Farm Director KC Sheperd and Mike Sanders, the executive director of the Oklahoma Broadband Office, discussed the significant progress made in broadband investment in Oklahoma.
When Sanders took the job eighteen months ago, he promised to deliver for Oklahoma. Talking to Sheperd, he highlighted that over 500 million dollars in grants have been deployed to connect homes and businesses to high-speed internet, with a major project involving 374 million dollars awarded in January to fund 130 projects in 55 of the 77 counties.
“That was a tremendously successful lift,” Sanders said. “I want to thank our legislature because they had the foresight to hold back some of the money that ARPA provided during the COVID years to help build up broadband access. So, I have to give a lot of kudos to the leadership in the House and Senate and the Governor.”
Although the project was announced in January, the Oklahoma Broadband Office received another infrastructure buildout, also as part of the ARPA program, called the Capital Projects Fund that provided another 159 million dollars.
“In the blink of an eye, we added fifty more projects on top of the 130 this year to folks who have never had high-speed internet,” Sanders stated. “When you equate both of those programs, more than seventy thousand homes and businesses are set to receive high-speed internet once these projects are all completed and operational by the end of 2026.”
Due to these efforts, Oklahoma is ranked fourth in the nation for reducing the number of locations unreached by broadband.
“This is something that Oklahomans can really be proud about,” Sanders said. “This just happened this past week. According to the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, Oklahoma now ranks fourth in the country for reducing the number of homes and businesses that have never had high-speed internet. It is only taking into effect, the first six months of this year. They don’t even take into consideration our Capital Projects Fund so we are actually higher than number four, and if I had to bet, we are probably pushing for that top spot. That is a tremendous success for our state!”
Despite this ranking, unserved homes and businesses are still dotted across the state.
“High-speed internet used to be a luxury,” Sanders said. “Now, it is just a way of life. If you want to improve your social status in your community, improve your education, or have an economic development tool, I think this is probably one of the biggest economic development tools that our state has ever seen. I could go on and on about the benefits of high-speed internet, but when you have 400,000 Oklahomans who have never had high-speed internet or have only very poor high-speed internet, in all corners of the state. Our goal is to not only address that issue, but the Oklahoma legislature gave us a goal of reaching 95 percent.”
Sanders believes that they can do better by reaching 100 percent of Oklahomans with access to high-speed internet.
He compared the importance of this broadband movement to rural communities to that of electricity in the thirties with the Rural Electrification Act, and Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate development through the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.
Sanders believes that the incoming Trump administration will modify some existing broadband programs by relieving some of the burdensome regulations that have slowed the process down. He also anticipates new forms of technology such as fiber and satellite internet to increase in scope.
“I think there will be things that will make this process better and I’m excited to see what President Trump, in this second term, does,” he said. “I am very impressed with what his Cabinet is looking like at this point, but we still have a long way to go. Sometimes government gets in the way of a lot of these types of projects, and our goal is to make things more streamlined and efficient and to make sure the tax dollars that are going to this project are used effectively and efficiently, and we get high-speed internet to the Oklahomans who deserve it.”
The Oklahoma Broadband Office has more big plans for the upcoming year. “In the next year or so, we will be implementing a program that will put more than 750 million dollars of more infrastructure buildout in our state,” Sanders shared. “Those really tough places to reach – that is where this program is going to play a major role.”
For perspective, Sanders shared that the Oklahoma Broadband Office itself didn’t have high-speed internet capabilities when he became executive director eighteen months ago.
“Since then, the right policies and processes have been implemented to make sure that these affordable, reliable high-speed, internet programs that we administer with federal funds are handled efficiently and effectively,” he said. “Every good leader is only as good as your weakest link, and I have a great team that is striving every day to connect and close that digital divide. I am honored to be in this seat where I can be a part of changing the trajectory of people’s lives in Oklahoma. I’ve always had a heart for public service from a very young age, and I continue to do that in different ways. This is a different way that I can do that and give back to the great state of Oklahoma which has given me so much.”
