Thursday, April 20, 2023
Headlines Daily Digest
Don't Miss:
How States Ensure Broadband Funds Go Where They’re Most Needed
Data and Mapping
Broadband Funding
State/Local Initiatives
TV
Spectrum/Wireless
Platforms/Social Media/AI
Company News
State/Local
We sent a memo to state broadband offices that are participating in our broadband education and training initiative, detailing the diverse strategies that California, Iowa, Michigan, and North Carolina have employed to direct grant funding to priority areas—communities that have a substantial unmet need for investment in broadband infrastructure. Several state broadband programs have utilized mechanisms to designate specific communities as “priority areas” within the project areas eligible for grants, allowing them to target or further incentivize grant funding to those communities. Key takeaways from the states include:
- Grant mechanisms to designate priority areas can help states direct awards to communities or regions that meet their state policy priorities.
- Because several of the prioritization mechanisms included in this memo were codified by state legislatures, they may not necessarily reflect the policy priorities of the state’s executive branch.
- The process for selecting priority areas and how those areas are incorporated into grant programs has varied among states; these different approaches have their own benefits and drawbacks to consider.
Critically, each of these approaches relies on the quality of the underlying data or evidence used to select the priority areas. As states consider utilizing priority area designation mechanisms in their grant programs, the benefits and drawbacks of these different approaches should be weighed within the context of existing state practices and the requirements of any applicable federal program.
A wave of states has recently created new full-time positions to work on digital inclusion and digital equity. As many as 15 states now have full-time staffers dedicated to this, or they have added digital equity to their broadband deployment lead’s title. There is a clear financial impetus for them to fill these positions, to the tune of $2.75 billion, to be exact. That’s the allocation for digital equity headed down to states from the federal government through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). To get this money, states have roughly one year to present federal decision-makers with a digital equity plan. And while many states are just putting the work into their existing broadband deployment offices, national advocates suggest not doing that, not if they want to fully satisfy federal requirements and maximize the money they receive, said Amy Huffman, policy director with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), as well as a former full-time digital inclusion staffer with North Carolina. Huffman also suggests that states view such hires as long-term, rather than as simply a staffer to get the grants. For the moment, though, these relatively new staffers should all be focused on the digital equity money from the federal government.
More than a decade after Netflix blew up television's model with "House of Cards," streaming services more closely resemble the business they disrupted. This matters because streaming rose to prominence by providing a refuge from all the things consumers hated about the cable TV bundle. But as streaming matures, consumers are feeling the same pains they sought to avoid. Streaming is an industry that's caught between two worlds: The still-profitable-but-fading legacy TV model and a streaming future that has yet to be fully realized. Slowing subscriber growth has led streamers and the Wall Street analysts that follow them to shift their focus to profitability, and that's forced streamers to introduce features like live events and tiered pricing, creating a less consumer-friendly environment. "With [subscriber] growth stalling, the most established platforms have raced to raise prices, introduce ad tiers and cut costs to prove that streaming can in fact be a decent business," MoffettNathanson analysts wrote. Overall, the cable bundle didn't die. It evolved.
Frontier Communications inked a high-profile fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) deal with AT&T in February 2023, but it’s not the only wireless carrier buying up Frontier’s fiber wares. Frontier's Vishal Dixit said that the company now has active deals in place with all four major US wireless providers, the result of Frontier’s efforts over the past six to nine months to reinvigorate its FTTT business. While its ongoing residential build is more often discussed by executives and analysts alike, Dixit said the FTTT play is an important part of its strategy. Building up this business, he explained, will help Frontier lock in a “base load” of long-term revenue given tower contracts can carry terms of five years or more. “It’s definitely profitable,” Dixit said of the tower business, though he declined to say how much Frontier can make off each tower.
GoNetspeed President and CEO Richard Clark calculates that the founding team behind the provider holds about 100 years of experience in broadband operations and construction. The freshly-consolidated GoNetspeed is focused on rolling out one product and one product only: fiber. Each of the companies that merged under the GoNetspeed umbrella historically operated in varying states, but as of 2023, their footprint comprises communities in Maine, Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia. Since the major merger in 2021, the GoNetspeed team has passed nearly 390,000 homes and businesses. GoNetspeed currently serves 200 communities across these nine key states with another twenty slated for completion by the end of 2023. Of the nine operating states, Connecticut has seen the newest miles of fiber network built out in the past two years. As of late, the team is focused on building aggressively across New York, Maine, and Massachusetts.
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 David L. Clay II (dclay AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2023. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-328-3040
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2023