We'd assumed it had already happened before, since both companies are controlled by Chairman Charlie Ergen, but Dish Network pay TV and Hughes Networks Systems satellite broadband are bundling their services for hard-to-reach rural customers for the first time. 

New customers who bundle Dish pay TV with the Hughesnet Internet will receive $5 off each service. The bundle also includes a two-year price-lock guarantee. 

Dish and Hughes are now under the same corporate roof, following the merger of Dish into EchoStar back in January.

"With the combination of Hughes and Dish technologies, innovation, and leadership focused on rural American homes, we are more strategically aligned, and the customer remains at the center of what we do," said Paul Gaske, chief operating officer, Hughes, in a statement. "Rural customers have traditionally had limited options for TV and internet in rural America. Dish and Hughes are solving those hurdles by further advancing connectivity in rural communities to provide the best value in TV and Internet."

Hughesnet ISP tiers start at $60 a month for a package that delivers 50 megabits per second downstream. The company's technology backbone is now backed by the new Jupiter 3 satellite, which was launched last July, and is capable of delivering speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

For now, the Dish and Hughes services are segregated as two distinct services delivered by different satellites to separate receiver dishes on customer rooftops. But the two companies are working on various other forms of integration that go beyond billing. 

There's reportedly talk of bundling virtual pay TV service Sling TV with Hughesnet. Dish's Android TV-based Hopper Plus digital video recorder system is also being optimized to work with Hughesnet tech. 

As it looks to complete its pricey national buildout of a 5G wireless network, it would certainly help EchoStar to improve the cash flow of its legacy business.

Dish satellite TV lost 213,000 customers in the first quarter, but that did represent a significant improvement over the 318,000 lost from January - March of last year. 

And Hughes lost 26,000 broadband customers in Q1 vs. a year-ago quarterly loss of 51,000. 

Patty Judge, a former Democratic lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary in Iowa, said the FCC’s plan to reclassify internet access as a common carrier and impose net neutrality regulations will hurt, not help, the effort to close the rural digital divide.

She made that case in reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (the deadline is Wednesday, January 17), a copy of which was supplied by Focus on Rural America, a self-described progressive advocacy group that Judge co-founded.

Judge spoke out strongly in support of letting internet service providers “get the job done” of closing the digital divide, a task she called “daunting at best and near impossible at worst.”

“Apart from driving away private investment and adding regulatory burdens to an already complex buildout process,” she said, sounding more like a cable lobbyist than a former Democratic state official, “the FCC’s proposal will simply result in — as two former Obama Administration Solicitors General put it — ‘a massive waste of resources for the government, industry, and the public, as well as the lost opportunity to pursue more pressing policy goals such as deploying robust broadband service to all Americans.’ ”

Those former solicitors general, Donald B. Verrilli Jr. and Ian Heath Gershengorn, are even higher-profile Democrats who weighed in strongly against common-carrier reclassification in their own comments back in September. 

Judge told the FCC that while “disparities in connectivity across the nation continue to grow more stark between rural and urban communities” and the agency’s proposed new rules against blocking, throttling and anticompetitive paid prioritization are a “misguided effort that takes attention away from our collective goal: achieving universal connectivity, especially for unserved, rural areas that have been cut off from digital opportunities for far too long.”

While she praised the FCC for efforts to close the digital divide, particularly getting last-mile connections to rural communities, Judge said that “significant internet regulatory changes masked under an ‘open internet’ title only pull us further away from reaching a fully connected rural America.”

These days, technology-advanced farms are just as reliant on broadband connectivity as any other modern business. Sensors, automation, autonomous vehicles and other “precision agriculture” tools bring greater efficiencies and productivity to many American farmers, who literally help feed the entire world. The Farm Bureau projects that more widespread adoption of these broadband-enabled best practices could boost U.S. agricultural productivity by $65 billion per year. 

That’s a big reason why Congress is investing in a multitude of federal programs to ensure internet access is available to all corners of our nation, especially households, businesses and farms in rural communities.

One of those initiatives — the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural eConnectivity Program, or ReConnect — is due for some key improvements as Congress considers the upcoming Farm Bill. The adoption of targeted reforms Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) have proposed in the Rural Internet Improvement Act of 2023 would be a smart and thoughtful place to start. 

The ReConnect program has been a bit of an anomaly since its 2018 inception. Initially funded as a one-time pilot project, the program has been extended annually without traditional guardrails or oversight. That has generated some inconsistencies, coordination difficulties and troubling outcomes. For instance, the program’s grant approval process, which fluctuates year to year, functions completely outside the Administrative Procedure Act, preventing interested parties from even commenting on the decision making. And those decisions deserve review. 

Improving ReConnect, however, must begin with making sure its funding reaches the rural communities that truly need it.  Just about everyone agrees that scarce federal funds must go to ensuring everyone has internet coverage, rather than subsidizing “overbuilds” in areas where fast connectivity already exists.  Every dollar spent overbuilding current networks fails to help needier rural communities gain modern digital infrastructure. 

Yet the overbuilding threshold for ReConnect has at times been lowered from 90% of households without internet in the area (arguably still objectionable) to 50% of households without Internet, which means half of the project would overbuild existing broadband. Why? No sound reasons were provided when it was last modified as part of the infrastructure spending bill. Thankfully, the Rural Internet Improvement Act restores the 90% target and focuses on building networks capable of commonly accepted broadband speeds. If this simple but fundamental correction can’t be made, efforts to codify a flawed ReConnect should be considered a non-starter. 

Likewise, the bill precludes funding for areas already covered by other federal broadband efforts and boosts the provider challenge process. For years, policymakers have demanded coordination from the differing federal broadband programs.  Why in the world should USDA fund broadband buildouts in areas that have already secured Federal Communications Commission, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Treasury Department or other federal funds for the same purpose?  Even the most ardent supporter of ReConnect should blush at the notion of double-dipping. 

Equal Opportunities

Additionally, the Rural Internet Improvement Act moves the program onto more solid ground so all qualified participants can apply and have an equal chance to win grants based on objective criteria. So far, whole broadband industry segments that have met of all the program’s qualifications haven’t won a single dime. The probability of this happening is about the same statistically as a cat successfully driving a tractor. 

A fair ReConnect process does not undercut the likelihood of telephone and electric co-ops, which have been primary beneficiaries of the current structure, from winning where they are the most qualified and prepared to bring service. Policymakers certainly don’t need to tilt the process in co-ops’ favor from the outset. In fact, my long history with telephone co-ops suggests that they are exceptionally capable and attune to rural community needs to do quite well in an impartial application process. This is likely why NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, an advocate for telephone cooperatives, has been favorable towards the bill, as have others. 

