Fierce

Making broadband available to the masses is no easy task in any environment. But try doing it for people living in decades-old apartment buildings. A majority (82 percent) of multi-dwelling units (MDUs) over 10 years old report internet connectivity challenges, according to a recent study from Comcast’s Xfinity Communities in collaboration with Parks Associates. Issues include maintaining device connections over a Wi-Fi network and insufficient bandwidth, which can be difficult to fix due to the infrastructure of older apartment buildings.

A group in Vermont got so fed up with the lack of high-speed broadband in small towns and rural areas—and the complete lack of interest by incumbent telephone and cable companies—that it went to the Vermont legislature for permission to create a communications union district (CUD). There are now nine CUDs successfully operating in Vermont, and these groups are poised to garner the lion’s share of Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) awards in the state. The trailblazing CUD was ECFiber, which has been so successful that it doesn’t plan to apply for BEAD funds because it’s already

Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten believes that federal broadband programs have mostly thrown key economic principles out the window. “And a persistent digital divide is partly the result of that,” he said. Rather than just focusing on the cost of capital or the cost of laying fiber, he said broadband programs should apply economic concepts to "maximize total net benefits" for consumers and also balance trade-offs between supply, different deployment technologies and what consumers want. For example, he said a consumer could consider moving from 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps “a huge

Joseph Wender, director of the Capital Projects Fund (CPF), said that the program has awarded all the states and territories their portion of the $10 billion fund, and the awardees have decided to spend $8 billion on broadband infrastructure projects. The CPF was created as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which became law in March 2021. ARPA included a variety of programs to help Americans during and after the Covid crisis.

The telecommunications industry is pinning its hopes on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to bring broadband to all hard-to-reach rural locations across the U.S.

The federal government has set aside $42 billion to connect last-mile communities and just under $1 billion for the middle mile networks that will provide the backbone to reach those unserved homes.

At what point is it too expensive to deploy fiber? That's a key question for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program participants looking to deploy alternative technologies in hard to reach areas of the country.

State officials have been working hard to suss out what kinds of skills ISPs need and how best to attract and train up new workers, said Edyn Rolls, Chief Strategic Officer for the Oklahoma Broadband Office. For instance, Oklahoma State University conducted a nationwide study to identify what areas of the broadband workforce need the biggest boost, she said. GIS mapping and engineering skills would be most in demand, the study found.