CCG Consulting

The clock is ticking on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Current estimates show the program may run out of funding as soon as the end of the first quarter in 2024. The only solution for keeping ACP operating is for Congress to refill the ACP funding bucket somehow. Angela Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance said that reauthorizing ACP was one of the biggest broadband issues on the plate for Congress. She talked about the many gains that have been made in getting broadband to low-income homes.

The Florida Legislature recently passed a bill that brings poles under state jurisdiction for any electric cooperative that elects to enter the broadband business.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Junk Fee Prevention Act  (S.916), which takes aim at eliminating fees that are not advertised for a product but that get added on after a customer buys a product or service. These fees were attacked this year by President Biden in the State of the Union Address. Telecommunications companies, particularly cable companies, are among the worst in having hidden junk fees that are not included in advertising but are added to a customer’s first bill.

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 Federal Communications Commission quietly won two court cases over the last month that most folks have not heard about. A group of complainants brought a suit against the FCC, saying that the agency didn’t have explicit direction from Congress for the creation of the Universal Service Fund (USF) or the authority to delegate the operation of the USF to a third party.

The cellular coverage in rural areas is drastically different than the national coverage maps that cellular carriers have been advertising for years. The Federal Communications Commission announced a process to address this issue in October 2020 when it announced the creation of a 5G Fund for Rural America. This will be a $9 billion fund that comes from the Universal Service Fund and that will provide subsidies for wireless carriers to build and equip new rural cell towers.

5G Americas recently released its annual white paper discussing the lack of activity at the Federal Communications Commission in making more mid-band spectrum available for cellular broadband. Midband spectrum is an industry-defined term for the spectrum between 1 GHz and 7 GHz spectrum. This is the sweet spot for cellular broadband because these bands of spectrum can cover the distances needed for cell phone data with a decent amount of bandwidth. The paper laments that there are no actions currently at the FCC to consider

In the State of the Union speech earlier in 2023, President Biden made it clear that he wants to see the monies spent on infrastructure projects follow the Buy America rules. The law says that purchasing funded by the US government should have a preference for using American-made products. The rules allow for waivers from this provision, but the presumption is that without a waiver that American goods must be used.

Verizon admitted that shutting down the 3G cellular networks cost it about 1.1 million retail cellular customers along with the corresponding revenues. This was long expected because there are still a lot of places where 3G technology was the only cellular signal available to rural customers living in remote areas, and a lot of people were still happy with 3G flip phones even where 4G was available. Verizon has been trying to shut down the 3G network for at least five years, but its original plans got delayed due to discussions with the Federal Communications Commission and then got further

AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said that the cost of building fiber has increased and that those costs are pushing up against the company’s goal of not spending more than $900 – $1,000 per new fiber passing. Any time I see a broadband provider talking about fiber costs, my first question is: What's included in the costs? AT&T’s low target number highlights two things – its advantage of being able to overlash, and a willingness to skip neighborhoods with higher costs. AT&T’s low target price also highlights that the company is shooting for a higher margin goal than most overbuilders.