In a perfect world, there shouldn’t be a need to maintain a separate broadband grant program within the Department of Agriculture. For various reasons, policymakers have determined that ReConnect should remain, and I won’t quibble with that decision here. 

But if ReConnect is to continue, then we should expect that it be run fairly and efficiently, target those rural citizens in need, not overbuild areas where existing private sector providers offer service of sufficient quality, and prevent duplicative subsidies for broadband builds already being funded by other federal agencies. Solidifying and codifying these principles is exactly why the Rural Internet Improvement Act would bring credibility and sustainability to any broadband provisions continued in the eventual 2023 Farm Bill. ■

Michael Powell, president of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association and former Federal Communications Commission chair, will testify December 13 at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on "Ensuring Solutions to Meet America's Broadband Needs."

The hearing is being convened by Communications Subcommittee Chair Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.).

The hearing will look at the general availability of broadband and the effort to close the broadband accessibility gap, with a focus on rural, tribal and low-income areas.

Also testifying will be Jonathan Spalter, president of USTelecom, Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, and Kimball Sekaquaptewa, chair of Connect New Mexico Council.

"This hearing will examine ongoing and past efforts within the public and private sectors to bring affordable, resilient and secure broadband to all communities," Luján's office said. ■

A bipartisan House bill has been introduced that would exempt billions of dollars in government broadband subsidy money from taxation.

The bill, the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act, was introduced Wednesday (Dec. 7) by Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) to plenty of applause from the broadband sector.

The House bill mirrors one already introduced in the Senate by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).

Specifically, the bill amends the tax code to say that broadband buildout subsidies providers get in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) are not taxable income.

"We are grateful that Congress committed tens of billions of dollars to broadband deployment grants through recent bills seeking to help close the digital divide in our country," said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA-the Rural Broadband Association. "But taxing broadband grants—requiring recipients to pay back to the government a portion of what they receive from the government—will dramatically reduce the impact of these programs and likely leave the hardest-to-reach communities without essential connectivity for even longer. It is critical that all broadband grant funds go toward their intended purpose of network deployment."

"Representative Panetta's and Kelly's bill to eliminate the counter-productive tax on broadband grants is right on the money," said USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter. "Closing the digital divide in America – especially in our hardest-to-reach rural communities – will require every cent of the $65 billion Congress has dedicated for that critical purpose." ■

The broadband subsidy bucks continue to flow out of Washington.

The Federal Communications Commission has authorized almost $800 million dollars more in rural subsidies from its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to six broadband providers reaching some 350,000 locations in 19 states, with the most money going to Illinois ($212 million), Arizona ($140 million) and Iowa ($113 million), the regulator said.

In its 2020 RDOF auction, the FCC allocated $20 billion for 1) rural broadband buildouts ($16 billion) and 2) unserved areas ($4 billion) over the next 10 years, money that can go to cable broadband providers as well as telecoms.

Also: FCC Proposes Millions in RDOF Default Fines

So far, the RDOF program has handed out more than $6 billion in funds to 47 states.

“This funding will connect more households throughout the country with high-speed broadband as part of our ongoing work to close the digital divide,” said FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who has made closing the digital divide a signature issue since she was a commissioner. “We are confident these projects can bring quality service to currently unserved areas.” ▪️

It has been a big week for government broadband subsidies.

The FCC said Wednesday (May 4) that it had committed another almost $39 million in its 14th tranche of the Emergency Connectivity Program Fund, a COVID-19 driven program targeted at closing the homework gap.

President Joe Biden has said that one of his administration's goals is to make sure that kids aren't having to go to a fast food restaurant parking lot to get the requisite connectivity to do their homework.

The latest round of funding is going to 140 schools, 14 libraries and a consortium in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Puerto Rico, and Virginia.

Also: FCC Hands Out More Rural Broadband Funding

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that the fund has now gotten more than 12.5 million students connected. Closing the homework gap has been a Rosenworcel priority sense she came to the FCC as a commissioner.

Elsewhere on the connectivity front, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration said it had awarded $77 million for broadband connectivity for dozens of tribes in 10 states. "This critical funding will bring affordable, high-speed internet service to tribes from Alaska to Rhode Island, and many places in between, expanding access to telehealth, distance learning, and workforce development," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is funded by the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which set aside $980 million for broadband to eligible Native American, Alaska Native and Hawaiian Native entities. The Biden infrastructure law authorized another $2 billion infusion for the program, so there is plenty of money left -- so far $83 million has been handed out including this week's $77 million.

The FCC also announced earlier this week that it had authorized an additional almost $200 million for rural broadband development through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). ■

In a move likely to draw fire from Big Government-bashing Republicans, the Biden administration has established a network of government officials — the Rural Partners Network (RPN) — it plans to embed in rural communities to make sure they can access infrastructure spending in the American Rescue Plan, including the billions for rural broadband going to states and principally overseen by the Department of Commerce.

The administration has said it wants to prioritize municipal broadband buildouts and will now place federal staffers in more than two dozen rural communities to “help local leaders navigate and access the federal resources they need to build a strong and vibrant economy,” including through the “once-in-a-generation investment in affordable high-speed internet,” as well as money for water, electricity, roads and bridges.

The Commerce Department will be one of the participating agencies in the RPN, which will be principally funded by the Department of Agriculture.

Also: NTIA Says Broadband Grants Aren't One Size Fits All

“Just making resources available is not enough — the federal government must better serve rural communities, so that they can take full advantage of these unprecedented opportunities,” the White House said Wednesday (April 20), adding that RPN will also “also identify challenges preventing rural communities from accessing federal support.”

Alan Davidson, head of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), has already said his agency is taking a customer-service approach to overseeing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) initiative going to the states for broadband buildouts. That includes an NTIA point person to help apply for the money. ■

Some former Democratic members of Congress have joined what is increasingly a concerted effort to block the nomination of Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden‘s nominee to the open Democratic seat on the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC presently stands at a 2-2 political tie, as it has been since before Biden took office.

A group called The One Country Project (OCP) said it has launched a six-figure ad campaign meant to “ensure that the FCC prioritizes rural broadband expansion and communities,” but in the next sentence defines the campaign as “aimed at raising awareness that the Biden administration’s [FCC] nominee, Gigi Sohn, is the wrong choice for the FCC and rural America.”

Sohn‘s nomination was not reported favorably out of the Senate Commerce Committee — it was a tie vote — and must be discharged from the committee by a full Senate vote before she can get a confirmation vote.

Some Industry Groups Urge Senate to Confirm Sohn

Among the project's leadership team are OCP founder Heidi Heitkamp, the former Democratic senator from North Dakota, and former Rep. Mike Espy, a Democrat and the first African-American elected from Mississippi since reconstruction.

“Given the significant progress that has been made in closing the rural digital divide in recent years, and all the important work that remains to fully close the gap, Gigi Sohn’s deeply cynical view of rural broadband is far less than what rural Americans need or deserve,“ Heitkamp said of the new ad campaign.

