Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
In Letter to House Speaker McCarthy, Biden Administration Notes Need for Additional Funding for Affordable Broadband
With the end of the fiscal year quickly approaching, the Administration is transmitting a supplemental funding request to the Congress to address three sets of critical needs for emergency funding as part of a potential short-term continuing resolution for the first quarter of FY 2024: assistance for Ukraine and other foreign policy priorities, US disaster assistance, and border security.
Who’s In Charge of Broadband?
On July 24, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission authorized a new subsidy program, Enhanced A-CAM (Alternate Connect America Cost Model). This program will extend subsidies to small, regulated telephone companies at a cost of about $1.27 billion per year for ten years.
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Challenges to Achieving Digital Equity or “Why Covered Populations Are Covered”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Digital Equity Act recognizes eight “covered populations” as disproportionately experiencing digital inequity. One group is individuals living in households with incomes at or below 150 percent of the poverty line. In the United States, people living in poverty tend to be clustered in certain regions, counties, and neighborhoods rather than evenly spread across the nation. Research has shown that living in areas where poverty is prevalent creates impediments beyond people’s individual circumstances.
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More Than 20 Million Households Enroll in Nation's Largest Broadband Affordability Program
More than 20 million households have enrolled in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the nation’s largest broadband affordability program. Thanks to funding support in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, millions of families who previously could not get online or struggled to pay for this modern-day necessity are now connected. “For a long time, closing the digital divide focused on one part of the equation—the lack of physical infrastructure to get online.
100% Broadband Access in the US — The Time is Now
In June 2023, President Joe Biden announced how more than $42 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding will be allocated across the US and its territories to bring 100% broadband access to nearly 60 million unserved or underserved Americans within five years. Now, the real work begins: determining how 50 states and six territories will put that funding to work. Despite the many funding initiatives aimed to solve the problem in the US, those finances are finite and currently trending in a “fiber-first” direction.
Missouri BEAD funds a testament to underserved population
Missouri was among the lucky winners of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, receiving the third highest allocation at $1.74 billion. But whether that amount will be more than enough or just right to cover all unserved and underserved locations is “the ultimate question,” said BJ Tanksley, director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development. “I think the thing about this is it also is a call to us, there’s just a lot of work to be done across the state.” Tanksley said that while Missouri “always predicted” it would receive a relatively high BEAD allotment, the stat
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FCC Announces Key Dates for Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection
On November 15, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order establishing the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Transparency Data Collection to collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of participating providers, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
New Mexico, Minnesota latest to say BEAD funds won't be enough
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.
Broadband Providers Seek FCC Tweaks to Labeling Requirements
Broadband operators are looking for some movement on broadband “nutrition” labels. Congress mandated the labels so consumers can better gauge just what kind of broadband service they are getting, including price, speed and quality. The Federal Communications Commission then came up with rules for the program, which it released in a Nov 2022 Report and Order.
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Assessing Broadband Affordability Initiatives
The basic tenet of universal internet service—that the government should assist those who cannot afford basic access to the network—has long been a cornerstone of American telecommunications policy. Unfortunately, it is far from clear whether Lifeline, the federal program tasked with getting low-income households online, actually addresses this problem. The recently enacted Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) threatens to compound Lifeline’s errors. The advent of ACP provides a unique opportunity to rethink our approach to broadband affordability initiatives.