Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Some policymakers are calling for money to subsidize middle-mile networks. Because it is so difficult to precisely define “middle mile,” and therefore identify and measure its outcomes beyond simply being built, it’s hard for politicians and recipients of the money to resist their spending spree of federal funds regardless of whether it’s needed. More middle-mile funding can generate new construction and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, but nobody will ever know if it generated more broadband. 

[Sarah Oh Lam is a senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]

WIA Connect(X) show panelists were asked if there is a magic number that developers should target for the cost per home passed with fiber. Beth Hoffman, managing director with Berkshire Partners, said that a lot of it depends on the density of the market. The cost per home passed in a dense city like San Francisco (CA) could be as low as $700.

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 House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation held a hearing on May 10 discussing federal funding for broadband deployment as part of ongoing efforts to

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The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a new dashboard highlighting federal investments in high-speed Internet programs. NTIA developed the dashboard to accompany the Federal Broadband Funding Report.

One of the primary uses of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map for the purposes of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is the allocation process – the process of determining the amount of BEAD funds between the states, territories, and the District of Columbia (“Eligible Entities”).

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to use the Federal Communication Commission's National Broadband Map to determine how much money each state, territory, and the District of Columbia (which we refer to as “Eligible Entities” for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program) will be allocated in the BEAD program.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society recently launched an ACP Enrollment Performance Tool to compare expected Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollment to actual enrollment. The difference is a measure of performance. The tool displays actual ACP enrollment, predicted enrollment, as well as metrics that help users understand the drivers of good (or not-so-good) performance, such as housing costs or severe poverty.