Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo smiles during the 2023 State of the Schools address at Resorts World Las Vegas, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023.
Friday, March 31, 2023 | 5:47 p.m.
Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office today announced an engagement tour this week with the ultimate goal of providing residents statewide with broadband internet connection.
The Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology will travel throughout each of the state’s 17 counties for the High Speed Nevada Connectivity Outreach and Engagement Tour beginning next week, according to a release sent by Lombardo’s office. In addition to bolstering internet connectivity, the initiative aims to give equal access to affordable technology, digital skills training and cybersecurity awareness.
“Our goal is for every Nevadan to have access to a high-speed internet connection that is affordable, reliable, and scalable,” Lombardo said in a statement. “As we develop our plans, we want to ensure that all communities have a chance to add their voice.”
Throughout April, OSIT staff will seek input from residents and stakeholders about their internet and digital equity needs, according to the release. The input will be used to guide the State’s investment in infrastructure over the next four years.
The agency plans to hold multiple public open houses in each community, but constituents are also able to attend meetings virtually or can contribute anonymously via a public survey, the release said.
“Community engagement is essential to our work,” OSIT director Brian Mitchell said in a statement. “We want all aspects of our plans to be informed by the experiences of Nevadans.”
To find an event near you, visit http://HighSpeedNV.com or email [email protected]. Public surveys, available in English and Spanish, can be found here.
The news of Lombardo’s announcement comes the same day Nevada Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen helped introduce the Accurate Map for Broadband Investment Act, in a bid to restructure the broadband maps to free up funding available to states under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed by Congress last year.
In January, Rosen and fellow Nevada U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking the body to reconsider maps drafted for the Silver State’s broadband internet connectivity, calling the drafts “deeply flawed” and warning that such maps could perpetuate the digital divide among the state’s urban and rural areas.
In their January letter, the senators asked for the FCC to coordinate with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to give the state’s broadband office and other entities 60 days to verify and submit more accurate data, according to a copy of the letter.
The maps are often misleading because if a company offers services to a particular neighborhood, but not the whole town, the map would show that entire town as being serviced when in fact it’s only partially serviced, the senators said.
And those flawed maps could cost Nevada millions of dollars in federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as broadband funds guaranteed in the law depend on usage tracked through the maps.