That view is not shared by a number of current high-profile Democratic legislators, including the leadership of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, who all strongly back Sohn.

Republicans and some opponents of broadband regulations have already been pushing back hard. They cite Sohn‘s support of network neutrality rules while in the public interest sector and at the FCC, where she was a top aide to Obama-era chairman Tom Wheeler, as well as her criticism of Fox News Channel on social media.

Others, like OCP, have latched on to comments she made in congressional testimony about policymakers focusing “disproportionately on broadband deployment in rural areas,” although that was by way of saying that urban area deficits — where affordability in lower-income areas is of concern — also deserve attention.

Also: Democrats Call for Seating Sohn at FCC

And while the project may have issues with Sohn on rural issues, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, does not. Back in January, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield urged Congress to confirm Sohn, saying she was someone her association could work with on crucial issues such as closing the digital divide and the related issue of better mapping of broadband availability.

Sohn also has the backing of the Consumer Technology Association, which was allied with her on fair-use issues during her time atop Public Knowledge.

Sohn fans see the pushback on her nomination as part of a larger effort to keep the FCC from the Democratic majority that will allow it to take action on partisan issues, such as new network neutrality rules or media ownership regulations.

Similarly, the Federal Trade Commission is at a 2-2 tie, with Biden's nominee for the fifth Democratic seat, Alvaro Bedoya, getting similar pushback from Republicans and some in the computer industry over his criticism of Big Tech and its perceived anti-competitive conduct. ￭

The digital divide, widened by the pandemic, is a literal injustice to those without equitable access to broadband, according to a new study.

The study, Cut off From the Courthouse: How the Digital Divide Impacts Access to Justice and Civic Engagement, was conducted by Next Century Cities (NCC) in collaboration with the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law.

The study looked at the impact that lack of broadband access had on access to legal services, many of which moved online during the pandemic and are likely to stay there. Among its conclusions are that remote hearings should be optional because while they increase access, they also can exclude those without digital access.

It also suggests that legal services providers should become ambassadors for the various low income broadband subsidies -- the FCC, Commerce, and the USDA all have such programs -- and community broadband programs available, saying they are an "overlooked touchpoint."

Also: NTIA: Closing Digital Divide Is Job One

Mobile broadband is not high on the group's legal services access chart, either. "Mobile internet service and devices are not sufficient for equitable access to courts, legal services, government proceedings, and public benefits," it concludes.

The study, which was based on interviews with public defenders, family attorneys, public officials, community organizers, and others, was released Monday (March 28) in advance of NCC's March 29 Bipartisan Tech event.

“The increase in exclusively online services accelerated by the pandemic has left a lasting mark on the way that residents across the U.S. participate in democracy, access public services, and exercise their rights in court," said NCC Senior Policy Counsel Corian Zacher. "Without equitable connectivity to accompany the transition, barriers to legal and civic participation will continue to pose insurmountable obstacles for already disadvantaged residents." ■

President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget, released Monday (March 28), includes more than a half-billion additional dollars in direct broadband aid, as well as billions in discretionary spending billed as, in part, a complement to the $65 billion already allocated for closing the digital divide in the White House-backed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The additional, direct funding is in the form of a proposed $600 million in additional spending on the ReConnect program, supplementing an original $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand high-speed internet access — or, in this case, build it in the first place — in rural and particularly in tribal communities as part of the president's Build Back Better agenda.

Also: NTIA, Rural Utilities Service Team Up

To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, applicants must serve an area without broadband service at speeds of 100 megabits per second downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, and commit to building facilities capable of providing broadband service at speeds of 100 Mbps (downstream and upstream) to every location in its proposed service area.

There is also $25 million in direct funding for rural telecom cooperatives to refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade broadband facilities. RUS is one of the USDA’s broadband grant/loan programs.

But in addition to that, the budget provides for $28.5 billion for USDA, which the budget says is meant to “complement” broadband deployment funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, as well as conservation and forest management.

Likewise, the Commerce Department, which is handing out the bulk of the $65 billion broadband infrastructure spending, will get $11.7 billion in discretionary funding to “complement major investments in broadband Internet access and climate resilience.”

"I applaud President Biden’s call for additional investments to support domestic manufacturing, secure our supply chains, and bridge the digital divide," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over broadband issues.  ■

With most of the Biden administration‘s $65 billion in broadband subsidies yet to be handed out, the Federal Communications Commission continues to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars to help close the digital divide.

An additional $313 million to be distributed via the FCC’s through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) was authorized Friday (March 25). Total authorized funding now comes to more than $5 billion, including more than $1 billion doled out in January.

The latest tranche of money will go for new deployments in 19 states.

Also: FCC Authorizes Over $1 Billion for Rural Broadband

“The funding announced today will help hundreds of thousands of Americans get access to high-speed, reliable broadband service,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “We continue our expanded oversight of this program through the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan to make sure that applicants deliver services as promised to areas that truly need help.”

That plan is intended to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, and make sure the money is going where it is most needed.

In its RDOF auction, the FCC allocated $20 billion for: 1) rural broadband buildouts ($16 billion); and 2) unserved areas ($4 billion) over 10 years.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration is overseeing the vast majority of the $65 billion in new broadband subsidies provided for in the Biden infrastructure package, but the FCC remains a big player through its longstanding Universal Service Fund money, which constitutes billions of dollars for advanced telecommunications in areas of the country that are difficult to monetize or reach.

“The Fiber Broadband Association commends the Federal Communications Commission for continuing to carefully scrutinize the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) long form applications and for approving fiber and well-designed broadband projects by authorizing an additional $313M in 19 states and 130,000 locations into the program," said Gary Bolton, president of the Fiber Broadband Association, "bringing us up to over $5 billion in RDOF funding to fiber and high performing deployments in 47 states and 2.8 million locations. We encourage the FCC continue to carefully scrutinize non-fiber projects, as this precious funding is desperately needed to connect communities with reliable and future-proof broadband service now and into the future.” ■

The Pew Charitable Trusts has teamed up with some businesses and nonprofits to launch Opportunity Broadband, a digital equity initiative.

The goal is to make sure that the tens of billions of dollars in government broadband subsidies being handed out by the Biden administration -- the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the American Rescue Plan Act and the FCC's Universal Service Fund -- translates to affordable broadband and equal economic opportunities for all.

Opportunity Broadband is meant to help communities "prepare to leverage connectivity, skills, and devices to realize the long-promised outcomes of digital equity." The vast majority of the subsidies -- over $40 billion -- is going to states and localities for their own broadband build-out and uptake initiatives.

