Infrastructure

From where I stand, changing direction on Connexion now would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The biggest problem with Connexion, the city of Fort Collins' (CO) broadband service, is that the deployment wasn't further along before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Demand for Connexion has risen dramatically since COVID. With demand comes revenue with a short delay while they hook folks up.

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the General Assembly is considering Gov. Northam’s request to increase funding to bring better broadband to all Virginians. Such support is important, as students stay home and learn, adults stay home and work, and seniors stay home even as they visit their doctor. Funding for broadband would be an important step — and a wake-up call to the federal government. Virginia’s broadband challenges are multifaceted. In rural areas, nearly a third of households have no access to broadband.

MetroNet announced the completion of its citywide, 100% fiber-optic network in Lexington (KY), earning Lexington, with a population of 325,000, the title of largest Gigabit City in the US. For the last 2.5 years, MetroNet has been hard at work laying 4.4 million feet of fiber in neighborhoods across the city. Former Mayor Jim Gray set a visionary goal to make Lexington a Gigabit City in 2017, and MetroNet answered that call with a proposal to invest up to $100M.

Delaware officials announced that $20 million in CARES Act funding is earmarked for high-speed internet expansion, a demand magnified by upcoming remote learning necessitated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. CARES Act funding will be utilized to build out additional infrastructure across Delaware, gather strategic data through a statewide speed survey and acquire equipment and services for families in financial need. Additionally, 15 towers in the current phase of the Rural Wireless Broadband Initiative in Kent and Sussex counties will be completed about four months ahead of schedule.

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking input on how it should prepare its 2021 annual broadband deployment report. The report, which is intended to determine whether broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner, traditionally generates controversy, and 2021 is likely to be no exception – particularly considering that the FCC is proposing few changes to the methodology and definitions used in the 2020 report. The most controversial element of the proposed plan is likely to be the minimum broadband speed definition.

The City of Champaign (IL) is pleased to announce the installation of new equipment to provide wireless Internet connectivity to Champaign Unit 4 students living in the Shadowwood Mobile Home Park. Through a collaborative project, new wi-fi equipment is being installed in Shadowwood Aug 19-21, 2020, with the goal of having the equipment fully operational to support online learning by the start of the fall semester. The City of Champaign is coordinating the project with cooperation from Unit 4 Schools, i3 Broadband, Mesh++, Ameren Illinois, and Shadowwood Mobile Home Park.

The Federal Communications Commission released its recently adopted notice of inquiry to guide its annual broadband deployment report. One source of contention surrounding these analyses, of course, is the FCC’s reliance on shoddy data reported by the telecom companies, using metrics inclined to overstate coverage. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Congress have moved to improve the process via recent rulemaking and legislation.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing nearly $3 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Missouri. This investment is part of the $100 million in grant funding made available for the ReConnect Pilot Program through the CARES Act. In rural Missouri, Big River Broadband will use a $2.9 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to connect 4,839 people, 54 farms, 27 businesses, two public schools and one fire station to high-speed broadband internet in Cape Girardeau County.

As I noted in my dissent from 2019’s Notice of Inquiry, I fundamentally disagree with the approach of comparing broadband providers’ deployment in one year against their deployments in prior years to measure “progress.” I continue to believe this approach gives us little understanding of internet inequality and the ways to combat it.

By seeking comment, as we do here, on where service is and is not, we should be developing a record that supports an honest assessment of the availability of broadband across the country. But the ugly truth is that when the agency released its last Broadband Deployment Report earlier in 2020 it concluded that broadband deployment was “reasonable and timely” nationwide. In other words, it found all was well.