A newly passed bill would establish a digital equity division within OCTO

Thanks to a newly-passed bill, DC’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) is set to keep building a division for digital equity that will head up broadband and internet equity initiatives.

The language of Bill 24-200 earmarks support for a Digital Equity Division in the OCTO that, once in place, would require reporting on district residents’ access to high-speed internet — and make a high-speed internet connection a requirement for DC residents. On Tuesday, the bill was sent to the Mayor’s office with a response due by Jan. 18.

The bill was first introduced by Councilmembers Charles Allen, Vincent Gray, Mary Cheh, Elissa Silverman, Brianne Nadeau, Janeese Lewis George, Christina Henderson, Brooke Pinto, Robert White and Chairman Phil Mendelson in April 2021. DC Council voted unanimously in favor of the bill on Dec. 20.

With the bill, OCTO is required to “pursue reasonable, affordable and equitable access to high-speed internet services for all district residents and businesses.” The legislation also requires OCTO to identify and combat barriers to equitable access, as well as develop a status report on DC’s participation in federal programs boosting internet equity. Additionally, within a year of the bill’s passage, OCTO would have to pursue a study on the feasibility of federally funded fiber and conduit broadband infrastructure and assess gaps in federally supported internet efforts.

Despite the bill’s framing suggesting the division still needed to be launched, Associate CTO for Customer Service Michael Rupert told Technical.ly after initial publication of this article that it was “effectively created” in May 2022. Rupert added that the OCTO is on track to meet the bill’s requirements, including the aforementioned assessments, and secured $5 million to fund the division’s work.

Chairman Mendelson’s Senior Policy Advisor Blaine Stum also told Technical.ly post-publication that the bill’s intent changed after OCTO’s creation of that division, pointing to a November 2022 committee report that noted the shift to supporting the extant sub-agency.

“Rather than complicate OCTO’s organization further by mandating the creation of a new office under local law, the committee print assigns all new duties in the bill to OCTO more broadly,” the committee report reads. “However, the committee print still updates some provisions of [the OCTO Establishment Act of 1998] to more clearly specify that the office has an ongoing responsibility to work to ensure that all residents and businesses have reasonable, equitable and affordable access to high-speed internet services.”

The bill falls in conjunction with a few other noteworthy broadband efforts from 2021 and 2022. In May, Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC CTO Lindsey Parker, in partnership with WeLink, announced the creation of the Community Internet Program, which offers service providers access to city-owned rooftops. Nationally, DC will receive $100 million over five years through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for broadband expansion. Next door, in 2021, Maryland established the Office of Statewide Broadband, with a goal to get all residents connected to high-speed, affordable broadband by 2026.