Also: Democrats Suggest Broadband Subsidies Be Used To Promote Net Neutrality

"Universally available and affordable broadband, access to devices, and digital literacy are the first—not the only—steps toward achieving that goal,” said Kathryn de Wit, who heads up Pew's broadband access initiative.

Founding members of the coalition are Heartland Forward, the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center at Michigan State University, the Small Business Majority, the XR Association and the National Birth Equity Collaborative. The Quello Center is named after former FCC Chairman James Quello and his wife, Mary.

Look for a community broadband action plan from the alliance in the next few months. ■

Some high-profile Senate Republicans are asking the Department of Agriculture not to impose net neutrality conditions on broadband buildout subsidies, conditions that are essentially a USDA imposition of the FCC's scrapped net neutrality rules.

In its rural development broadband ReConnect grant and loan program, applicants get a preference--10 extra points in considering its application--for "applicants that commit to net neutrality."

To get the extra thumb on the scale for their application, according to the USDA, an applicant must promise that it "shall not (1) block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management; (2) impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of internet content, application, or service, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network management; and (3) engage in paid prioritization, meaning the management of a broadband provider's network to directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including through use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, resource reservation, or other forms of preferential traffic management, either (a) in exchange for consideration (monetary or otherwise) from a third party, or (b) to benefit an affiliated entity."

Those are essentially the network neutrality rules the Republican-led FCC under chairman Ajit Pai eliminated over current acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel's opposition and which Democrats want to reimpose.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) said it was "deeply troubling" that USDA had "suggested" it had the authority and expertise to determine what qualifies as "lawful internet traffic."

“Rather than attempting to impose monopoly-era regulations on broadband providers and politicizing the ReConnect program," they wrote. "We strongly urge you to reverse your decision to provide additional scoring points based on USDA’s determination of what constitutes ‘net neutrality'...."If USDA decides to make attempts at regulating the internet absent authority from Congress, it would lead to tremendous legal and marketplace uncertainty," they told the secretary.

"As you know, 'net neutrality' restrictions have been subject to much debate in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that oversees our nation’s telecommunications policy," they told Vilsack. "Any effort to impose unnecessary 'net neutrality' restrictions would be dangerous to our nation’s dynamic broadband economy and threaten future investments in broadband infrastructure."

The FCC under Pai defended eliminating the rules in part because it argued the rules had depressed broadband investment, something Democrats disputed.

Also signing the letter were Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

The House last week passed the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-BRIDGE) Act, which makes it easier for the Economic Development Administration (which is under the Department of Commerce) to hand out money to help close the rural digital divide.

The bill was bipartisan and came out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Specifically, it amends the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to remove barriers to broadband projects undertaken with EDA grants, including difficult last-mile projects, and ensures that the private sector and local communities can team up for broadband projects, including giving those communities more flexibility in meeting funding match requirements.

There is no minimum definition of high-speed broadband eligible for the grants, but it must have “sufficient downstream and upstream speeds to end users to permit effective participation in the economy and to support economic growth,” as determined by the Secretary of Commerce.

The Biden administration has pushed for, and Congress has just passed, the largest-ever U.S. government investment in broadband buildouts — $65 billion.

While most of the new federal money for broadband — some $65 billion — is in the infrastructure bill whose fate is tied to President Joe Biden‘s $1.7 trillion-plus Build Back Better legislative package, that package also has more than $1 billion dollars for various better broadband building programs. 

That includes almost a half-billion dollars to subsidize WiFi devices and $100 million to educate the public on the billions of dollars in broadband funding to low-income residents, schools, libraries and students the FCC is already handing out.

Also Read: More Than Four Million Tap into FCC Broadband Benefit Program

According to a draft copy of the compromise Build Back Better framework the president unveiled Thursday (Oct. 28), it includes:

• $475 million for grants (plus another $20 million in administrative expenses and another $5 million on outreach) to fund the distribution of WiFi-enabled connected devices (desktops, laptops, tablets and phones) that will allow all those potential broadband subs, including in low income and diverse communities, to access the broadband that is being subsidized. The device money includes for both new and refurbished devices with a maximum of one household of two people or fewer and two devices for households with three or more.

• $300 million more for the FCC’s emergency connectivity fund for distant learning, though not for any equipment the agency has determined is a threat to national security, so none for tech from Chinese firms Huawei or ZTE.

• $250 million for grants to public-private partnerships for pilot projects to find long-term solutions to boosting access to affordable broadband in urban areas. The government has been primarily focused on closing the rural digital divide, but has increasingly added urban communities and their affordability issues to its plate.

• $100 million for outreach and education “regarding the broadband and communications affordability programs of the Federal Communications Commission.”

• $7 million to stand up a 14-member Future of Telecommunications Council to advise Congress on “the development and adoption of 6G and other advanced wireless communications technologies, including 14 ensuring equity in access to those technologies for communities of color and rural communities.”

• $5 million to create the Affordable Urban and Suburban Broadband Advisory Committee, which as its name suggests, would advise the administration — specifically the FCC and National Telecommunications & Information Administration — on making broadband more affordable to both urban and suburban broadband subscribers.

Connect Americans Now, an eclectic coalition of connectivity advocates ranging from computer companies and app developers to barley growers and bison raisers, praised the inclusion of all those broadband bucks for building back better.

“Connect Americans Now commends President Biden and Congressional leaders for maintaining their commitment to additional solutions to increase digital equity and help bridge the digital divide,” executive director Richard Cullen said. “Access to an affordable, reliable broadband connection, and the devices needed to unlock the full potential of digital technology, are essential to protecting and realizing the American Dream in the 21st Century economy and classroom.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday that it will make $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants available to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities across the country through its ReConnect Program, part of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

“For too long, the ‘digital divide’ has left too many people living in rural communities behind: unable to compete in the global economy and unable to access the services and resources that all Americans need,” USDA Secretary Tom  Vilsack said in a press release. “As we build back better than we were before, the actions I am announcing today will go a long way toward ensuring that people who live or work in rural areas are able to tap into the benefits of broadband, including access to specialized health care, educational opportunities and the global marketplace. Rural people, businesses and communities must have affordable, reliable, high-speed internet so they can fully participate in modern society and the modern economy.”

To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, applicants must serve an area without broadband service at speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) (download) and 20 Mbps (upload), and commit to building facilities capable of providing broadband service at speeds of 100 Mbps (download and upload) to every location in its proposed service area. 

In making funding decisions, USDA said it will prioritize projects that will serve low-density rural areas with locations lacking internet access services at speeds of at least 25 Mbps (download) and 3 Mbps (upload). In addition, the agency said it will also consider the economic needs of the community to be served; the extent to which a provider will offer affordable service options; a project’s commitment to strong labor standards; and whether a project is serving tribal lands or is submitted by a local government, Tribal Government, non-profit or cooperative.

The USDA will begin accepting applications for the ReConnect Program on Nov. 24. The program will make about $200 million in loans, up to $250 million in a combination of loans and grants available. In addition, applicants can apply for up to $350 million in grants with a 25% matching requirement and up to $350 million in  grants with no matching requirement for projects in tribal and socially vulnerable communities. 

Vilsack also introduced the agency’s $50 million investment in 105 rural distance learning and telemedicine projects in 37 states and Puerto Rico. The awards, funded through the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine program, will help increase access to education, training, and healthcare resources in areas where they are otherwise limited or unavailable.  Some projects that have been awarded funding through the program include a $387,000 grant to OSF Healthcare System to 107,000 rural residents in central Illinois, and a $199,015 grant to UHS of Texoma, Inc., to provide a distance learning system to improve mental health services for 8,000 people in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma.

The FCC said Monday (July 26) that it is prepared to authorize over $311 million in winning bid broadband funding to 36 states from its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Auction. The auction allocated $9.2 billion for rural broadband buildouts over the next 10 years.

The FCC also released a list of winning bids now in default and totaling thousands of locations and tens of millions of dollars, including defaults by Charter Fiberlink of some of its bids, as well as co-owned Time Warner Cable.

The FCC said those defaulted winning bid areas would immediately become eligible for other broadband funding--the Biden Administration has given out billions of dollars in state and local broadband deployment grants, for example.

Charter won the most locations at just over one million of the 5.2 million locations. Bidders won $9.2 billion of an available $16 billion, with the rest to be rolled over into Phase II, which will now have over $11 billion.

Carriers bid on how economically they could deliver service that meets FCC speed and build-out metrics. The money is for fixed voice and broadband service to unserved, high-cost, areas at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.

The FCC said the defaults were a mix of winning bidders who had told the FCC they did not intend to pursue some or all of their winning bids, and those who had assigned their winning bids to related entities, which had told the FCC they did not intend to pursue the bids.

The FCC also said that the defaulting bidders would be subject to "enforcement penalties as warranted" and the defaults are being referred to the Enforcement Bureau.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called the $311 million a "significant down payment" on broadband deployment, in this case closing the rural digital divide.

The FCC also said it had sent letters to a number of bidders following complaints that the program was about to fund broadband to parking lots and well-served urban areas. The letters gave the bidders a chance to withdraw their funding requests "from those places already with service or where significant questions of waste have been raised."

The FCC said that it wanted to make it clear that "it will not tolerate any provider participating in the program that is not serious about providing broadband service or has not made appropriate efforts to secure state approvals. To this end, the FCC rejected requests from AB Indiana in Florida and LTD Broadband in California, Oklahoma, and Kansas to waive program deadlines, in light of their failure to act in a timely way to seek state certification.

"[W]e are refocusing the program on unserved areas and putting winning bidders on notice of their obligation to ensure that support goes to the areas that need it," said a tough talking Rosenworcel. "And for those applicants who are dragging their feet or can’t meet their obligations, follow the rules or we will disqualify you and move on.”

The funding has buildout requirements, including reaching all assigned locations completed by the end of year six, but incentives to build out all locations ASAP.

Charter had not returned a request for comment on the defaults at press time.

“The Competitive Carriers Association applauds the FCC’s decision to send letters to 197 RDOF winners based on CCA’s study showing that the RDOF program was poised to misdirect scarce rural broadband funding to wealthy urban areas," said CCA President Steven K. Berry. "The FCC’s actions will help ensure that genuinely unserved areas are the ultimate target of much needed resources for rural America.  As we have seen, it is difficult to determine coverage areas without reliable maps, and this is an important step to ensure the integrity of the RDOF program.”

Rural broadband advocates are telling the FCC that some of the money the commission is spending on subsidizing broadband in high-cost rural areas has to go to compensate for the unrecovered costs of massive amounts of video streaming entertainment, which means flexible subsidies rather than at flat rates, as is currently the practice.

That came in a USTelecom brief and an academic paper entitled, "Rural Broadband and the Unrecovered Cost of Streaming Video Entertainment,"* both presented in a meeting with FCC staffers by Andrew Erlich, partner in consulting firm Total Spectrum, and a number of representatives of rural ISPS, in response to the FCC's Connect America Fund plan for subsidies in high-cost areas.

The presentations assert that the rapid growth in streaming entertainment services has put increased demands on infrastructure and transport costs "without a corresponding increase in broadband provider revenue."

In fact, it argues, that flat and uniform pricing--and the similar subsidy model--may actually be increasing the number of high-volume users and thus exacerbating the problem given that data shows that lower income is associated with higher average broadband consumption.

And while big players like AT&T or Comcast can shoulder the costs of uniform pricing, for smaller players it is tougher, primarily due to the high volume of traffic generated by the streaming Big Five--identified as Netflix, Alphabet (Google), Disney+/Hulu, Amazon, and Xbox Live.

“Improving network capacity to accommodate streaming is a never-ending exercise...Providers must accommodate greater adoption of streaming across the customer base, in addition to supporting increases in video resolution," said one Indiana broadband provider, according to the paper.

*Paper authors are Roslyn Layton, Aalborg University, Center for Communication, Media and Internet Technologies, and Petrus Potgieter, University of South Africa and Institute for Technology and Network Economics.

President Joe Biden's 2022 budget, released Friday (May 28) continues to paint the less-than-flattering portrait of broadband deployment that has typified his push for massive infrastructure spending, including that broadband is overpriced.

That American Jobs Plan infrastructure package, which includes $100 billion for broadband deployment, is the centerpiece of the new budget, which says the White House, will "bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every household, including the more than 35% of rural families who lack access to broadband infrastructure, the millions of families paying too much for broadband, and the millions of low-income and marginalized communities left behind by digital redlining and the digital divide."

Also Read: White House Paints Depressing Portrait of Broadband

That 35% figure for rural families does not necessarily mean that none of those have access to broadband service since the budget says those are rural families who lack access to broadband at what the White House says are "minimally acceptable speeds." It does not elaborate on what unacceptable speeds are.

ISPs argue that rather than overbuild existing service, the Administration should focus its spending on getting broadband to those who have none rather than define lack of broadband in terms of price or speed or competition, which could lead to such overbuilding, including by the municipal networks and co-ops the Administration appears to favor.

Also Read: FCC's Rural Broadband Subsidy Bidding Begins

"[T]he Biden Administration’s call for investments in reliable, affordable broadband comes at a time Americans need it most," said budget fan and House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). "Our increasing reliance on telework and telehealth options proves that high-speed internet isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity, like any other utility. I applaud the Biden Administration for putting forth a budget that recognizes access to internet means access to opportunity.”

The state of South Carolina has teamed up with educational broadcasters, 5G tech suppliers, and others to launch a residential wireless broadband pilot project using COVID-19 aid funding.

