Moving forward together: Supporting state and local broadband leadership

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the General Assembly is considering Gov. Northam’s request to increase funding to bring better broadband to all Virginians. Such support is important, as students stay home and learn, adults stay home and work, and seniors stay home even as they visit their doctor. Funding for broadband would be an important step — and a wake-up call to the federal government. Virginia’s broadband challenges are multifaceted. In rural areas, nearly a third of households have no access to broadband. More than 600,000 Virginians have only one wired service provider, leaving them with no option to switch if they are dissatisfied with their service. In urban communities where broadband is available, it may not be affordable. The census tracts with the lowest broadband adoption rates in the Commonwealth are not in rural Virginia, but in Richmond. The new funding would support a stronger Virginia Telecommunication Initiative program. Just this year, that grant program was improved by prioritizing networks that are willing to serve everyone in a location, including less densely-populated neighborhoods. And more parts of Virginia are now eligible for grants. But the federal government, particularly the Federal Communications Commission, seems to want to put the brakes on state efforts. Later this year, the FCC will award more than $16 billion to deploy broadband in unserved rural areas through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. But the FCC inexplicably — and wrongly — curbed the ability of applicants to use both federal and state funds to maximum effect to build the best networks. As Commissioner Geoffrey Starks explained, the FCC’s stance serves to “discourage badly needed state-federal partnerships [and] risk unequal application of the rules between states.”

[Jonathan Sallet Sallet is a Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Previously, Sallet served as General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Litigation, Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice.