On August 7, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the third funding report showing fiscal year (FY) 2022 data reported by 13 agencies across 70 programs making investments in broadband. Through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Congress charged NTIA with capturing data on federal broadband investments, including the number of United States residents receiving broadband services from Universal Service Fund (USF) programs or federal broadband support programs; and reporting on the local economic impact of broadband investments, including any impact on small businesses or jobs. The 2023 report is the first that covers programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, programs which are the largest investments the U.S. has made in broadband planning, deployment, affordability, and adoption.

Here we take a quick look at what NTIA found.

Hello, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Funding

Federal broadband appropriated funding increased by $62.6 billion between FY 2020 and FY 2022, from $1.7 billion in FY 2020 to $64.3 billion in FY 2022. This significant increase was due to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. A considerable portion of that funding went to new programs at the NTIA ($48.2 billion), the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program ($14.2 billion), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) broadband programs ($1.9 billion). 

The largest obligations for broadband infrastructure in FY 2022 came from the FCC ($6.6 billion), USDA ($1.8 billion), NTIA ($1.5 billion), and Treasury ($1.4 billion). For agencies and programs able to differentiate broadband obligations (that is, the agency had a legal obligation to disburse funds), investments in digital inclusion and adoption made up the largest portion ($11.8 billion), followed by infrastructure deployment investments ($11.4 billion) and investments in planning, data, and mapping ($60 million).

Reported broadband outlays—meaning an agency disbursed funds—increased substantially between FY 2021 and FY 2022, increasing from $6.7 billion in FY 2021 to $14.7 billion in FY 2022.  

NTIA

NTIA reported $48.2 billion in appropriated funding for broadband investments in FY 2022, including $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The BEAD program accounts for the largest portion (92.9%) of appropriated funds for NTIA's broadband investments in FY 2022. Other FY 2022 broadband appropriated funding at NTIA includes the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program ($2 billion), the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program ($1 billion), the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program ($1.4 billion), the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program ($1.3 billion), and the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program ($60 million).

FCC

The FCC reported on 19 broadband programs with $14.2 billion appropriated, $18.3 billion obligated, and $12.3 billion outlayed for broadband in FY 2022.

Broadband affordability programs for low-income households got significant investment in FY 2022. For example, 39 percent of the increase in the FCC’s broadband outlays came from a $2.3 billion outlay for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which replaced the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FCC also outlayed $553 million for the Lifeline Program, which provides subsidized phone service and broadband to low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the security and opportunities connectivity brings, including access to jobs, family, and emergency services.

As directed by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the FCC launched the COVID-19 Telehealth Program in 2020. Building on the success of the first round of COVID-19 Telehealth Program funding, Congress appropriated additional funding for the program in the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which the FCC used to establish Round 2 of the program. Program participants received their Round 2 funding awards between August 26, 2021 and January 26, 2022. During this period, 446 healthcare providers located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories received a collective $256.4 million in COVID-19 Telehealth Program funding. 

COVID-19 Telehealth Program participants varied in their use of program funding to address their pandemic-related needs. Many purchased handheld devices like tablets, laptops, webcams, or remote patient monitoring devices, and networking gear like wireless access points, network switches, and teleworker virtual private network (VPN) gateway-routers. Some awardees used the funding to buy video conferencing services, broadband service subscriptions, software licenses for telehealth platforms, and a variety of cloud-based services and data storage.

The FCC's broadband programs include:

• Alaska Plan which froze $1.5 billion in funding over ten years and allocated that money to maintain, extend, and upgrade broadband service across certain areas of Alaska.
• Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund (Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund) which promotes the deployment of advanced, hardened voice and broadband networks in Puerto Rico.
• Connect America Fund - Broadband Loop Support which provides support for voice and broadband service, including stand-alone broadband. The fund, a reform of Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS), helps carriers recover the difference between loop costs associated with providing voice and/or broadband service and consumer loop revenues.
• Connect America Fund - Phase II Auction which allocated universal service support to certain eligible areas across the United States.
• Connect America Fund Phase II - Model-Based Support,  a framework for providing ongoing support to areas served by price cap carriers, including areas where broadband service is not currently provided.
• Connect USVI Fund which promotes the deployment of advanced, hardened voice and broadband networks in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Connected Care Pilot Program which provided up to $100 million from the Universal Service Fund (USF) over a three-year period to selected applicants to support the provision of connected care services. The program provided funding for selected pilot projects to cover 85 percent of the eligible costs of broadband connectivity, network equipment, and information services necessary to provide connected care services to the intended patient population.
• E-rate helps schools and libraries to obtain affordable broadband. Funding may be requested under two categories of service: category one services to a school or library (telecommunications, telecommunications services and Internet access), and category two services that deliver Internet access within schools and libraries (internal connections, basic maintenance of internal connections, and managed internal broadband services). 
• Emergency Connectivity Fund is a $7.171 billion program that will help schools and libraries provide the tools and services their communities need for remote learning during the COVID-19 emergency period.
• High Cost Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) Support provides funding to rate-of-return carriers that voluntarily elected to transition to a new cost model for calculating High Cost support in exchange for meeting defined broadband build-out obligations.
• High Cost ACAM II Support provides funding to rate-of-return carriers that voluntarily elected to transition to a new cost model for calculating High Cost support in exchange for meeting defined broadband build-out obligations.
• Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is disbursing up to $20.4 billion over 10 years to bring fixed broadband and voice service to millions of unserved homes and small businesses in rural America.
• Rural Health Care Fund provides funding to eligible health care providers for telecommunications and broadband services necessary for the provision of health care.

Treasury

The U.S. Department of the Treasury administers the Capital Projects Fund which is providing support to states to invest in capital assets that meet communities’ critical needs in the short- and long-term such as remote work, telehealth, and distance learning, with a key emphasis on making funding available for broadband infrastructure. 

In FY 2022, Treasury reported $9.9 billion in total obligated funding for the Capital Projects Fund. See Capital Projects Fund Awards Made to States, Territories, and Freely Associated States, to date.

USDA

Within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the ReConnect Loan and Grant Program supplies loans and grants to provide funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. 

For this report, USDA provided data on five broadband programs with $1.9 billion appropriated, $1.8 billion obligated, and $317 million outlayed in FY 2022. Through USDA broadband infrastructure programs, household counts in funded service areas for broadband infrastructure buildouts increased from 68,943 households in FY 2021 to 132,443 households in FY 2022.

USDA reported on the following programs:

• Community Connect Grant Program which provides financial assistance to eligible applicants that will provide broadband service in rural, economically-challenged communities where service does not exist.
• Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program which helps rural communities use advanced telecommunications technology to connect to each other—and the world—overcoming the effects of remoteness and low population density.
• ReConnect Loan and Grant Program which provides funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas.
• Rural Broadband Loan and Grant Program which furnishes loans and loan guarantees to provide funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide service at the broadband lending speed in eligible rural areas.
• Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program which provides financing for the construction, maintenance, improvement and expansion of telephone service and broadband in rural areas. 

Map It

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress also mandated that the FCC create "an online mapping tool to provide a locations overview of the overall geographic footprint of each broadband infrastructure deployment project funded by the Federal Government." In May 2023, the FCC released the Broadband Funding Map with data received from USDA, NTIA, Treasury as well as the FCC’s own data.  

The map allows users to identify, search, and filter federal funding programs by the Internet service provider receiving funding, the duration timeline, the number of locations included in the project, and the download and upload speeds.

The map also overlays where ISPs have reported to the FCC the availability of internet services across the United States. The map will be updated regularly.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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