The completed project, which was announced Friday, uses $393,104 in CARES Act appropriations to create the Allendale Broadband Pilot Program, which provides broadband to families with school-age children—employing a private LTE fixed wireless network using citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) spectrum—as well as via multiple public Wi-Fi hubs.

The FCC made CBRS spectrum available for such purposes in January 2020.

The residential network provides internet access to approximately 1,000 homes in the Allendale area with wireless speeds of up to 78 Mbps downstream/6 Mbps upstream, according to the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS), South Carolina's non adjudicator utility regulator.

Also Read: FCC Votes to Make CBRS Band More 5G Friendly

Among the backers of the project are Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), House majority whip, whose daughter, former FCC acting chair Mignon Clyburn, was once a member of South Carolina's utility regulatory commission.

At a press conference launching the project, Clyburn said it would be great to have fiber everywhere (cable ops argue a hybrid fiber/coax approach is nothing to sneeze at, either), but that in the interim: "What we need to do is get what we can get done now. And when people tell me we gotta wait on 5G and we have no G, I don't want to talk to them."

The goal of the Allendale project was to see how fast wireless infrastructure could be deployed—ORS says it took only 61 days—using existing assets, to a community without internet access, in this case rural Allendale County. "If you can do it in rural Allendale County, you can do it anywhere," said Jim Stritzinger of ORS.

Among the existing assets were South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) broadcast towers. The pilot project represents "a scalable model that communities around South Carolina and the nation could follow to bridge the enormous digital divide that so many rural communities face," SCETV said. SCETV President Anthony Padgett said SCETV had a unique set of resources that could be employed in that pursuit.

The South Carolina General Assembly authorized ORS to expend up to $50 million of CARES Act funding for broadband initiatives like the pilot project.

The project's partners, in alphabetical order, were: Allendale County School District, Allendale Hampton Jasper Regional Library, Dominion Energy South Carolina, Linksys, Ookla, Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative, Revolution D, Inc., Siklu, SC Department of Aging,  South Carolina Department of Education, South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV), South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS), SouthernCarolina Alliance, Town of Allendale, University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie, and Valet Technologies.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced to speed broadband deployments by cutting right-of-way "red tape" in rural communities.

Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have teamed up to introduce the Accelerating Rural Broadband Deployment Act, which they said will lead to easier and faster broadband installations.

Also Read: Rep. Delgado Introduces Broadband Bills

Specifically, the bill would:

1. "Make it easier for broadband companies to receive federal-right-of-way licenses allowing them to install broadband alongside existing infrastructure like federal highways.

2. "Ensure costs of federal-right-of-way licenses are fair market prices.

3. "Increase transparency into the federal right-of-way license awarding process. "

The bill drew praise from industry.

“We commend Sens. Daines and Kelly on introducing the Accelerating Rural Broadband Deployment Act, legislation that would accelerate broadband deployment by streamlining access to federal rights-of-way," said NCTA-The Internet & Television Association. "To ensure that all Americans have access to the internet, federal policy should not only consider subsidizing network construction to reach unserved households, but should equally focus on removing barriers to broadband deployment – such as existing obstacles that prevent timely access to federal lands and buildings – that slow private expansion efforts. We look forward to working with the sponsors and other members on this bipartisan bill.”

Flip the initials to NTCA (for NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, and the sentiment is still the same. 

“High costs are a large enough barrier to deploying broadband service to rural areas without adding costly, time consuming processes for gaining access to federal lands," said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. "On behalf of NTCA’s members, I applaud Senators Daines and Kelly for introducing the Accelerating Rural Broadband Deployment Act to ensure that providers can gain timely approval to access federal rights of way for deploying high-speed broadband networks. This legislation will make it easier to deploy essential broadband service to some of the hardest to reach areas of our country."

Also Read: Sen. Wicker Wants FCC Oversight Hearing on Broadband Mapping

“We all agree on the need to extend broadband infrastructure deeper into unserved parts of rural America, but too often our network innovators bump into red tape and outdated rules that can make construction slow, inefficient or nearly impossible," said Jonathan Spalter, CEO of USTelecom-The Broadband Association. "This is a common sense approach to increase high-speed connectivity from Senators Daines and Kelly. This plan expedites access to federal rights-of-way and streamlines the building process in service of a universal, bipartisan goal: bring the power and promise of broadband connectivity – the 21st century’s indispensable resource – to every corner of the country.” 

As advertised, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), joined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has re-introduced a bill to close the digital divide by connecting everyone to the internet at high speeds--1 Gig is the goal.

"Internet access will have the same dramatic impact on rural communities as the rural electrification efforts in the last century," Clyburn tweeted of the bill, which he previewed at the INCOMPAS virtual conference last month. "This pandemic has further widened the digital divide and exposed the urgent need to enact the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act," said Clyburn.

It may be affordable, but the price tag for the government will be $100 billion.

Also Read: Dems Push Billions for Distance Learning

Clyburn, who created the Rural Broadband Task Force, has said he has lined up support in the House and Senate for his bill.

“Internet for All is more than a goal, it’s a moral imperative," said Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS and himself a former member of the House. "Together our nation can and must, extend the power of faster more affordable internet access to every American family. The “Internet for All” legislation will create jobs today and make a bold investment in a better future filled with more competition, innovation and opportunity for all."

Also Read: LIFT Act Would Invest $100 Billion-Plus in Broadband

President Joe Biden and his team are working overtime to reverse the worst excesses of the Trump Administration. To that list of “must undo” items, they should add this: the eleventh-hour attempt by former Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai to impair a key part of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), created as part of the second COVID-19 stimulus bill. The EBB is urgently needed by low-income seniors, vets, and COVID-unemployed people here in Nebraska and other primarily rural states.

Chairman Pai waited until a few weeks before he resigned to issue a staggeringly demanding and overreaching “data collection order” designed to impede many of the wireless and broadband service providers who have been at the heart of the Lifeline program, the phone program for qualifying low-income Americans. It seems clear that Pai wanted to do whatever he could to tie up in knots the very companies that should be putting the new Emergency Broadband Benefit out there to the public in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why would Ajit Pai do such a thing?

Lifeline in the Crosshairs

During his time as FCC chairman, Pai presided over a far-reaching assault on Lifeline.  In the process, the ranks of Lifeline recipients were literally chopped in half. The former FCC chairman starved Lifeline to such an extent that only about 18% of eligible Americans now have access to the program, which is supposed to help ensure universal access to telecommunications for everyone, including the poorest among us.  When you compare Lifeline to other income-based federal programs — including Medicaid and food stamps, which serve well over 80 percent of qualifying Americans — it is apparent that former chairman Pai’s war on Lifeline was only too successful.

