Infrastructure

Companies say internet network capacity has stayed strong the last two months, but some providers are struggling to repay loans, provide internet routers, or find enough personal protective equipment to protect workers from COVID-19. Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai told the House Communications Subcommittee May 19 one reason the networks have been able to handle the traffic increase is because of investments and improvements in broadband infrastructure in recent years. “Since 2016, for example, Internet speeds are up over 80%.

This report illustrates the remarkable progress cooperatives have made in deploying fiber optic Internet access across the country. It features updated maps that show areas already covered by cooperative fiber networks, areas where cooperative fiber networks expanded between June 2018 and June 2019, and areas where cooperatives are currently building out new infrastructure. A few important takeaways: 

The last time the country faced an economic crisis, Congress saw broadband as a significant tool to jumpstart the recovery.

Change is in the air for the telecommunications sector as vendors and service providers grapple with the fallout from COVID-19. While it may be too soon to carve all of the changes into granite, it does seem as though the industry is headed towards the dawning of a new era.  Adding more capacity going forward is top of mind for most service providers. But now that service providers, businesses and other organizations know that their employees can work from home (WFH) how many will return to the office space once the coronavirus restrictions loosen up across the board?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai shared draft procedures for the upcoming $16 billion Phase I Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction (Auction 904). With financial support from the auction, service providers will expand broadband service to millions of unserved homes and businesses in rural areas. At the FCC’s June 9 open meeting, the FCC will vote on finalizing these draft procedures. Auction 904 is the first phase of the FCC’s $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund initiative, which is modeled on the FCC’s successful Connect America Fund Phase II auction in 2018.

Every year, BroadbandNow delves into the world of municipal broadband with a report on which states have made it illegal for towns and cities and counties to set up their own ISPs, or make it really difficult.  The report for 2020, written by telecom analyst Kendra Chamberlain, has a silver lining, though.

Just as COVID-19 has made the Internet a necessity for the vast majority of Americans, it has impacted the short- and long-term plans of state broadband initiatives: 

The Federal Communications Commission authorized over $7.5 million in funding over ten years to expand rural broadband in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, and Oklahoma. These investments will connect over 3,100 unserved rural homes and businesses. Providers will begin receiving the funds later in May. The funding represents the 12th wave of support from the successful 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II auction. Providers must build out to 40% of the assigned homes and businesses in the areas won in a state within three years.

On May 14, the US Department of Agriculture made its final funding announcement under the round one of the ReConnect Program. Since October 2019, USDA has invested $744 million to bring high-speed broadband e-Connectivity to approximately 172,000 households, 19,000 rural small businesses and farms, and more than 500 health care centers, educational facilities, and critical community facilities located in 34 states.

The US Department of Agriculture is investing more than $500,000 to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Iowa. In rural Iowa, Breda Telephone Corp. will use a $523,749 grant to deploy a Fiber-to-the Home (FTTH) network to connect 113 people, 20 farms and nine businesses in Arcadia, Iowa, in Carroll County to broadband e-Connectivity.