Infrastructure
Post-Pandemic, Here’s How America Rises Again
Hopefully, when Congress gets done allocating several trillion dollars simply to keep the economy afloat, we will be able to have another discussion: What should we invest in so we don’t just burden young Americans with a mountain of new debt, but also arm them with the tools to grow out of it and still prosper in the 21st century? These could be the most important and precious dollars we spend, so we need to invest them wisely, as President Franklin D.
Denied ReConnect Grant Applicants Get a Second Chance at $100 Million Broadband Fund
The CARES Act, which addresses the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has allocated an additional $100 million towards the US Department of Agriculture ReConnect rural broadband funding program. USDA has announced that denied ReConnect grant applicants can now reapply for this new funding with priority access. The additional funding has been allocated as grants to rural broadband providers to “…prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus.” USDA is setting this $100 million aside, making it available until September 30, 2021.
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FCC Authorizes $2.6 Million for Gigabit-Speed Broadband in Northwestern Pennsylvania
The Federal Communications Commission authorized $2,642,413 in funding over ten years to expand broadband in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. With this tranche of FCC support, Armstrong Telecommunications has committed to providing broadband at speeds of at least 1 Gbps/500 Mbps to an estimated 1,949 unserved rural homes and businesses in Crawford, Erie, and Mercer counties.
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Illinois Office of Broadband Seeks Reconsideration of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order
The Illinois Office of Broadband filed a petition for reconsideration of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) order, asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its decision to forego federal-state partnership on broadband deployment, asserting a partnership would help coordinate state and federal broadband investment to maximize efficiency and minimize duplication. Illinois also asked the FCC to reconsider its decision to continue to treat broadband offering 25/3 Mbps service as a viable minimum, and make 50/5 Mbps the threshold for support in the RDOF auction.
A Partisan Debate Emerges Over Internet Dead Zones
Speedier 5G wireless technology is rekindling a long-running debate over the best way to reach America’s internet dead zones: by wire or by wave. Cellphone carriers including Verizon and T-Mobile say new wireless technologies will let them serve more home-broadband subscribers without sending a technician to wire up a customer’s house. The companies have promised to build profitable services where other wireless broadband companies, like Clearwire, have failed to build a viable business, but they have yet to detail how many wireless homes they serve.
COVID-19 is a chance to invest in our essential infrastructure workforce
Infrastructure workers were essential long before COVID-19, but their economic importance has come into greater focus during the crisis and is beginning to shape the response, too. Just as our infrastructure systems require generational investment, so too do our infrastructure workers. Beyond protecting essential workers right now, there are enormous concerns over who will fill these jobs in the months and years to come. Policymakers have traditionally viewed infrastructure jobs in terms of construction projects.
400-Mile Fiber-Optic Network Goes Online in Colorado
A 400-mile fiber network built to provide broadband Internet access to 14 mountain communities across northwest Colorado officially went online the week of April 6. The Northwest Colorado Council of Governments has spearheaded the work, dubbed Project Thor. The loop starts in Denver and runs west, using Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) fiber along Interstate 70 and a combination of fiber services going north through Meeker, Craig, Steamboat Springs and Grand County.
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Answering the DC Circuit's Remand of the Pole Attachment Question
According to the DC Circuit’s logic, the Federal Communications Commission’s jurisdiction over broadband Internet access services now resides in some sort of regulatory purgatory.
Coronavirus exposes America’s broadband problem
Even before the pandemic, rural broadband had become a simmering political issue, an acute example of being left behind which some Democrats were using to prise rural voters away from President Donald Trump. It is a subject that resonates from congressional districts in upstate New York to presidential swing states such as Iowa. With the virus spreading rapidly beyond cities into rural counties, poor access to broadband has exploded into a major Congressional row, as politicians tussle over billions of dollars’ worth of stimulus money.
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ReConnect Program Update
On December 12, 2019, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and solicitation of applications for the Broadband Pilot (ReConnect) Program in the Federal Register. On March 31, 2020, RUS published a Notice in the Federal Register to extend the application window to April 15, 2020.