This is why observers were not surprised when the former FCC chairman (without the consent of other commissioners) imposed a massive data demand.  It was just another way for him to throw sand into the gears of Lifeline — all in the hopes of seeing the program grind to a halt once and for all. Getting a chance to undercut the rollout of the Emergency Broadband Benefit was just a bonus for the FCC chairman.

What is perhaps most ironic is that the onerous “data collection order” in question here is coming from a Trump-appointed agency head who claimed to oppose overregulation by the government. Yet this very same FCC chair paused in packing up his office only long enough to require a voluminous and burdensome paperwork demand … and one that would be submitted to a new FCC chair who never asked for it and has no use for it. (There already is an enormous amount of data demanded of and submitted by Lifeline providers. Until Pai made this move, no one had suggested the current mountain of Lifeline data was somehow deficient. And that is for a good reason: It is more than sufficient to manage the program in a rigorous and transparent fashion.)

Experts say Pai’s scorched-earth move to further undermine the Lifeline program violates the federal Paperwork Reduction Act, which is designed to prevent precisely the kind of abuse of government agency power that is on exhibit here. Here’s hoping that acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel (who is a champion for solving the “homework gap”) or the new Biden-run Office of Management and Budget (which administers the Paperwork Reduction Act and is chartered to shoot down this kind of abuse) step in and put the former FCC chair’s abusive order where it belongs:  in the nearest shredder.   

EBB Crucial in Rural America

The danger here is that Pai’s bureaucratic mischief will work exactly as he intended by hindering the new Emergency Broadband Benefit. President Biden, acting chairwoman Rosenworcel and Congress can’t allow that to happen. Nebraska is just one of the states where rural broadband is lacking and that creates an even bigger crisis in the COVID-19 era, where people need access to vaccine details, other health-related information, emergency services, employment opportunities, and older family members in quarantine.  Rather than leaving tied up in paperwork knots the companies that can make the Emergency Broadband Benefit a huge success, let’s unleash them to make life better for the millions of pandemic-stricken Americans who need this vital assistance now.

Crystal Rhoades is a Democratic member of the Nebraska Public Service Commission representing District 2. 

The Rural Broadband Caucus leadership is urging President Joe Biden to make closing the rural digital divide a priority in any infrastructure package.

That came at about the same time as one of the caucus' founders, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he would be reintroducing a bill that would spend $100 billion to do just that.

Also Read: Rep. James Clyburn Signals Return of $100B Broadband Bill

The call for rural broadband came from a bipartisan group of House members comprising Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Mark Pocan (D-Wis), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.), all co-chairs of the caucus.

“As you develop your infrastructure proposal to present to Congress, we write to urge you to include investments that will bring the benefits of broadband connectivity to unserved rural America and tribal areas," they wrote the President. "In the 21st Century, high-speed broadband is no longer a luxury amenity, but rather an essential service for homes and businesses in this interconnected world.”

Also Read: COVID-19 Aid Bill Includes $7 Billion-Plus for E-Rate

Clyburn has reached out to the White House to ask that his $100 billion bill be part of any infrastructure package.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said that the digital divide has morphed during COVID-19 to a monstrous divide that leaves people of color disproportionately on the wrong side. "This cannot stand," he said, adding that the country can no longer put off the hard work of digital equity. "This is the time. This is the moment."

He also called that disparity the "smoldering front" in the battle against internet inequality.

Commissioner Starks was speaking Tuesday (Jan. 26) at the State of the Net conference, the 17th annual but the first virtual. 

Also Read: NCTA Says Broadband Pledgers Should Automatically Qualify for EBB

He called the COVID-19 era both an unprecedented crisis and an unparalleled opportunity, starting with getting the billions in COVID-19 related Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) aid to as many Americans as possible.

The FCC has only 60 days to stand up at $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit for low-income Americans. The FCC is empowered to offer up to $50 per household per month for broadband connectivity ($75 per month on tribal lands), and up to $100 to subsidize access devices for those households that also contribute to the cost.

The FCC has gotten a lot of industry comment on the program this week--the deadline was Jan. 25--and Starks had his own, saying it should focus on two priorities (Starks is now speaking to an acting Democratic chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, and eventually a 3-2 Democratic majority, so his party will have the power to make those changes):

1. He said the FCC should do broad outreach that includes state and local governments, ISPs, philanthropies and others, pointing out that the current FCC Lifeline low-income subsidy--through which the emergency funding is being handed out--is only tapped into by 20% of eligible subscribers.

2. Starks said the FCC should make the rules as clear and simple as possible to encourage ISPs' voluntary participation. He said he has already started reaching out to ISPs and their associations to encourage participation.

But Starks also said he recognized that while the EBB, if successful, could reach more disconnected people of color than any previous FCC effort, it was a short-term solution to a long-term problem. 

Also Read: Verizon Proposes Government-Funded Broadband Debit Cards

He said the FCC has focused almost exclusively on the rural broadband divide while three times as many unconnected households are in urban areas. For example, he said, almost half the residents of Detroit lack access to broadband. 

To address that long-term issue, he said the FCC should update its Lifeline subsidy by entering into memoranda of understanding (MOU) with other federal agencies that when they administer programs with similar criteria to low-income broadband eligibility, they be told about the Lifeline subsidy. If someone is enrolled in SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), they are probably broadband insecure as well. 

He also said the FCC needs to complete its study of the Lifeline program and update the E-rate schools and libraries subsidy to make it clear that it can be used for remote education from home. The FCC under former chairman Ajit Pai interpreted the "classroom" language in the E-rate statute to preclude subsidizing home broadband or equipment, even in the pandemic when the home has morphed into the classroom. Starks called that a cramped reading.

Green acres with access to high-speed broadband is the place to be to find increased crop yields.

That is according to a new FCC report from its new Office of Economics and Analytics, which says that the growth of rural broadband has resulted in the growth of crops.

Also Read: White House Makes Rural Broadband a Priority

“Impact of Broadband Penetration on U.S. Farm Productivity" uses both FCC data and key crop—corn, cotton, hay, and soybeans—agricultural productivity data by county to draw the conclusion that increased broadband service has a "statistically significant" effect on lowering costs for fertilizer, fuel and seed and higher crop yields.

The FCC pointed to one example: A 1% increase in broadband connections of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps or better (the current FCC definition of high-speed) per 1,000 households was "associated" with a 3.6% increase in bushels of corn per acre.

Also Read: FCC Invests More in Rural Broadband

“I’ve had the chance to visit many farms and ranches during my time as Chairman, from Renwood Farms in Charles City, Virginia to Crane Farms in King Hill, Idaho," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who hails from rural Kansas. "A constant theme I’ve heard is the boost in productivity that comes with the use of precision agriculture and other broadband-based technologies. This paper confirms these anecdotes, and underscores the importance of the Commission’s top priority of expanding broadband access in rural and underserved areas."

