The Federal Communications Commission launched a major initiative to provide high-speed internet service to rural Americans in 2020, dedicating $9.2 billion through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to entice companies to extend their networks to places previously deemed too costly to reach. More than 18 months later, many of those rural communities still wait for broadband. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase 1 auction drew bids from more than 300 companies, but LTD Broadband was the top dollar winner. The company won rights to $1.3 billion to extend fiber-optic cable to rural communities scattered over 15 states, in some cases beating out local competitors. LTD has since missed deadlines to be certified by local regulators in six of the 15 states, prompting the FCC to block the company’s access to broadband funds there. At least 275,000 people live in affected areas of those states, census and FCC data show. LTD asked the FCC for more time to be certified, but the agency denied that request. LTD is appealing the FCC’s decision in four of the six states. In nine other states, FCC officials are still reviewing LTD’s ability to do the job, even though the agency has authorized more than 300 other bidders to move forward.

I took part in a webinar last week for the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) that talked about the good, the bad, and the money issues with the upcoming Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants. At the end of the session, the last question asked, “How do you reconcile some of the impractical aspects of the BEAD grant processes with the reality of the market?” My response to the question was to get immediately get involved with your State broadband grant office. The various State broadband grant offices are in communication, and there is hope that if enough States push back that the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) might soften some of the most troubling aspects of the grant rules. States also have another option, which is to build friendlier rules into the State grant rules since, at the end of the day, each State gets to decide who wins the grant funding. Internet service providers (ISPs) need to provide specific feedback to State grant offices now so that they understand how troubling some of the grant rules are for potential applicants. But at some point, an ISP is going to have to determine if it can live with all of the grant requirements. My first advice to an ISP considering the BEAD grants is to take the time to consider the aspects of the grants that you find troublesome – then categorize them. Some grant issues are just annoyances that will make it harder to ask for the grants. But other issues are more serious, and every ISP will have its own list. You should separate the troubling issues into two categories – issues that will cause big headaches and issues that are potential deal stoppers and might make you decide not to bother with the BEAD grants.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]

More Californians are gaining access to broadband internet, but Black and Latino households still lag behind their white counterparts, according to an analysis of the latest available American Community Survey data. The Public Policy Institute of California, which recently presented the findings, noted that the US Census Bureau survey paints a picture of expanding but unequal access to high-speed internet service in the state at a time when reliable internet service became a necessity for remote work and school. According to the data, 85 percent of California households had high-speed internet in 2020 while 94 percent had internet access of any kind, including cellphone data plans. Eighty-seven percent of white households had access to high-speed internet, compared with 83 percent of Black households and 80 percent of Latino ones. The divides were not only among racial groups; households headed by adults 65 or older or non-college graduates lagged behind younger and college-educated households. Likewise, households with an annual income below $50,000 were less likely to have access to broadband than wealthier households. Additionally, 15 percent of both Black and Latino households, and 23 percent of low-income households, reported not having a laptop, desktop or “other computing device” at home.

Gainesville (FL) officials have shot down a proposal to use nearly $10 million in pandemic relief funds for an expansion of low-cost, city-run broadband internet despite years of discussion on the issue. Instead, elected leaders said they would keep exploring options on the issue and would instead look at how to spend the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars on affordable housing, an issue some city commissioners agree is Gainesville's most pressing issue. The city commission voted 2-5 to dismiss the broadband proposal on June 16. The commission had hired a consulting firm to study a proposal to spend $9.6 million in federal ARPA funds for a pilot project to provide the Internet service through the city’s GRUCom telecommunications service. The plan would have allowed high-speed internet starting at $30 a month to more than 5,000 potential customers, covering neighborhoods around Northwest 13th Street, including Stephen Foster, Oakview, Duckpond and North East (FL) neighbors. Bryan Eastman, the founder of Connected Gainesville, said ARPA funds don’t come along often and this is a prime opportunity to address the digital divide, adding that the city is already losing jobs and residents to Ocala, which provides the service.

Big Tech companies are continuing to try and head off any Federal Communications Commission effort to establish what they said would be 'one-size-fits-all" standards for 5G receivers that would work against the FCC's goals of an innovative 5G environment. The FCC in April 2022 opened an inquiry into setting wireless receiver standards, one of several routes the FCC could take, alone or in tandem, to protect signals in increasingly crowded spectrum bands, a roadmap laid out by FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel. "We recognize that a variety of approaches may be appropriate, whether through industry-led voluntary measures, Commission policy and guidance, or rule requirements where other approaches would be insufficient," she said after the FCC approved the Notice of Inquiry (NOI). The NOI was unanimous, but that was not necessarily an indication of any unanimity on which approach to take. At this stage the NOI is only an effort to collect info on how to improve receiver performance and expand the FCC's traditional focus beyond transmitters alone. In June 2022, the Consumer Technology Association told advisors to Rosenworcel and other top FCC staffers that FCC-mandated receiver standards were not the way to go. While conceding an increasingly congested environment for RF signals that could only become more congested as the FCC opens up more spectrum for 5G, CTA said that "One-size-fits all mandates on receiver performance" would actually undercut reallocation efforts and "stifle" the innovation the FCC is trying to promote. CTA said self-regulation in the form of industry-led efforts, have the most likelihood of success, as it says has been proven "time and time again."