WIA Connect(X) show panelists were asked if there is a magic number that developers should target for the cost per home passed with fiber. Beth Hoffman, managing director with Berkshire Partners, said that a lot of it depends on the density of the market. The cost per home passed in a dense city like San Francisco (CA) could be as low as $700. But in many of the rural areas that Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) is targeting, the cost will be in excess of $3,000 per home passed. But there are numerous variables that can throw off business models. Paul Pishal, business development director for Connectivity, Commercial & Industrial with Black & Veatch, said, “If there’s a river crossing, you’ll never get your return on investment.” Patrick Fear, managing director with AB - Private Credit Investors, noted that the current macroeconomic environment with high-interest rates also plays a big factor. “With rates where they are, what’s the actual cash flow? Any business that’s using a meaningful amount of debt today is more at risk.” In February 2023, AT&T’s CFO Pascal Desroches said of the company’s fiber build: “I think it’s fair to say that it’s probably costing us more than we thought when we started.”

Broadband providers have been complaining that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rules are adding a lot of cost to building broadband networks. One of the issues adding the most cost to BEAD-funded networks is the requirement that all construction be done using prevailing wages. That means wages that are paid at Davis-Bacon wage levels—to include benefits. The Davis-Bacon Act was passed in 1931 and requires workers used for federal public work projects to be paid a prevailing wage rate. Since the calculations are done regionally, and since most federal projects are done in or near cities, the prevailing wages tend to reflect the wages and benefits paid in urban areas. Davis-Bacon's prevailing wages are almost always higher than the labor rates paid by the contractors that construct rural fiber networks. The contractors that build fiber in rural areas typically specialize in rural work. Since the cost of living is lower in most rural areas, the wages tend to be lower than the Davis-Bacon prevailing wages. One of the problems with driving up the cost of the project is that it might make the project unfeasible. There is not much margin in rural grant projects even if paying market wage rates, and the extra matching funds might be enough to make a provider decide not to pursue the grant or the project. Another issue that might compound problems is that some rural contractors aren’t interested in projects at the prevailing wages. They are uncomfortable having some crews being prevailing wages and others making market wages. That is an uncomfortable position for an employer.

Like most states, Ohio has its own approach to bolstering broadband accessibility. One area where Ohio is seeing progress, Lt. Governor Jon Husted (R-OH) said, is in enhancing its broadband workforce. Lt. Gov Husted, who also leads Ohio’s Office of Workforce Transformation, explained Ohio State University (OSU) has developed a curriculum for 5G and high-speed internet expansion, which can be used by other colleges and universities as well as the private sector. In 2022, OSU received $3 million in state funds to design its curriculum, which is also being deployed at high schools as well as adult career centers, said Lt. Gov Husted. The state has also doled out around $500 million to four other institutions to help train broadband technicians. Lt. Gov Husted pointed out that the private sector – in many cases the broadband providers– has helped the initiative by providing instructors. He added the structure of Ohio’s broadband grant program has caused some rural areas, particularly in the northwest part of the state, to not be “served as well as I had hoped.” “In the way [the program] was structured, it just skewed towards more Appalachian, lower-income rural parts of Ohio, rather than some of the less dense, farm communities you have in Northwest Ohio,” he said. That implementation spans all areas, from developing the workforce to having accurate maps, “all those kinds of details, those need to be in play,” he added.

Does your neighborhood pay more money for slower internet compared to neighborhoods across town? This step-by-step guide helps you answer that question and more. All you need is a computer, a Google account, and (yes) internet access. The steps are as follows:

1. Pick a geographical area and a target: Determine where you want to analyze internet plans. This could be any town, city, or county. Once you’ve picked a place, you can figure out what broadband providers serve in that area. BroadbandNow is a website allowing you to search for providers operating in any zip code. Try searching various zip codes in the area to ensure you’re capturing all the possible broadband providers.
2. Generate some random addresses: To gather data on what internet plans are offered in the area you selected, you need to get a list of real addresses in that area. To conduct your research fairly, you’ll want to get and use a random sample of addresses, because, in addition to other benefits, it minimizes bias.
3. Put everything into a spreadsheet and format it: You’ll need to properly format the spreadsheet of addresses you just downloaded and pull in socioeconomic data for the analysis you’re about to do. You’ll perform these steps in Google Sheets (but you can move to Microsoft Excel afterward, if you prefer).
4. Get internet plan data: You’ll collect this data by hand. Go to the website of the broadband provider you’re interested in and find where you can search for internet offers by address. Then enter each address from your spreadsheet and record details about the plans offered.
5. Analyze the results: With your hand-collected internet offers handy, you can start your analysis. Whatever you’re interested in testing—whether it is speed, price, value, or availability, you can test for disparities.
6. Share what you found: Once your data is complete, find a place to publicly share the results and your methodology. We suggest hosting the underlying data (internet plans and any screenshots) on GitHub, Google Drive, a public Google Sheet, or on Big Local News.