Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Middle-mile may have become more important than ever in terms of fiber networks because all the last-mile networks that will be built for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program need to connect to something. But honing-in on a precise definition of middle-mile is a challenge even for industry insiders. Joe Pellegrini, president and COO with Great Plains Communications, said, “It’s an end-to-end system with real estate, points of presence….

Reps Mike Carey (R-OH) and Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to renew the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—a federal program that helped low-income households afford access to high-speed internet.

Republican or Democrat, one rare issue that can unite every American is the need to provide affordable internet connections to everyone. In today’s digital world, access to broadband internet means access to jobs, education, health care, and social opportunities.

Alan Davidson, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said that the agency is going to put out a guidelines document in a couple of weeks that will outline the use of alternate technologies in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) projects.  NTIA stated from the beginning that fiber is its preferred technology for BEAD projects. But in cases where that isn’t economical, other technologies such as licensed wireless or coaxial cable may be approved for BEAD funds.

We should not take our foot off the gas when it comes to the importance of better mapping, considering it’s at the heart of so much in the rural broadband space. Congress charged the Federal Communications Commission in early 2020 with creating a national broadband availability map. It is only fair to say that the national broadband map is better than any broadband availability dataset before it, and that it keeps getting better. But we are in no position to declare “mission accomplished” or even “good enough” when it comes to the national broadband map.

The death of the US government's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is starting to result in disconnection of Internet service for Americans with low incomes. Charter Communications reported a net loss of 154,000 Internet subscribers that it said was mostly driven by customers canceling after losing the federal discount.

One of the biggest challenges for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant is for State Broadband Offices to make sure that every unserved location gets covered by the grants. My understanding of the process is that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will not approve the BEAD grants being made by a State until they can demonstrate that every unserved and underserved location will be covered by the grants.

Across six Internet for All grant programs, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is already funding hundreds of individual projects, with hundreds more to come. A new type of data dashboard shows how the public can monitor the progress of construction and implementation related to projects in their area.

This episode of The Divide features John Horrigan, senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. We discussed a new report released from Benton assessing the impact of the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on low-income households and the economy at large.

Goal One for the District of Columbia State Broadband and Digital Equity Office is to make high-quality, affordable, high-speed internet accessible to all residents of D.C. in their homes and local Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) and drive equitable adoption of broadband. Key to that goal is ensuring that no D.C. resident must pay more than two percent of their gross income per month for high-speed internet. But, as a percentage of the total population, D.C. has more people with income below 150 percent of the federal poverty line than the US does overall.