Readiness Tools

Strong leadership is necessary in order to mobilize the community and its members in support of an initiative in all its necessary aspects. Leadership helps to promote the benefits of broadband and helps to educate members of the community and build support. Leaders articulate a vision for their municipality and work with others to share that vision and the benefit it has to the municipality. Through their actions, leaders influence and motivate others to participate and to communicate with the community. Leaders help to ensure resources are available and dedicated to the initiative over the timeframes required to make sure that the full commitment can be met. Leaders play a key role in identifying potential contributors or participants in the project, educating them, and helping them form relationships to bring the project to fruition.

“[We] could not have implemented the project (even with funding assistance) if it had not been for the guidance and unyielding support of the community leaders.”

It has been demonstrated that strong, active, and persistent leadership from municipalities, non-government, and business champions is a key contributor to broadband project success. Such individuals should be identifiable at the early stages of project consideration and may already be in place, either on a formal or an informal basis. Therefore, the presence of such individuals is a measure of readiness. The leaders need not be proficient in broadband technologies, but they must have a strong appreciation of the benefits of broadband (as described in Section 2) for the municipality and an ability to articulate those benefits to different community constituents. They also play a key role in maintaining focus on the project goals, which requires ongoing presence and active involvement over time.

What does it mean to be a leader in the community? The leadership base in any community exists in many layers. Leaders may emerge through a variety of community interests: business interests, community concerns, social issues, education, etc. In general, community leaders come from three interdependent sectors of the community:

• Elected officials such as councillors, mayors, wardens, committee chairs, etc.
• The private sector consisting of businesses of various types and business organizations such as a Chamber of Commerce.
• The public sector, including elected officials, government employees, local boards and authorities, institutions, schools, etc.
• Community groups such as non-profit organizations, clubs, neighbourhood associations, etc.

There is no prescription for defining who should be the leader or champion for a broadband initiative. Typically, one or two active leaders will step forward through their own desire and motivation for the benefit of their municipality. Good leaders tend to be well connected and influential in the community across various sectors. Leaders act as a catalyst for change, and create and communicate a vision of what is possible. They ask questions and promote discussion amongst community members, creating interest, energy, and motivation for action.

A vision and a plan demonstrate recognition by the organization that they must have clear goals and understand that steps must be taken to achieve these goals. Success is related to the ability to articulate a vision that embraces broadband technology and the benefits that it will bring to the municipality. A vision should be expressed in a set of clear statements outlining the goals and desired outcomes (benefits) that help all members of the community understand what is to be achieved and why. It provides a rallying point for all members of the community to support the initiative. A vision can be formalized into municipal policy to further enhance the likelihood of success.

“We developed the vision and shared that with as much of the community with a thorough engagement process. That positioned us to gain sufficient support to create a plan and find partners and funds.”

The plan then lays out a series of tasks and activities that will help ensure that the vision comes to fruition over a reasonable timeframe. The plan does not need to be a technology plan in the early stages. The plan should clearly recognize the key steps and resources required to initiate and follow through with a broadband project. There should be demonstrated support for the vision and the plan from the community, through community consultations and/or municipal council support.

Without a vision or plan leadership will be challenged to progress from good ideas to actual implementation. Effective leadership, however, will generally recognize the need for a clearly articulated vision that makes broadband a priority and for a plan to achieve that vision.

Organizational stability is related to the level of participation and commitment over the timeframe of a project. Any potential activity, such as elections, that alters the contributors, partners, and participants in the project can disrupt the stability of the project. Since long periods of time may be required for broadband projects to reach sustainability (years not months) it is important that there be sufficient indication of continuity to ensure that changes do not disturb a project, and alter its path to success.

“It has been important that we have support of all of our elected officials throughout the planning and now implementation stages. It has ensured that as we continue funding from year to year we all remember the initial intent and plan and do not have to revisit the ideas again.”

From a readiness perspective, organizational stability may be achieved by ensuring that the municipality’s broadband vision and plan are entrenched through formal policy decisions and supported by organizational resources over the long term. This will make the achievement of broadband plans more resistant to external changes. In addition, the enlisting of non-governmental champions, such as business leaders in the community, will tend to maintain long-term continuity for the broadband project. Strong, persistent, and committed leadership will generally take steps to ensure that sources of instability do not end up undermining the broadband vision.

