The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program has $42.5 billion to invest in rural broadband. But that funding is not expected to cover the full cost of making broadband available to unserved areas. That’s where matching funds come in. Program rules call for network operators seeking BEAD funding to use other funding sources to cover at least 25% of project costs, except in the highest-cost areas. States have the option of setting the minimum even higher. Where can networks get matching funds? 

• In-Kind Contributions: According to BEAD program rules, in-kind contributions can include donations of property, goods, or services, that benefit the project. Bead administrator National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) advises applicants to be consistent with uniform administrative requirements for federal awards but notes that examples might include volunteer services, equipment, supplies, rights of way access, pole attachments, conduits, and easements.

• Funds from four federal programs are allowed. The programs include the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the CARES Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

• BEAD Matching Fund sources also include network operators who may need to turn to more traditional funding sources, such as loans or equity investors. For example, an electric cooperative won't be giving out shares in the company but instead is more likely to turn to a bank. And large publicly held companies will cover matching costs "through their normal debt financing program."

• Loan financing is also another potential funding source for BEAD applicants.

Broadband adoption is a determinant of health that intersects with other sociological determinants such as education and employment. Due to the rising reliance on digital technology, lack of broadband adoption prevents individuals from accessing the essential resources needed to fully participate in 21st century educational and employment opportunities. Vulnerable populations experience greater impacts of divestment, and therefore experience greater sociological stressors and worse health outcomes. These communities are left behind with slower services and more expensive internet service plans, as physical proximity to broadband does not necessarily predict broadband adoption. The benefits of broadband adoption and the harms of its absence are magnified for youth and other vulnerable groups, with youth relying more heavily on digital services. The author recommends that the Federal Communications Commission Task Force to Prevent Digital Discrimination increase broadband adoption for vulnerable communities by strengthening community-based partnerships to provide culturally competent resources and adopting equity-based national digital health standards that provide greater transparency of data and accountability for discriminatory deployment decisions.

Peter Dresslar, a broadband and digital equity consultant for both the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and American Samoa, is of two minds. While he knows that the Federal Communications Commission is working as hard as it can to deliver accurate broadband maps to the country, some of the oversights in the mapping of the Pacific Territories have been darkly comic. Case in point: When internet service providers (ISP) reported their broadband records for American Samoa, they simply reported every single address on the territory’s map as receiving service, whether each did or not. In reality, American Samoa has severe access challenges, but the broadband mapping in the Pacific Territories is only the first part of a larger story. When it comes to mapping, what’s at stake is money. Territories like American Samoa and the Mariana Islands will get a minimum of $25 million each. The next challenge for broadband deployments in the Pacific once BEAD money is allocated will be labor forces. To Dresslar, there’s no question labor forces will have to be shipped into the islands to help with construction. Currently, CNMI is in conversation with officials in Alaska and Hawaii to see how they can strategize across their labor pools to maximize resources.

In 2023, broadband policy debates will center on how states expend tens of billions of dollars to deploy broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas, most through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. But that will not be the most consequential broadband deployment of the year. While BEAD is critical to rural areas and represents good public policy, it probably only affects 10% to 20% of the population, and the actual deployments will not occur until 2024 or later. Rather, the most consequential construction story will involve DISH Network’s new nationwide 5G network, which Federal Communications Commission rules require be built out for 70% of the US population by June 14, 2023. This network could be disruptive in at least three ways:

1. As a greenfield build for a new service provider, the network could have both a cost structure advantage and incentives that offer lower prices, creating a pricing dynamic that could affect all American broadband consumers;
2. It intends to focus on wholesale offerings much more than incumbent providers, which could also be disruptive to the current market structure;
3. It is using a different network architecture—Open Radio Access Networks, which use cloud-based, virtualized, and open architecture principles—that, if it works well, could change how wireless networks are built in future generations.

The Federal Communications Commission, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) (collectively, the Agencies) entered into an interagency agreement to share information and coordinate for the distribution of funds for broadband deployment. The FCC’s experience with the Interagency Agreement, as well as the record, demonstrate that the Interagency Agreement has significantly facilitated efficient use of federal funds for broadband deployment. The Interagency Agreement has helped the Agencies strengthen and improve existing coordination workstreams and establish new coordination workstreams. Based on the record, the FCC makes the following recommendations for the Interagency Agreement:

• The Agencies should continue to work to identify and implement standardization in broadband data, as appropriate. This includes, for example, its efforts to publish maps based on the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) work and promotion thereof as a reliable and useful source of broadband deployment data among federal agencies.
• Additionally, beyond continuing its work on the BDC, the Agencies, along with all of the federal funding agencies, should look for opportunities to increase visibility into coordination efforts between the Agencies, except to the extent doing so would undermine the effectiveness of coordination efforts.
• The agencies should consider revising the Interagency Agreement and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a consistent deduplication review process that includes a minimum period of time for agenciesto review proposed funding before the funding agency makes final commitments. This minimum should be honored unless extraordinary considerations warrant a shorter period.
• Broadband funding agencies should explore how best to complement existing funding mapping efforts with data from state and local entities on their broadband funding programs.
• The Agencies should establish an expedited process to add other agencies to the MOU, to ensure a quick pathway to coordinate the efforts of other agencies that administer funding programs and develop related policy goals.

Five members of Verizon’s First Responder Advisory Council are calling attention to a report that is critical of FirstNet’s relationship with AT&T in terms of billions of dollars in investments. The report, which was published in November 2022, was based on the findings of auditors at the office of the Inspector General at the US Department of Commerce. FirstNet is owned by the FirstNet Authority. But AT&T is the primary contractor, deploying and managing the network. “Overall, we found that FirstNet Authority has not established a sound process for selecting reinvestment opportunities. FirstNet Authority could not demonstrate that these investment opportunities were the most appropriate or efficient use of resources,” the IG found. The inspector general wrote, “FirstNet Authority relied on information from AT&T that appeared to influence the process of identifying and selecting reinvestment opportunities.” The inspector general said it was making recommendations that could put more than $296 million in funds for FirstNet to better use and “ensure future multi-billion-dollar reinvestments are supported and justified and reflect public safety priorities.” The report indicated that AT&T made upgrades to its network for 5G, which were partly funded by FirstNet monies, without first getting final approvals from the Department of Commerce. However, AT&T has touted the fact that while it was deploying equipment for FirstNet, it simultaneously upgraded many of its towers with 5G equipment to save the company money in a "one-touch," approach.