Broadband Communities

Enrollment for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has frozen, as of 11:59 pm on February 7, according to the website for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but advocates like Gigi Sohn believe that momentum is on their side to keep the program alive. Sohn, the American Association for Public Broadband’s executive director, has been a leading voice to keep the program, which provides subsidies for nearly 23 million Americans to help pay for broadband services.

The first residents and businesses to connect to GoNetspeed’s fiber internet network in Manchester, Connecticut will be brought online this spring, according to the Alabama-based provider, which said 10,700 locations in total will be connected when all is said and done. Construction on the project is expected to begin in February, according to a January 22 release from the company. GoNetspeed Chief Operations Officer Tom Perrone said GoNetspeed’s network is intended to grow with the Hartford County community while adapting to Manchester’s needs.

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was confirmed by the US Senate in September 2023, has joined calls to renew funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Nearly 23 million households nationwide rely on the program, which provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. “We are at a critical time for the program and I am dismayed that the commission finds itself with no choice but to initiate the wind down process,” said Commissioner Gomez.

Continuation of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in some form seemed assured, and advocacy and industry groups support it, but opposition is growing. Opponents so far have been concentrating on the obvious:

Engineering work has begun on a fiber-optic network expansion planned for Springettesbury Township (PA), which will bring a future-proof fiber-optic network to over 7,500 homes and businesses in the community. Glo Fiber, which provides fiber-to-the-home broadband service, utilizes a 9,300-mile network owned and operated by Shentel, also known as the Shenandoah Telecommunications Company. Mark Hodgkinson, the manager of Springettsbury Township, said the township welcomes GloFiber’s services to the community. 

My answer to “who should build broadband networks” has always started with what should be obvious: Usually, the deployer with the lowest cost of capital. But technology and the $42.25 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program and other funding mechanisms have warped the equation. What are your community’s options? What are the deployer options?

The Biden Administration recently announced the designation of 31 ‘tech hubs,’ areas intended to become hotbeds of innovation, across the United States. The more than two-dozen new tech hubs will ‘have the tools they need to compete on a global scale,’ including Economic Development Administration funding opportunities and access to a range of technical assistance from agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration. According to Eric Smith, the Tech Hubs Program Director at the Department of Commerce’s Economic Develop