American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) and the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) initiated the urban rate survey for 2024. The information collected in this survey will be used to develop voice and broadband reasonable comparability benchmarks that will be in place in 2024. The FCC will be collecting the rates offered by a random sample of providers of fixed services identified using December 2022 data filed in the FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC) tool.

The US Department of the Treasury approved $162.5 million in federal funds for broadband infrastructure and multi-purpose community facility projects in Ohio under the American Rescue Plan Act's (ARPA) Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

Officials from New Mexico and Minnesota are the latest to declare that federal and state funds currently available to them will not be enough to bring broadband to the underserved and unserved in their states. Bree Maki, the executive director of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development, said the state’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) allotment of about $651.8 million is “very close to” what her office expected. “However, we have statutory goals that are different when we talk about what unserved is,” said Maki.

State and local officials, telecommunications leaders, and advocates for high-speed Internet gathered at Keene State’s Alumni Center to connect with Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission. The group of 10 officials and advocates reviewed the state’s efforts to expand the reach of broadband and fiber optic Internet to underserved communities and residents. Sen. Hassan recognized that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed the US Senate on Aug.

The Federal Communications Commission committed $46.3 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. The funding supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 125,000 students nationwide, including students in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington. The funding will support approximately 250 schools and school districts, 13 libraries and library systems, and 2 consortia.

Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) announced that more than $400 million in federal funding and over $1.4 billion from the US Department of Commerce Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program will be used to expand access to high-speed internet across Alabama. Governor Ivey also unveiled Be Linked Alabama as the name and hub representing the state’s continued efforts to expand access to high-speed internet. Be Linked Alabama represents the state’s united effort to expand access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet to all Alabamians.

The Tennessee Economic and Community Development Office (TNECD) will begin accepting applications for $60 million in Capital Projects Fund (CPF) dollars for rural broadband deployments in September 2023. But not every county will be eligible for funding. “We wanted to look at counties that historically had very few applications for grant programs," Tennessee State Broadband Director Taylre Beaty said.

Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) announced the preliminary approval of more than $32 million under two programs of the West Virginia Broadband Investment Plan. This announcement includes applications received under the programs Line Extension Advancement and Development (LEAD) and Major Broadband Project Strategies (MBPS). LEAD and MBPS projects announced through this application cycle will provide broadband connectivity to more than 6,000 targeted locations with the deployment of approximately 793 miles of new infrastructure.

In October 2022, I wrote a blog about a bipartisan attempt to exempt broadband grant funding from being taxable income. Unfortunately, Congress has still not moved this legislation forward.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board has approved amendments totaling approximately $20 million to increase broadband grant funding for two communications union districts (CUDs). CUDs are groups of towns in the state that work together to obtain broadband buildouts to unserved areas within the CUD. The decision to up the funding was made via vote of the VCBB on July 18, 2023. Maple Broadband will receive $2.1 million more for its buildouts and NEK Broadband will receive $17.9 million more for its buildouts.