there's more work to do to address the "fear and hesitation" that's stopping some communities from pursuing the public model, says Gigi Sohn.

Sohn, who took on the role of executive director for the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) in 2023, says she is seeing growing interest in public broadband networks. But several factors are still stunting growth, including some communities taking a "wait and see" approach as it pertains to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. In other words, some communities that may be interested in pursuing public broadband want to see if BEAD solves their problems first. But Sohn says this is unlikely, given BEAD's primary focus on unserved communities.

Once it becomes clear that BEAD dollars won't solve the connectivity needs of many suburban and urban areas, "I think you're going to see more communities moving forward" with public broadband, said Sohn.

Related:As public broadband networks ramp up, so do new attacks

Other hurdles

Beyond that, however, there are existing hurdles around access to funding, and of course no shortage of attacks on the public broadband model overall, typically coming from groups associated with large national service providers.

We get into that topic, too – including a new report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) criticizing public networks – and how AAPB has successfully pushed back against such attacks this year. 

We also talk about some of this year's public broadband success stories and AAPB's plans for growing, sustaining and defending public broadband networks as we head into 2025. As Sohn puts it, AAPB's goal is to ensure every community can determine its own broadband future: "The local community has to decide for itself whether it wants to move forward. And nobody, and no law, and no incumbent should be stopping it from doing so," she said.

To learn about joining AAPB as a member, visit their membership page here.

For a lightly edited conversation transcript, click the caption button on the player above.