"I serve on a committee for the Texas Realtors organization called the Infrastructure Committee," Mayor Pro Tem Howard Smith said. "Pre-COVID, I was in Austin in one of the meetings of this committee, and we had a speaker there from Texas Connect, an organization that maps out the strength of the Internet in all 254 (Texas) counties. When COVID came along, it became really important to have Internet in those counties."
Smith said he talked with Mayor Ginger Nelson, as well as various city staff members, with regard to methods of bolstering broadband Internet access.
"Initially the idea was to increase Internet strength in the counties in the Panhandle, but once we analyzed it, we've got a long way to go in the city of Amarillo," he said. "So we need to concentrate on that first. After that, if we can get that going, we can give advice to other counties."
Nelson said city staff have conducted preliminary work on the initiative and added it would call for ongoing dialogue between the city council, staffers and potential partners.
"The digital divide, or in this case, the divide between individuals or families with adequate Internet and those that do not have adequate Internet - that's not a new thing," Rich Gagnon, the city's IT director said. "But COVID, COVID requirements and the societal norms that are really coming out of the global pandemic are not just highlighting the digital divide, it's amplifying its impact. There are areas where that's very obvious. It's easy to see, like in education, where schools have scrambled to put together solutions like enabling Wi-Fi in a parking lot so that those parents who have access to vehicles at least have a place to bring their children to do homework and have the access needed for education."
Gagnon said there are less obvious examples, such as cities constantly looking for ways to provide to additional services online for citizen convenience.
"COVID accelerated that," he said. "Now it's often less about convenience and more about necessity. It makes participation and easy access to information and services even more dependent on that Internet access. And it's not just cities. It's social services, banking or healthcare, where doctors are preferring more telemedicine to in-person examinations. We started working with Connected Nation, which is a non-profit that is working with communities around the country to solve this broadband problem. And the first data point they brought back to us is the Panhandle is one of the most expensive places in the country for Internet access."
Per Gagnon, critical infrastructure is becoming more dependent on connectivity, such as automated water meters, traffic control systems and public safety. He noted Xcel Energy is seeking to utilize smart meters and the Amarillo Independent School District is also exploring greater connectivity avenues.
"The approach we're proposing is to investigate a municipally owned broadband network," he said. "But we'd like to explore a new model, and in that model, we look at open access to essential services like education and healthcare, social services and banking as a no charge option for every citizen in Amarillo."
Gagnon said for more services that are more expensive to provide because they require greater bandwidth, such as streaming media and gaming - a subscription would be required.
"The impact could be huge," he said. "The obvious impact is Amarillo leads the way in bridging the digital divide, which means no citizen in Amarillo is without access to education, healthcare or essential services. We would be continually investing in our own infrastructure."
Officials said a presentation regarding city staff findings would be presented at a future city council meeting.
©2021 Amarillo Globe-News, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
