HARRISBURG — No phase of the state’s imminent $1 billion broadband expansion may be more important than the planning happening now, officials say.

“We have to get the plan right, we gotta get that initial proposal right because everything else flows from that,” Evan Feinman said, who leads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s broadband expansion program.

Feinman spoke in front of a gaggle of local, state, and federal officials in State College on Thursday on how to deal with the rollout of federal money from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. The BEAD program alone will provide $1.16 billion to Pennsylvania.

Julie Wheeler, president commissioner in York County, paid a consultant to do a feasibility “that has now become our business plan,” she said.

The county formed a broadband task force that pulled people from health care, schools, industry, and utility companies to work together.

“We recognize this has to be solved by public-private partnerships,” Wheeler said. “Public entities and county government, local government need to work with the private sector in order to solve this problem in our communities,” Wheeler said.

Keeping an eye on future costs, too, matters. York County has fundraised to find non-tax money to cover operational costs for three years, but the initial expansion isn’t a one-off cost.

“Long term, I still am gonna have to solve the problem of ‘what happens after 3 years?’ But I do recognize that it’s not just an accessible piece — there’s an affordability piece as well,” Wheeler said.

Though public-private interaction can help better coordinate the expansion, other concerns remain.

The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, which is in charge of the federal money flowing to the state, was warned about a potential labor shortage of construction workers.

The Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, a telecom trade group, has also criticized a lack of transparency surrounding the grant process and prevailing wage requirements that could drive up costs significantly compared to other states.

Despite the obstacles, officials spoke of broadband expansion as akin to a New Deal-era project.

“If you look at press clippings from rural electrification, the bad guys, the enemies of progress, the people that don’t have empathy for, or patriotism for, the communities that have been left behind, said the same crappy stuff back then that they’re saying now,” Feinman said. “What we are doing is striking a blow for opportunity, leveling the playing field, and creating a future that is brighter, more equitable, and, ultimately, is gonna lead to greater prosperity and increased opportunity for every single Pennsylvanian.”

Pennsylvania has more than 279,000 unserved locations where internet speeds are less than 25 mbps, the definition of broadband. Another 54,000 locations count as underserved.

Some common complaints during public meetings hit on the problems of completing basic tasks. Rural businesses have had to get creative, too. One commenter gets online at 4 a.m. to place shipping orders because internet speed “is so slow that doing this any other time of day will not work.” Another said that without fiber optics, there’s no way to compete.

Consultants also warned of the outstanding issues they heard from telecom companies.

“Regulation was recognized as a major obstacle to broadband expansion,” Teraira Snerling-Alix of Michael Baker noted in her presentation. “Developing a process to streamline permitting, make-ready, and other barriers is recommended.”

Regulatory concerns have been a consistent red flag waved by private companies, as the Center Square previously reported.

Expansion will face another major hurdle: workforce shortages.

“There is a shortage of consultants and fiber engineering firms to design and expand networks,” Taylor noted. “Rapid support is needed to develop the programs in a timely manner and to make sure that training covers state-of-the-art technologies and techniques.”

To address the 333,000 unserved and underserved locations over the five-year plan, Taylor estimated the high-priority occupations that will be needed: 2,286 mainline splicing crews, 459 buried crews, 305 aerial crews, and 55 splicing crews for last-mile connections.