December 2021

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) dished out more funding for rural broadband, awarding more than $119 million in loans and grants for projects in 19 states. The money was distributed as part of a $5.2 billion investment the USDA made to boost rural infrastructure projects. The figure included $48.6 million in Community Connect grants for broadband deployments and $71.1 million in loans for telecom infrastructure rollouts. Sierra Telephone Company secured the largest of the telecom loans, bagging $40.2 million for work in California.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a September 27 letter from Reps Roger Williams (R-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), and David Trone (D-MD) concerning the review process for long-form applications in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Rosenworcel's response highlighted the steps the FCC has taken to "clean up the program before funding was made available to successful bidders" following the issue of some "questionable locations" chosen in the initial funding decisions.

The Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program will expire at the end of 2021. Next year, the program will be rebranded as the Affordable Connectivity Program and made available to more households — any household with an income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines will be eligible. But this will come at a cost, as the monthly discounts will be $30 instead of $50. Broadband experts and legislators have heralded the program as a monumental step in making high-speed internet more affordable, but recipients of the EBB Program in Texas are more split on the change.