State and local governments have enacted different types of legislation aimed at improving broadband availability. Two unstudied policies of interest are: (1) “dig-once” policies requiring state-funded construction projects to notify local internet providers about the opportunity to bury conduit for easier wire installation in the future, and (2) permitting policies requiring an expeditious response from local jurisdictions regarding the installation of broadband equipment. We use the example of Iowa, which passed legislation on both of these topics in 2015 and compare trends in fiber broadband availability with that of states who did not pass such legislation. We also consider the potential impact on fixed wireless availability, which largely depends upon a fiber middle mile. We use coarsened exact matching at the census tract level to construct treated and control groups with similar pre-2015 demographic characteristics and broadband availability trends in Iowa and other states. Difference-in-difference regression analysis with the matched samples then assesses the policy impact on fiber and fixed wireless availability post-implementation. The results suggest that Iowa's policies increased fiber broadband availability by 2.4%–6.6% when considering eight model specifications which account for different criteria such as geographic region, other (non-dig-once or permitting) broadband policies, and federal funding received. The policies do not appear to have any effect on fixed wireless availability.

州和地方政府已经颁布了旨在提高宽带可用性的不同类型的立法。两项尚未研究的相关政策是：（1）“一次性挖掘”政策要求国家资助的建设项目通知当地互联网提供商未来有机会埋设管道以便于电线安装，以及（2）允许政策要求快速当地司法管辖区对宽带设备安装的回应。我们以爱荷华州为例，该州于 2015 年通过了有关这两个主题的立法，并将光纤宽带可用性的趋势与未通过此类立法的州进行了比较。我们还考虑了对固定无线可用性的潜在影响，这在很大程度上取决于光纤中间英里。我们在人口普查区级别使用粗化的精确匹配来构建在爱荷华州和其他州具有相似 2015 年前人口特征和宽带可用性趋势的治疗组和对照组。然后使用匹配样本进行差中差回归分析，然后评估实施后对光纤和固定无线可用性的政策影响。结果表明，在考虑八种模型规范时，爱荷华州的政策将光纤宽带可用性提高了 2.4%–6.6%，这些规范说明了地理区域、其他（非一次性或允许的）宽带政策和收到的联邦资金等不同标准。这些政策似乎对固定无线可用性没有任何影响。