Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Nokia says that it will self-certify a number of products as being manufactured in the United States and okay to use in the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The self-certifications are mandated by the requirements of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act. Nokia says it is the first vendor to have completed self-certification. The Nokia press release links to a webpage that lists 21 products that it has certified.

The relationship between broadband and other priorities for Utahns—such as employment, education, health, civic engagement, technology innovation, and entrepreneurship—is undeniably important and will only become increasingly so. Broadband infrastructure deployment and adoption are key components for accomplishing economic growth, accelerating educational innovation, expanding access to health care, and increasing personal connection. The State of Utah wants to ensure every resident has access to reliable and affordable broadband internet to enhance their quality of life.

Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program money may be enough to connect most folks to 100/20 Mbps, but those speeds likely won’t cut it by the end of the decade, said Connect Humanity’s Brian Vo. We’ve heard from the White House that the BEAD Program will help connect everyone in the country to reliable and affordable high-speed internet by 2030.

The Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office's Digital Equity Plan was finalized in March 2024. Four months later, on July 18, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded Michigan over $20 million from the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program for implementing this plan.

Consumers and policymakers always care about broadband prices. The issue is of particular interest to policymakers now that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has ended and as states try to figure out what the “affordability” requirements of the BEAD grants mean and how to implement them. Such analysis should begin with an understanding of current prices and how they have changed. This analysis uses three sources to consider the cost of broadband to consumers: the Federal Communications Commission’s Urban Rate Survey (URS), the U.S.

In 2021 when the pandemic was raging, President Joe Biden led a bipartisan effort to pass the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the Infrastructure Act so low-income families would have subsidized internet service. It was especially important to get low-income families hooked up since their children would need to do their schoolwork from home.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals threw federal broadband policy into chaos recently by declaring the Universal Service Fund unconstitutional. The decision threatens to shut down the Federal Communications Commission’s longstanding system of collecting fees from telecommunications customers to subsidize rural broadband deployment and Internet access for low-income households, schools, and other programs. For years, policymakers have acknowledged the need to overhaul the USF because of its ballooning fees, potential for waste, and outdated priorities.

Money is beginning to really flow into the U.S. fiber ecosystem, but the dollars are coming from a somewhat unexpected source—middle-mile and long-haul fiber projects.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Wyoming’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative. This approval enables Wyoming to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program. Wyoming was allocated over $347 million to deploy or upgrade high-speed Internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.  

This is the third Federal Broadband Funding Report produced by NTIA, showing fiscal year (FY) 2022 data reported by 12 agencies across 70 programs making investments in broadband. This is the first Federal Broadband Funding Report to highlight trends across three fiscal years of data collected. For the first time, this report not only will release a dashboard of major findings but will also include a comprehensive view of broadband investment data reported across the last three data collections—reflecting broadband investments from FY 2020 to 2022.