A fair reading of Dr. John Horrigan’s work would start by adopting his insight that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is part of a three-legged stool that during the pandemic helped increase broadband adoption and sustain it for low-income households. Philanthropic and private sector initiatives were important, but the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB) and then the ACP were crucial in making these efforts have an impact on a national scale. It is then important to consider how Dr. Horrigan describes that ACP’s predecessor EBB is an important historical antecedent that, if, taken into account, would increase that number of households that were not connected prior to a government subsidy program.  As he writes, “It is hard to escape the fact that pandemic era initiatives (such as stimulus checks, the EBB, private-sector marketing initiatives, and philanthropic efforts) were responsible for getting a large number of low-income households online. The ACP not only sustained this, but helped low-income households weather a 2022 that saw a growth in inflation, the end of the child tax credit, and other economic headwinds. It is worth noting that the data only takes us through 2022 and it is likely that 2023 ACP signups included significant numbers of wireline customers." Further, Dr. Horrigan writes that based on his analysis of American Community Survey data from 2019-2022, 56% of the growth in home wireline broadband subscriptions in that time was among households whose annual incomes were $50K or less. And 38% of the growth was from “under $25K households” (that make up about 16% of all households.)¹ ACP and EBB were partly responsible for this.

[Blair Levin is the Policy Advisor to New Street Research and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro​.]

The Federal Communications Commission made some changes to the recent Net Neutrality Order between the version that got approved on April 25 and the final version that was released to the Congressional record. One of the most interesting changes was to clarify rules pertaining to carriers creating fast lanes. The original order included language that prohibited paid prioritization, which is generically referred to as fast lanes. The original rules largely prohibited internet service providers from slowing Internet traffic for some customers but not others, which is the same language that was included in the original net neutrality order first passed by the FCC in 2015. The final FCC rules prohibit fast lanes where some customers selectively get a better broadband connection than somebody else, even if the faster connection is made at no charge.

In mid-2021, the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) published a white paper on the state of broadband competition in the United States, which concluded that:

• The U.S. broadband market was generally healthy and competitive, with 95.6% of the population having access to high-speed broadband;
• Concentration metrics are poor predictors of competitiveness—broadband markets can be dynamic and competitive even with only a few providers. Indeed, in some cases, increased concentration can result from efficiency gains and innovation, benefiting consumers through better services; and
• Municipal broadband often requires significant taxpayer subsidies or cross-subsidies from other municipal enterprises, and is thus an example of “predatory entry,” rather than market competition.

Rather than repeat the analysis conducted in the 2021 report, in this report, we investigate the extent to which broadband competition has evolved over the past three years. We find that it has been a rapid evolution:

• More households are connected to the internet;
• Broadband speeds have increased, while prices have fallen;
• More households are served by multiple providers; and
• New technologies like satellite and 5G have expanded internet access and intermodal competition among providers.

Governor Laura Kelly announced that seven organizations will receive a combined $3.9 million in grants through the Advancing Digital Opportunities to Promote Technology (ADOPT) program. ADOPT supports the Kelly administration’s work to connect more Kansans to high-speed internet by making public Wi-Fi accessible and distributing devices in underserved areas. The program helps organizations serving Kansans move forward by ensuring that communities can access public Wi-Fi and the devices needed to participate in today’s technology-driven world. ADOPT grants were awarded to: 

• The Wichita Library Foundation, $289,270
• Cunningham Communications, $107,279.90
• Mokan Communications, $721,111
• WTC, $721,111
• Grey Snow Management, $370,793
• Kansas State University, $1,484,215
• Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC), $239,400

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, on behalf of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) is issuing this Request for Proposals for the Residential Retrofit Program to solicit applications from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or Managed Service Providers (MSPs) for fiber construction to eligible Affordable Housing Properties and in-building and in-unit installation of cabling and related equipment. Through the Residential Retrofit Program MBI is making strategic and transformational investments that will ensure all Affordable Housing properties have the infrastructure necessary to provide reliable high-speed internet for current and future residents. MBI has identified four primary areas for capital investment under the Residential Retrofit Program:

1. installation of fiber construction into Affordable Housing buildings;
2. installation of fiber or CAT 6 cabling into units within Affordable Housing buildings;
3. installation of smart panels or other needed in-unit termination points for improved wiring within Affordable Housing buildings; and
4. other required cabling, retrofit or telecommunications equipment as required by individual building conditions within Affordable Housing buildings. 

State budget woes will not derail a major broadband infrastructure project in California, but cuts will be made. The question remains, where? Mark Monroe, deputy director of California’s Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative, offered an update on the state plan to develop a 10,000-mile middle-mile broadband network—the foundational infrastructure from which to build last-mile service, bringing high-speed Internet to some of the state’s most rural and hard-to-reach locations. The now-nearly $4 billion effort, an initiative born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, is about two years in the making. But in 2023, amid a state budget shortfall, officials clawed back $1.5 billion, leaving the project short. Monroe said the California Department of Technology is still studying which part of the project will need to be cut. 

Cable operators controlled more than 75 percent of U.S. net additions for wireless customers in the first quarter, according to a new tally published by equity analyst Craig Moffett. Simply put, cable operators are able to bundle discounted bundles of fast, reliable wireline home broadband and mobile that are undercutting the offerings of wireless giants. “Cable’s success owes to a very clear advantage,” Moffett wrote in a Thursday morning report. “Cable can offer its bundle everywhere; every cable customer—and indeed, every customer in a Charter or Comcast market—can get the same bundle at the same price.“That's not true for the TelCos,” he added. The wireline footprints of wireless companies including T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon “simply don't support a converged offering.” The wireless giants “aren’t even in the ballpark of having a national offering,” Moffett also noted. Consider that AT&T, the closest to that benchmark among the trio, currently has fiber available in only 12 percent of households. 

Much as it is in North America, Europe's wireline future is tied to fiber. However, widely deployed hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks will continue to live on and support customers for years to come. Fiber is clearly the fastest-growing access technology in Europe. At a high level, fiber accounted for almost half of broadband subscribers in 2023, a figure that's expected to rise to 65% by 2028, Julia Schindler, senior analyst for European Markets at Omdia, noted in her broadband outlook for the region. In a trend that mirrors some of what's being seen in North America, fiber's rapid rise is being driven by migrations from DSL and cable to fiber and by the use of fiber in networks being built in rural areas as well as in other greenfield scenarios, Schindler explained. However, "There is plenty of steam left" in HFC, said Andres Bloom, senior systems architect, broadband DCT, broadband networks, at Tele2 Sverige.