The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded Michigan State University over $10 million from the Broadband Infrastructure Program, part of the Biden Administration’s Internet for All initiative. The grant, totaling $10.5 million, will fund middle mile fiber infrastructure expansion in partnership with last mile internet service providers in the state of Michigan. The project will take place in 74 counties, enabling a total of 103 access points with almost 70,000 census blocks and over 120,000 unserved locations. This effort will provide 16,499 unserved households across the state with high-speed internet that is more reliable and affordable, allowing them to more easily access the digital space for business, education, and entertainment. This is the final award from the Broadband Infrastructure Program.  The program granted a total of 14 awards totaling more than $288 million in funding. These awards are part of the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government effort to connect everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed internet.  For more information on other awards please visit the Broadband Infrastructure Program Awardees page.

The Federal Reserve recently raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percent, the biggest increase since 1994. The interest rate is still low by historical standards, with the fed rate now at 1.75 percent. But there is a lot of talk among economists that the fed rate will likely increase to as much as 3.5 percent in 2022 and possibly 4 percent in 2023. The federal benchmark rate is the rate at which the Federal Reserve loans money to large banks, and the higher interest rates quickly permeate through the economy in the form of higher interest rates for commercial lending, car loans, mortgages, etc. This is a particularly germane issue today because a lot of internet service providers (ISPs) are considering borrowing large amounts of matching funds for broadband grants. Higher interest rates mean larger annual debt payments, and that can easily make the difference between a business plan being feasible and not feasible. For a new project to cash flow, the new customer revenues must be large enough to cover operating expenses plus the cost of debt. The bottom-line advice in a time of increasing interest rates is to make sure that you understand the implications for whatever project you’re thinking of funding.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]

Consumers, regulators, and internet service providers (ISPs) all use client-based "speed tests" to measure network performance, both in single-user settings and in aggregate. Two prevalent speed tests, Ookla's Speedtest and Measurement Lab's Network Diagnostic Test (NDT), are often used for similar purposes, despite having significant differences in both the test design and implementation and in the infrastructure used to conduct measurements. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of Ookla and NDT7 (the latest version of NDT), both in controlled and wide-area settings. The results show that Ookla and NDT7 report similar speeds when the latency between the client and server is low, but that the tools diverge when path latency is high. To characterize the behavior of these tools in wide-area deployment, the researchers collected more than 40,000 pairs of Ookla and NDT7 measurements across six months and 67 households, with a range of ISPs and speed tiers. The analysis demonstrates various systemic issues, including high variability in NDT7 test results and systematically under-performing servers in the Ookla network.

The purpose of this study was to examine variables related to teachers’ perceptions of the impact of a one-to-one laptop program on learning. This study used a survey designed to determine the teachers’ self-reported level of technology adoption, demographic variables, professional development needs, and perception of the impact of one-to-one laptop availability on student academic performance. Findings indicate that most teachers identified themselves as Early Majority Adopters. A significant relationship was not found between the demographic variables and the participants’ perception of their level of technology adoption. An increase in the participants’ self-perceived level of technology adoption was positively related to their belief that students’ academic performance improved with the use of laptops. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between the participants’ belief that they had adequate professional development for incorporating the laptops in instruction and learning, and the belief that laptops assisted students with improving the quality of their work. While the findings are not generalizable, results suggest that school librarians must support one-to-one device implementation through student training, teacher professional development, and ongoing technical support.

Time is not on the side of Gigi Sohn, the White House's embattled pick for the open seat on the Federal Communications Commission. Tapped in October of 2021 to help carry out the Biden administration's broadband policy agenda, Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] has faced two Senate hearings that examined her social media activity and her recusals from key FCC business items. While public interest groups and industry authorities on both sides of the aisle support her, a mix of poor timing, bad luck and opposition from some lawmakers and industry players has elongated the process to a point where her confirmation becomes less likely with each passing day, sources say. It has been more than 500 days since the five-seat FCC had a full slate of commissioners. Even for those who support Sohn's confirmation, the delay in voting is proving worrisome given the congressional calendar. Ernesto Falcon, policy counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he was disappointed the Biden White House named broadband competition as a major policy priority but then delayed in choosing an FCC nominee. Though the seat became open in January 2021, Sohn's nomination did not come until October. "I do not think there has been a sufficient case made by the White House to the Democratic caucus to explain the stakes here," Falcon said. "I think it is Gigi or bust in terms of having a governing FCC."