What is the level of awareness and understanding of broadband value by businesses, residents, institutions, etc.? Communities with a high awareness of the uses and benefits of broadband are more prepared and have the potential for higher broadband service uptake and ongoing sustainability and be more receptive to municipal broadband initiatives. A certain level of awareness of broadband benefits will already exist based on user experience with existing technologies and use of online applications.

 “The support of the businesses and residents, their interest to learn about the service, to sign up before construction and their offers of contributions (real estate etc.) ensured the ISP that they were ready to commit..”

Greater awareness can be further developed through the efforts of local community leaders and broadband champions motivated both by social and economic development goals, as well as by self-interest for business development. The awareness and understanding of broadband does not automatically lead to demand, but it is a necessary component of establishing demand for broadband.

Community leaders and champions that actively engage members of the community can build awareness of broadband benefits and secure explicit and implicit support for the municipality’s broadband vision and plans.

Implementation ability relates to the municipality’s ability to harness the necessary resources and dedicate them to the project over the time required. This criterion assesses whether the municipality possesses adequate financial, human, and technological resources to initiate and sustain the network. If there is not enough local capability, can the municipality bring in or find the support they need through other potential avenues? Implementation ability is not just for managing the broadband project itself, but has a component that remains to drive service adoption, especially in earlier years, until market forces can take over that enable the broadband network to sustain itself.

 “We relied on our resources to support us through contracting and legal portions to ensure we developed strong relationships with our partners.”

Who will be responsible for implementing the broadband project? In many cases it is a municipality, such as a township or county, that will take the lead due to their vested interest in the ongoing economic development of the municipality and their existing organizational capability, and experience, with municipal infrastructure projects. Other organizations, however, may be established or may already exist in the community who can take this leadership role. Whatever organization takes the lead role two basic principles must be recognized. First, the organization must have the capacity to execute the required implementation steps and follow through to completion. The second basic principle is that few broadband projects can be successfully implemented without partnering with other organizations that offer necessary skills and resources.

There must be sufficient implementation ability in order to follow through on the municipal broadband vision and plan. Expert resources may be enlisted to fill gaps in expertise and often are hired for their technical knowledge and project management skills. Such expert resources have been proven important, but there must also be a commitment to provide the organizational capacity needed to be an effective partner in both project implementation and in certain aspects of ongoing operation of the broadband network. The lead organization must be willing to take responsibility for certain tasks and to enter into a partnership agreement with service providers and with various levels of government as needed. This may include a financial commitment as well as a commitment to “in-kind” services and resources.

The lead organization should engage the business community for tangible support (e.g., as potential customers) of the broadband project. In addition, there should be local capacity to support the needs of the expected user base to ensure that the community benefits of broadband are realised. Individuals and businesses need support for both technology and applications to maximize their utilization and their benefits. This may be partially satisfied by the local service provider, however, sources that can deliver training should be made available and be identified in the broadband plan.

When considering the implementation ability of any broadband initiative that may involve any new build or expansion, consideration should also be given to whether there are suitable lands within the municipality to build any required infrastructure. This includes whether the municipality or the various partners involved have land readily available, or if land must be purchased or leased.

Who are the potential users of broadband? What is the size of the market? What is the demand for broadband in the municipality? Regardless of existing experience with ICT, the potential for broadband usage is based upon the community’s market profile, which describes the overall make-up of the market for different user categories and their willingness to pay. It is a breakdown of the addressable market for broadband services, which forms the base for generating revenues to sustain and to grow the network.

“We can only make it here as we have a large enough market over the area we cover to  generate enough revenue to make our business work.”

The size of the market for broadband is a key factor for long-term sustainability of the network. From a broadband deployment project perspective, projects that are planned with a goal of larger geographic service coverage benefit from an economy of scale not available to small communities. In addition, greater coverage encompasses a larger user base, and revenue, which contributes to long-term sustainability. Therefore, an initial assessment of the planned scope of coverage is essential and efforts should be taken to define as large an area as possible for broadband deployment planning. This may require negotiations and partnerships amongst smaller communities and with higher levels of regional government (e.g., county level).