For many years there have been people extolling the huge benefits of public-private partnership for broadband. For all of that talk, there is not a big number of partnerships, but there are some successful examples around the country. Communities that are looking for broadband solutions might want to consider public-public partnerships and non-profit partnerships. I’m seeing public-public partnerships develop that are similar to the more traditional public-private partnership. Existing municipal internet service providers (ISPs) are reaching out to help neighboring communities. The most common model I’m seeing discussed is where a community is building a fiber network and asking an existing municipal fiber provider to operate it. There are a handful of such arrangements but communities nearby to successful municipal ISPs are reaching out for help. I’m also seeing multiple communities banding together to find broadband solutions. I’m working with several coalitions of multiple counties working together to find a broadband solution for a region so that nobody gets left behind. I’m sure that these partnerships have always existed, but the federal digital equity funding is bringing communities and non-profits together to work towards digital literacy. This might mean programs to get more computers in homes and for students, among other things. While governments can tackle these kinds of programs, a better permanent solution is to work with non-profits to create sustainable programs that will survive this temporary burst of grant funding.

[Doug Dawson is President of CCG Consulting.]

A Google affiliate wants to offer its fiber broadband service in Colorado Springs (CO) in 2023 if the company can reach an agreement with Colorado Springs Utilities to lease its planned network. Google Fiber, owned by Google parent Alphabet, would become the second tenant on Utilities' planned 2,000-mile network, which is expected to get underway in summer 2022 and be available to its first residential customers early 2023. Ting Internet became the first tenant when it signed a 25-year lease in late 2021, allowing Utilities to speed up construction from 15 years to six years and helping to offset some of the up to $100 million annual construction cost. Brian Wortinger, Utilities' fiber-optic and telecommunications enterprise manager, said "several" internet providers are interested in leasing part of the network, but he declined to say how many or identify them. He expects leases from providers like Ting and Google to offset a "significant part," if not completely offset, the cost of building the network. Utilities plans to seek bids later in March from contractors who would build the network. Google Fiber provides fiber-optic-based internet service in 12 cities in nine states since launching the service in Kansas City (MO) and Provo (UT) a decade ago.

Omdia's 5G Consumer Broadband Pricing Tracker for Q4 of 2021 projects 1.3 billion 5G connections by the end of 2022. The company reports that 303 million 5G connections were added worldwide during 2021, reaching a total of 521 million. Telecompetitor reports the 2022 projections are in line with an earlier report by GSMA that also predicted 1.3 billion 5G connections by the end of the year and 2 billion 5G connections by the end of 2025. According to the Omdia data, North American 5G connections totaled 72 million as of the end of 2021, with more than two-thirds of that (54 million) being added during the year. There were also 514 million LTE connections in North America as of the end of 2021, which 5G America said represents near full market maturity. LTE remains dominant in Latin America, with 495 million connections today, though 301 million 5G connections are expected for the region by 2026. Omdia expects 4G LTE growth will remain strong in Latin America and the Caribbean through 2022 with the addition of 43.2 million new 4G LTE connections, as 5G adoption begins to overtake 4G LTE. "After three full years of growth, global wireless 5G adoption has reached the rapid acceleration phase," said wireless trade association 5G Americas in a statement about the report. " President of 5G Americas Chris Pearson said, "We are now out of the opening stages of this generation of wireless cellular technology, as 5G is rapidly getting into the hands of consumers and businesses, who are finding innovative new ways to use mobile connectivity."

President Biden has yet to announce his pick for inspector general for the Federal Communications Commission. That position, which is meant to audit FCC spending and investigate potential fraud and abuse, is set to assume new significance, with billions of dollars in pandemic relief and infrastructure cash now flowing into the agency. March 23 marked four years since the enactment of a bipartisan law leaving it to the White House to nominate an FCC inspector general (IG), a bid to change a decades-old process whereby the FCC chair simply appointed the watchdog internally. But there still hasn’t been a Senate-confirmed FCC IG. Greg Walden, the former Republican head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wants the Biden administration to act. “It was never about any particular person — it was about a process we thought could be made better,” Walden said, adding that the position is particularly important now, “when you look at how much money is going to get washed through” the FCC. Longtime FCC staffer David Hunt has served as the agency’s IG for the last decade. Liz Hempowicz, the public policy director at the Project on Government Oversight, said it’s not uncommon to see White House inaction on these positions. But installing a Senate-confirmed FCC watchdog would bring “a certain level of gravitas,” she said: “The Senate, particularly, views those inspectors general as a little bit more independent, a little bit more accountable to Congress, a little bit more of a partner.”