Infrastructure
USDA Invests $3.3 Million in High-Speed Broadband in Rural South Dakota
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $3.3 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in South Dakota. This investment is part of USDA’s round one investments through the ReConnect Pilot Program. USDA is providing the $3.3 million grant to help SDN Communications deploy fixed wireless broadband in rural areas of Pennington and Lawrence counties in South Dakota. This service area extends across 13 square miles and will provide broadband access to 275 people, 14 businesses and two farms.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr Says Agency Coronavirus Response a Success
The Federal Communication Commission’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been successful, Commissioner Brendan Carr said. The virus has spurred organizations across the world to provide work-from-home options for employees, and Commissioner Carr said that the transition found existing US infrastructure prepared. “What we’re saying very consistently is this was a stress test of the internet, and in the US, it performed very well,” he said. Commissioner Carr attributed the ease of the U.S.’s broadband landscape transition in part to increased high-speed fiber.
The internet isn't broken — but its inequalities need to be fixed
The Internet is being tested as never before, exposing serious inequalities in Internet availability and utility. It seems to us vital that these inequalities be remedied, not only in anticipation of the next time the world’s population is forced to “shelter in place” but because these inequalities stifle the innovation and productivity that the Internet makes possible.
Judge Approves Windstream’s Settlement With Uniti
Rural broadband provider Windstream Holdings Inc. is closer to exiting from chapter 11 under a proposal that would allow hedge-fund manager Elliott Management Corp. and other investors to buy the bulk of the company’s equity out of bankruptcy while wiping out most junior debt.
Did the FCC Get the Right Answers on Broadband Deployment?
In October 2019, the Federal Communications Commission released a Notice of Inquiry (NOI), launching its annual review to determine if broadband is reaching all Americans in a timely fashion. Back then, we examined the questions the FCC was asking and how they might color its decision.
USDA Invests $2 Million in High-Speed Broadband in Rural New Hampshire
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that USDA is investing $2 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in New Hampshire. This funding is part of USDA’s round one investments through the ReConnect Pilot Program. USDA is providing a $2 million loan to help Granite State Telephone Inc. build fiber to provide speeds up to 1 gigabyte downstream and 1 gigabyte upstream to rural subscribers in Hillsborough, Sullivan and Cheshire counties in New Hampshire.
USDA Invests $71 Million in High-Speed Broadband for Rural Kansas and Oklahoma
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that USDA is investing $71 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Kansas and Oklahoma. This funding is part of USDA’s round one investments through the ReConnect Pilot Program.
Commerce Dept Announces Availability of $1.5 Billion in CARES Act Funds, Including Broadband, to Aid Communities Impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic
Commerce Sec Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is now accepting applications from eligible grantees for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) supplemental funds (EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance) intended to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. On March 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed the $2 trillion CARES Act into law. The CARES Act provides EDA with $1.5 billion of which $1.467 billion is available for grant making.
Three Policies To Address The Digital Divide
The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare many of the inequalities in America, including the differences in access to broadband Internet. Three policies that can help: (1) allow cities to provide their own broadband; (2) expand and reform Lifeline; and (3) provide tax incentives to firms that subsidize their employees’ broadband. The first of these policies stimulates the “supply” of broadband, while the second two stimulate “demand.” Together, these policies should help reduce the digital divide.
The System That Actually Worked
Amid so much highly visible dysfunction in the American response to the coronavirus, it’s worth appreciating the internet as an unsung hero of the pandemic. It has stayed on because people out there are keeping it on. The internet’s performance is no accident, but rather the result of long-term planning and adaptability, ingenuity and hard work—and also some characteristics that have become part of the personality of the internet itself.