Wednesday, November 13, 2024
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The ABCs of Affordability in Alabama
Trump Picks Musk, Ramaswamy for Government Efficiency Effort
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Biden-Harris Administration Awards $72 Million to Expand Internet Access and Digital Literacy for Native Hawaiians
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) more than $72 million from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption in Native Hawaiian households. The nearly $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All Initiative. This grant to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands marks the first award from the second round of funding, which made nearly $1 billion available for the deployment of Internet infrastructure on Tribal Lands, affordability programs, telehealth and distance learning initiatives. The $72,708,711 award will fund both Internet infrastructure deployment and Internet adoption projects to connect unserved Native Hawaiian households to high-speed Internet service.
Decades after the internet’s debut, millions of Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband service. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD) provides $42.45 billion in federal funding to expand high-speed internet service across the country. Five leaders of state BEAD programs shared their perspectives on lessons learned so far and future plans for broadband implementation: Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer, state of Michigan; Amy Grenfell, COO, Wyoming Business Council; Kevin Hughes, administrator, District of Columbia State Broadband and Digital Equity Office; Peter Voderberg, chief, BroadbandOhio; and Elaina Zempel, former broadband manager, Wyoming Business Council. The following are four key takeaways from the discussion:
- BEAD may represent not the ultimate destination but rather a robust foundation for achieving universal connectivity
- Each state may approach BEAD differently to account for a range of challenges that could emerge during implementation
- Stakeholder engagement helps during planning but assumes even greater significance after implementation begins
- Staying agile is essential throughout the BEAD project—it’s not just a one-time activity
I’ve been peppered with questions about the impact of the change of administration on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. I don’t have any better crystal ball than anybody else. But it’s not hard to speculate on the kinds of changes that might come. Some possible paths for BEAD:
- More BEAD for Satellite Broadband: With Elon Musk being part of the administration, it seems inevitable that satellite broadband will get a bigger piece of the BEAD pie. Recall that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) had already opened the door to Starlink in BEAD, but the process was voluntary for states.
- Changing the BEAD Rules: A group of Senators have been complaining about BEAD rules for more than a year. There are two paths I can foresee for changing some rules. The first is to put the program on hold to incorporate any rule changes. The other option would be to tell ISPs about pending changes and to deal with them when BEAD grant contracts are negotiated.
- Spend the Money Faster: One of the current criticisms about BEAD I keep hearing is that money won’t flow until late 2025. That is due to an NTIA requirement that a State must find a solution for every location before any grants can be awarded. Get rid of that rule and grants could be awarded and money could start flowing in the first quarter.
- Cut the Size of the Program: I’ve seen some speculation about clawing back BEAD funding – which means not making the grant awards and keeping the money in the federal coffers. Industry insiders think broadband is too important for this to happen. However, if there is a big political movement to undo President Biden’s signature accomplishment, then infrastructure spending of all types could be curtailed, and it’s naïve to think that broadband spending couldn’t get swept into a bigger effort to cut spending.
- Do Nothing: There is always a chance that no changes will be made to BEAD and it will play its course this year. But this seems unlikely with $42 billion in spending dangling for the taking. At the end of the day, any changes to be BEAD will be about who gets the money.
A key challenge to achieving universal broadband adoption in Alabama is that low-income households struggle to afford broadband services and devices with adequate technical support. Among Alabama residents who do not have internet service at home, 42.6 percent report that a primary reason they do not pay for broadband at home is an inability to afford service. Additionally, low-income individuals are 15.7 percentage points less likely than higher-income individuals to have a home internet subscription and they are 21.6 percentage points less likely to have a wireline internet subscription—further highlighting the connection between affordability and internet adoption. One option for ensuring additional low-cost service offerings in Alabama is through the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs' (ADECA) implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, an effort created and funded by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. While awarding BEAD grants for broadband deployment, ADECA must ensure that awardees will offer a low-cost broadband service option. In ADECA's approved implementation plan, the department outlines what those low-cost options will look like.
“We have worked really hard within the confines we’ve been given to create one of the most competitive, free-market-based, business-friendly (or business-encouraging) types of programs,” said Arkansas broadband director Glen Howie. Howie said Arkansas’ broadband funding program is flexibly designed, allowing providers to use census block groups (CBGs) to align their project footprints, while accounting for their financial modeling. Before Howie joined the Arkansas State Broadband Office, providers were able to draw their own project footprints and submit their designs to the state. “But when we went to CPF [the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund], the state defined project footprints on a county-wide basis, and providers would bid on those.” Howie said the Arkansas State Broadband Office’s goal is that 90% or more of the awards for deployments will be for fiber-based projects.
A fiery debate has erupted in the halls of telecommunications about traffic—the gigabyte rather than vehicular variety. On one side are the mountaineers, who argue data volumes will continue to climb as usage grows and more advanced applications take off. On the other are the dissenting levelers. Led by William Webb, an independent consultant and former Ofcom executive who has written several books on the topic, they foresee a plateauing of consumption as smartphone customers struggle to cram more gigabytes into the day. The levelers are heartened by some evidence of a recent slowdown in growth. The reality seems complicated and nuanced. What's clear, though, is that telecommunications spending on radio access network (RAN) infrastructure, the part that gobbles the biggest share of capex, has dropped in the last couple of years—and dropped sharply.
President-elect Donald Trump picked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech company founder Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, to lead an effort to cut spending, eliminate regulations and restructure federal agencies. Musk and Ramaswamy will lead what the president-elect called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE . The group’s mandate is to streamline government bureaucracy, the president-elect said. DOGE (which Musk pronounces as ˈdōj but Trump pronounces as ˈdȯ-gē ) will operate outside of the federal government, Trump said, and will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to implement its recommendations. Musk isn’t expected to become an official government employee, meaning he likely wouldn’t be required to divest from his business empire. Trump gave Musk and Ramaswamy a deadline of July 4, 2026—amid the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations, and just months before the midterm elections—to complete their work.
The Republican who is likely to lead the Federal Communications Commission under President-elect Donald Trump detailed how he would run the agency when he wrote a chapter for the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, a longtime opponent of net neutrality rules and other broadband regulations, has also made his views clear numerous times when opposing rulemakings initiated by the current Democratic majority. If Trump makes Carr the next FCC chairman after his inauguration, the FCC is likely to ditch consumer protection initiatives, like a recently announced inquiry into data caps, and attempt to regulate Big Tech companies while reducing regulation of Internet service providers. That could include forcing Big Tech companies to pay into a fund that subsidizes internet service providers' broadband network construction. A Carr-led FCC could also try to punish news organizations that are perceived to be anti-Trump. Carr might also try to steer money to Elon Musk's Starlink system.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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