The Michigan High Speed Internet Office, or MI-HI, is on a listening tour across the state as it prepares a plan for $1.6 billion in federal funds for high-speed internet, and it stopped by Benton Harbor this past week. Representatives talked with elected officials and residents at Lake Michigan College about their broadband needs and concerns. MI-HI Equity Director Allie Herkenroder told us the information they gather will affect how the state approaches broadband infrastructure.
“We’re doing 40 of these same exact listening tours in 270 days,” Herkenroder said. “We’re taking all of the feedback to make sure that we’re including the community voice as we write the state’s Digital Equity Plan and the state’s Five Year Broadband Action Plan.”
Those gathered Tuesday broke out into groups based off their top broadband concerns. They were availability and affordability, but MI-HI also asked them to consider available devices and tech skills. Herkenroder told us at all of the meetings so far, availability and affordability have been the top concerns. The state will have a draft Broadband Action Plan by this summer and then do another tour to gather input before submitting it to the feds.
