Houston-Galveston Area Council Broadband Market Analysis

Challenge: The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is a regional organization working to improve broadband in its 13 counties. Knowing how important broadband is for students, citizens, businesses, economic development, telemedicine, and many other areas of life, H-GAC has made better broadband a priority in the many functions it performs throughout the region.

Solution: Given the complexity of determining and addressing broadband issues in such a large and diverse area, H-GAC engaged HR Green to institute the steps and processes needed to form action plans for better broadband.

Tasks to better understand connectivity in the 13 counties include:

• A survey of citizens and businesses, including a portal to identify needs and digital equity response levels.
• Research on providers across the region and steps to include them in the process.
• Meetings with key public and private stakeholders.
• Digital equity research, improvement opportunities, and grant options.
• A gap analysis.
• High-level design of options to improve broadband.
• Recommendations of ways to improve broadband.
• Work sessions to address smart applications of broadband, policy options, governance options, and rural technology possibilities.
• Preparation for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant funding.

Benefit: The project’s goals are to provide clarity on broadband concerns across the region, coordinate the efforts of the different agencies working on broadband improvement, identify digital equity issues, understand policy options, provide actionable next steps to improve broadband, and prepare for BEAD grants.