The State of North Dakota. proudly submits to the NASCIO Awards Committee. Information Technology Department s Broadband Mapping Project

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1 The State of North Dakota proudly submits to the NASCIO Awards Committee Information Technology Department s Broadband Mapping Project in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations category

2 B. Executive Summary Broadband is a critical component for success in today s world. By teaming up with the state s providers, the federal government and a strong vendor, North Dakota has given its citizens an important tool for that success. The North Dakota broadband map helps citizens and businesses identify providers at any given address. For locations that do not have a specific street address, a click of the mouse will deliver the list of providers for that area. The oil boom in western North Dakota is driving significant economic activity throughout the state. The ND broadband map gives the companies and individuals a better picture of this critical resource availability. We leverage our current centralized GIS infrastructure to help keep the long-term cost to a minimum to provide for sustainability beyond the federal grant funding. Thank you for consideration of our nomination. Sincerely, Lisa Feldner ND CIO Page 2 of 5

3 C. Description In 2009, the U.S. Department of Commerce through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration issued a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the State Broadband Initiative (SBI). SBI implements the joint purposes of the Recovery Act and the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which envisioned a comprehensive program, led by state entities or non-profit organizations working at their direction, to facilitate the integration of broadband and information technology into state and local economies. NTIA has awarded a total of $293 million to 56 grantees, one each from the 50 states, 5 territories, and the District of Columbia, or their designees. North Dakota had a number of challenges and a couple of advantages for this program. The first challenge was that we knew that funding was for a limited time period so the long-term costs of any solution needed to be kept to a minimum in order to sustain the program. The second challenge was in the nature of our sparse population across a large amount of area. In addition, a number of independent rural telephone cooperatives cover most of the state rather than a small number of large providers. On the advantage side, in 2001 North Dakota teamed up with many of those cooperatives to deploy a statewide network that included all universities, K12 schools, and county courthouses. As part of that effort, we have developed close relationships with those local providers. We also had a significant amount of data already available for many of the community anchor institutions. People are often only familiar with one Broadband provider that can serve them. However, there are typically at least two to three that can deliver service. This project was designed to make it easy for anyone in the state find all available internet services at their desired location. The Broadband Availability Mapping Program is designed to give residents and businesses within the state of North Dakota a single source to find what broadband services are available to them. Before the launch of this website, it was very difficult to evaluate which providers were able to deliver service to a particular address and what level of service they were able to provide. This site allows a user to enter in their address, or click on the map where they would like to have service. Based on this input, the website is able to communicate many details regarding each service available, including: download/upload speed and delivery technology. The map application s original planned rollout date was September 2010 and the application was in a production environment in that time. However, after providers reviewed their data submissions, it was determined to delay the public release of the site until January 2011 after giving providers a chance to provide updated data submissions. Development of the application was from February 2010 until September The cost was approximately $852,000 including all data collection and the additional data cleanup. Page 3 of 5

4 A new business office (Broadband) was created within the State of North Dakota s IT Department. The project developed processes to maintain and update the data on a semiannual basis as required by NTIA. The map helps improve technology leadership to the public safety market. As part of the initial collection process, we sent out postcards to thousands of citizens to gather actual speed test data and directed them to our temporary project website. We also contacted state and higher education employees using internal list-serves for the speed tests. Following go-live we issued a press release, posted a news article on the agency website, and had television interviews. Because the program was funded out of a federal grant and all US states and territories were required to comply, we had the opportunity to collaborate with a number of entities during the project. Our private partner also won Montana s bid and so we were able to leverage lessons from both projects. The federal partner used s, webinars, and a wiki site to help with the collaboration. The state used its strong project management process to control the project with defined governance, change controls and communication processes. Documentation can be found at Schedule/Budget Metrics The project completed in eight months only eight days behind the baseline schedule. The original budget was $782,951. The revised baseline budget due to scope changes was $796,151. The actual cost was $779,266 for a 0.5% under budget variance to original and 2.1% under budget variance to the revised baseline. D. Significance Residents, Businesses, and internal Government users within the state all benefit from being able to better assess their access to Broadband. This allows for easier and more cost effective access to a variety of data and multi-media rich applications for all parties. Based on this input, the website is able to communicate many details regarding each service available, including: download/upload speed and delivery technology. The State believes that access to quality Broadband service is a catalyst to improved economic, educational, and social opportunities. By combining resources with the State of Montana, both States have shared in the costs and benefits of this program. All of the data presented on the site has been collected in cooperation with the individual broadband providers. In total, there are 75 private companies contributing coverage data for their service territories. Our map can be found at Page 4 of 5

5 E. Benefit of the Project The State believes that access to quality Broadband service is a catalyst to improved economic, educational, and social opportunities. By combining resources with the State of Montana, both States have shared in the costs and benefits of this program. Currently we have had almost 2300 visits to the site so far this year with 55% being new visitors. The site and application are available to everyone, but the ones who will find it most useful are people who live in North Dakota or who are looking to move here. With the significant economic activity currently occurring in the state, there are a large number of businesses and individuals looking to come to the state. In addition to providing this information, the State has also created a Community Assistance program that educates and trains residents on many broadband-based applications available. This program is designed to be capable of being supported by private funding following the initial funding period, thus creating a sustainable program to help advance productive broadband adoption within the State. We have already had a number of queries regarding providing additional classes. This program aligns with #7 on the CIO priority list: Broadband and Connectivity. The program met four key objectives: Objective 1: Collect and store required data that meets Federal requirements. Measurement: 80% of the providers will provide broadband availability data Objective 2: Provide the public access to the data via a web interface. Measurement 1: A web application to access this data is available on the state infrastructure to the citizens. Objective 3: Model data to align with GIS standards. Measurement 1: Data is available by address with a 100% coverage. Measurement 2: Data is available by provider. Measurement 3: Data is available by service area Objective 4: Make the data available in the state GIS infrastructure. Measurement 1: Data provided passes 100% of the functional tests to move onto state servers Measurement 2: Data can be accessed by standard state toolsets. Objective 6: Provide NTIA with required data. Measurement: Data meets Federal requirements and NTIA accepts upload. Data is updated semiannually. By providing this information, we meet the national goals and needs for the National Broadband Map as well as provide a valuable service for our citizens. It also can generate business for the providers by raising awareness of broadband. Page 5 of 5