The infrastructure bill devotes $65 billion to broadband. Now what?

President Biden signed Congress's $1.2 trillion infrastructure package into law, including a whopping $65 billion to expand broadband access. Now, it's up to federal agencies, states and civil society groups to implement it. The bill prioritized broadband projects that target unserved communities — as laid out in the bill, that means communities that either have no broadband access or lack sufficient speeds. But determining where those unserved communities are depends on the existence of accurate broadband maps, something the federal government has struggled for years to produce. Once maps are complete and federal rules are in place, states will need to build up their own internal infrastructures as well. That includes the ability to not only develop plans for their grant programs, but to distribute those grants and enforce that the proposals they're funding are actually implemented. Another wrinkle to be ironed out is that the bill prohibits states from excluding municipalities from receiving grants through the program, despite more than a dozen states across the country having laws on the books that ban municipal networks. The bill also contains provisions that would make service more affordable and accessible where networks do exist — money that could be deployed sooner. That includes the Affordable Connectivity Benefit, building on the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and funds for digital literacy programs and anti-digital redlining initiatives.