State

Cal.net, a service provider focused on offering fixed wireless access (FWA) and fiber broadband to California’s Central Valley and rural northern California, has a new CEO and new funding.

Consolidated Communications now offers 2 Gbps symmetrical service to more than 3,000 homes and small businesses in parts of rural Maine. The deployment was funded, in part, through money awarded to the company and to the Maine Connectivity Authority. The funding came through the Broadband Infrastructure Program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The Maryland Congressional Delegation sent a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to update and improve Maryland’s broadband mapping data based on the state's Office of Statewide Broadband’s comments on the National Broadband Map. The Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB) found approximately 3,800 addresses incorrectly identified as serviceable by internet service providers (ISPs) compared to the state’s information on unserved locations. The OSB submitted feedback as part of the challenge process to improve the accuracy of the FCC’s service availability data.

Today marks the second anniversary of the American Rescue Plan Act. Funding from the law provided over $25 billion to jumpstart universal broadband access—including broadband connections for 16 million students through the Emergency Connectivity Fund for schools and libraries to close the homework gap.

How much impact will the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program—and the connectivity it brings—have on the poorest, most underserved pockets of the country? “Broadband deployment in this country has been market-driven, with private sector telephone and cable companies investing in areas that provide higher rates of return,” said Kathryn de Wit, Project Director for the Broadband Access Initiative with the Pew Charitable Trusts. “Profit and return are important to the long-term operation of networks, even for ISPs receiving government subsidies.

The Federal Communications Commission is targeting approximately $66 million through the Affordable Connectivity Outreach Grant Program to drive awareness and enrollment in the country’s newest and largest broadband affordability program in the nation’s history.

In 2021, the South Carolina General Assembly established the Office of Broadband Coordinator within the Office of Regulatory Staff to serve as the central broadband planning body for the state and to coordinate with federal, state, regional, local, and private entities to encourage the continued development of access to broadband in the Palmetto State. The office was charged with convening a collaborative stakeholder process to identify challenges to expediting broadband access—and so it established the Broadband Advisory Council to help guide broadband planning in South Carolina.

If governments are to truly close the digital divide, they must focus on encouraging community broadband adoption and making sure residents have tools to access high-speed internet, not just on installing infrastructure. While there has been a lot of recent talk about the need to better map broadband availability, panelists at Nextgov and GCN’s Emerging Tech Summit warned that there must also be a similar emphasis on ensuring that people can take advantage of internet access, or else some communities will not feel the benefits. And while investing in new broadband networks is a tangible way

AT&T is on a quest to deploy fiber broadband to 30 million locations by the end of 2025. But if comments from COO Jeff McElfresh are any indication, its ultimate goal could be much, much higher. McElfresh said that despite a choppy economic environment, demand for fiber remains high and its rollout is still delivering the right level of returns. With that in mind, he added, the 30 million target AT&T set in May 2021 is “not the entirety of what I think the market opportunity is there.” “We're going to be on this journey for a while.

New legislation introduced in the Texas House of Representatives could give voters in the state a chance to decide whether or not to throw $5 billion behind efforts to improve broadband there. The bill, known as H.B. 9, calls for the creation of a state Broadband Infrastructure Fund and would give the Texas comptroller and Public Utility Commission power to allocate the money for specific uses.