Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

The Federal Communications Commission recently opened a docket, at the prompting of federal legislation, that asks for examples of digital discrimination. The big cable companies and telecoms are all going to swear they don’t discriminate against anybody for any reason, and every argument they make will be pure bosh. If people decide to respond to this FCC docket, we’ll see more evidence of discrimination based on income. We might even get some smoking gun evidence that some of the discrimination comes from corporate bias based on race and other factors.

Low-income multifamily communities or those with a high percentage of unserved residents are now eligible to receive broadband deployment funding from Congress, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) reaffirmed this eligibility.  Each state is now building out its programs and establishing criteria that build upon federal priorities and requirements. This is a critical next step in ensuring the total and efficient disbursement of these funds.

It was worth the wait. The third round of the US Department of Agriculture's ReConnect Loan and Grant Program closed in 2022, after awarding $759 million in rural broadband grants and loans to 49 deployers, mostly small local exchange carriers (LECs). The average cost of passing each home, farm, other business, or school was just over $4,500, compared to $4,100 in 2019 and almost $6,000 in 2020. All awardees in this round, and almost all in previous rounds, told USDA they were deploying fiber to the premises.

If you zoom into Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband map, it doesn’t take long to realize something doesn’t look right.

To make sure that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding is used efficiently and not misallocated, it is important that National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) rules for allocating those funds be based on sound economic and policy principles. Unfortunately, that is not the case presently. As framed, the BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is heavily biased to favor and fund Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) projects.

The committee's oversight plan for the 118th Congress. Concerning "Communications and Technology Issues," the committee will focus on the following:

Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) along with Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA-16) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19) reintroduced the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (BGTTA) — legislation that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to ensure that funding for broadband deployment from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will not be considered taxable income.

The American Library Association and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition spoke with the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Data Task Force staff and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s advisor on Feb. 6, 2023 about including community anchor institutions (CAIs) on the FCC’s National Broadband Map. The groups expressed concerns about the current treatment of libraries and said CAIs that purchase mass-market broadband service should be included on the map.

The Internet for All initiative is a critical component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s overall strategy to build a more dynamic economy. It will enable American workers and businesses to compete on the global stage and generate new economic opportunities in overlooked communities throughout the country. Internet for All will create as many as 150,000 jobs nationwide – but to maximize the economic potential of this initiative, manufacturers and Internet service providers will need to build right here in America.

Matthew Hillier can't get Comcast service at his home in Arvada, CO. But that didn't stop Comcast from claiming it serves his house when it submitted data for the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband map. Comcast eventually admitted to the FCC that it doesn't serve the address—but only after Ars got involved.