Schools/Universities

The Biden Administration celebrated the one-year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan Act last week. The law aimed to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses. Broadband played a big role. A year later, we look at the types of broadband projects the American Rescue Plan Act is funding.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announces the E-Rate and Rural Health Care (RHC) programs’ funding caps for funding year 2022. The new caps represent a 4.2% inflation-adjusted increase in each program cap from funding year 2021. The E-Rate program funding cap for funding year 2022 is $4,456,460,992. The new cap represents a 4.2% inflation-adjusted increase in the $4,276,833,965 cap from funding year 2021.

A public-private partnership to provide internet connectivity for residents in the Val Verde Unified School District (USD) serves as a model case study for broadband deployment to hard-to-reach populations. Val Verde USD, located in Riverside County (CA) will work with hybrid network provider GeoLinks to establish the first-ever broadband service explicitly for families of the school district, with low-income households receiving the service for free.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is committing $63,613,404.33 in the 11th wave of Emergency Connectivity Fund program support, helping to close the Homework Gap. Since its June 2021 launch, the program has committed nearly $4.69 billion in funding connecting over 12.5 million students with broadband connections and equipment. This latest round of funding is supporting schools and libraries across the country, including providing connected devices and broadband connections for students in central Maine, Puerto Rico, Alaska, California, and South Carolina.

The Federal Communications Commission is committing over $86 million in the 10th wave of Emergency Connectivity Fund program support. Since its June 2021 launch, the program has committed over $4.62 billion supporting all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia.

The Federal Communications Commission granted, in part, a waiver requested by a group of Emergency Connectivity Fund Program stakeholders led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition extending the service delivery date to June 30, 2023 for all applicants who applied for Emergency Connectivity Fund support for equipment, other non-recurring services, and recurring services during the first and second application filing windows.

Inequitable access to the internet became a glaring public health issue during the pandemic. Here’s how three communities addressed the digital divide equitably and quickly:

Nokia is using the unlicensed portion of the CBRS 3.5 GHz spectrum band to supply a private LTE network for a school district in San Joaquin Valley (CA). Nokia announced that it completed the first of two phases for the deployment. It’s working with AggreGateway, a small wireless engineering firm based in San Diego (CA). The network serves students in the Dos Palos Oro Loma (DPOL) school district of California. Located in the predominantly rural San Joaquin Valley, the district comprises five campuses and serves a population of 5,000 residents.

Fresh off the heels of a partnership announcement, Samsung and Amdocs disclosed the deployment of a private CBRS network for Howard University in Washington (DC). The installation is providing connectivity for more than 6,000 students on campus. It marks the first deployment highlighting Samsung and Amdocs' new collaboration for private 4G/5G networks, including for CBRS and fixed wireless applications.

The Santa Cruz County (CA) Board of Supervisors voted in favor of two initiatives to better meet the needs of its public. First, supervisors allocated $500,000 in grant funding to Cruzio Internet with the agreement the company would expand broadband access to underserved populations across the county — an effort that will expand Cruzio's existing Equal Access Santa Cruz County project. Equal Access is a collaboration between Cruzio and the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County that has provided fast Internet to families who need it for a maximum of $15 a month.