President Donald Trump has pushed rural broadband, citing its impact on agriculture.

The President's American Broadband Initiative, launched last February, was driven in part by the President's desire to help farmers get high-tech connections for precision agriculture.

The FCC said that winning bidders in its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction have the money to deploy high-speed broadband to more than 5.2 million unserved homes/businesses (5,220,833 to be specific), which it said was almost 99% of the available locations in the auction.

The FCC, which released data following the end of Phase I, said the majority of locations will be getting gigabit speeds.

Related: FCC's Rural Broadband Subsidy Bidding Begins

Charter won the most locations at just over one million of the 5.2 million locations. Bidders won $9.2 billion of an available $16 billion, with the rest to be rolled over into Phase II, which will now have over $11 billion.

The auction allocated $9.2 billion for rural broadband buildouts over the next 10 years.

“I’m thrilled with the incredible success of this auction, which brings welcome news to millions of unconnected rural Americans who for too long have been on the wrong side of the digital divide," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "They now stand to gain access to high-speed, high-quality broadband service."

The auction includes buildout requirement, including reaching all assigned locations completed by the end of year six, but incentives to build out all locations ASAP.

“ACA Connects congratulates the FCC on the just-completed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, as well as the numerous ACA Connects members who will be receiving RDOF support to help close the digital divide," said ACAC President Matt Polka. "We especially applaud the FCC for ensuring that funding would only go to truly unserved areas, thus maximizing use of limited support and not undermining private investment. 

 “In addition, by awarding support through a competitive process open to incumbent providers and new entrants alike, the RDOF program will bring higher speed broadband service to unserved areas with far less federal support than has been allocated in the past," said Polka.

 “Further, by prioritizing bids for the highest speed services, the auction appears to have yielded substantial benefits for consumers in unserved areas, with more than 99.7% of locations receiving at least 100 Mbps service. Any future federal, state and local government broadband grant program should adopt these same requirements and processes in awarding support," he  said.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a vocal FCC critic who pushed the FCC to use C-Band spectrum auction proceeds (the auction launched Tuesday, Dec. 8) to help close the digital divide rather than pay incumbent satellite operators, had some encouraging words for the commission. 

“Louisianians without broadband access deserve the same educational and work opportunities that Americans who have high-speed internet already enjoy," he said in a statement. "The pandemic has made it more urgent than ever to bridge the digital divide in underserved rural areas—telehealth, telework, and online classes demand broadband expansion. I’m glad to see the FCC invest $342 million to expand broadband access to 175,000 Louisiana families and businesses. It’s past time to build out this infrastructure.”

Various groups have teamed up to ask the FCC to clarify how it plans to insure that 1) its upcoming 5G mobile broadband subsidy program will accommodate needy areas other than rural, and better insure 2) that diverse contractors have a chance at the money.

Related: FCC Proposes $9 Billion 5G Fund

That came in a petition for partial reconsideration filed by the 5G Fund Supporters, which includes the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, Rainbow-PUSH and the NAACP. They want the FCC to reconsider parts of its "Establishing a 5G Fund for Rural America, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order."

The FCC on Oct. 27 approved the final framework for giving out $9 billion in rural broadband deployment funds and it will not be handed out before the FCC collects better broadband deployment data. But at the request of commenters including MMTC, it agreed to expand the program beyond rural to other needy areas not necessarily fitting that geographic definition.

Related: FCC to Vote on Rural Broadband Funding Framework

"We laud the Commission for abandoning its reliance on 'rurality' in favor of an 'adjustment factor' that will prioritize historically underserved or unserved areas," the petition read. "However, on reconsideration, we believe the Commission should explain, prior to the pre-auction phase, 1) how the 'adjustment factor' will provide adequate prioritization to ensure that historically underserved or unserved areas will receive support in the Phase I auction based on need, low wealth, persistent poverty, and the digital divide; and 2) require that applicants for 5G Fund subsidies broadly disseminate contracting opportunities to ensure that diverse contractors have an opportunity to compete for contracts awarded under the Fund."

On the issue of insuring diverse contractors get a shot at the money, the petition points out that the FCC's Cable Procurement Rule "requires MVPDs to broadly disseminate notices of contracting opportunities when issuing major contracts." They want the FCC to extend that to the 5G fund participants, or what it calls "regulates that use other technologies besides cable and satellites."

The FCC declined to do that in the Report and Order, but the groups want it to rethink that decision. 

The FCC will use a two-phase, multi-round reverse auction to give out the money in two phases. It will also use what it expects to be improved maps of where broadband is and isn't, based on its new Digital Opportunity Data Collection initiative.

Phase I will target up to $8 billion of support to areas "lacking unsubsidized 4G LTE or 5G mobile broadband, with $680 million specifically set aside for bidders offering to serve Tribal lands."

The broadband must be at least 35 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream, and there will be build-out benchmarks.

The FCC also said the money would not be used to overbuild the 90% of the country where T-Mobile has pledged to build out broadband to rural areas, a commitment that was part of the FCC's agreement to allow the merger with Sprint. Phase II will hand out at least $1 billion--"at least" because it would include any unawarded phase I funds--targeting 5G for precision agriculture.

According to 2019 data released Thursday (Nov. 12) by the FCC, the number of Americans without access to fixed terrestrial broadband of at least 25/3 Mbps was 14.5 million, a 46% drop from 2016.

Related: Form 477 Data Due

The data was as of Dec. 31, 2019.

“In just three years, the number of American consumers living in areas without access to fixed broadband has been almost cut in half," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "We’ve taken aggressive steps to achieve this progress, modernizing regulations, freeing up new licensed and unlicensed spectrum, and making it easier and cheaper for competitive providers to deploy fiber through our ‘one-touch make ready’ policy."

The number of Americans in areas without broadband speeds of at least 250/25 Mbps fell by 77% since the end of 2016 while the number of rural Americans in areas with 250/25 Mbps service increased by 268%.

Related: FCC Says Broadband Deployment Is on Track

The data is based on the FCC's form 477 data collection, which has come under plenty of criticism from Congress, which passed bipartisan legislation mandating an improved data-collection framework, something the FCC was already in the process of doing.

Dish Network, long the rural market go-to guy for pay TV service, saw its video subscriber base rise in the third quarter, which some analysts see as a sign that the satellite TV company has finally been whittled down to its small market core. 

Dish added 116,000 pay TV customers in Q3, mostly due to its Sling TV over-the-top service, which added 203,000 customers in the period. Satellite TV subscribers fell by 87,000 in the quarter, slightly more than consensus estimates of a loss of 74,000. While the pandemic probably had a lot to do with that -- across the board consumers have been reluctant to cancel service when they are mainly confined to their homes. But it could be a sign that what analysts have expected for years is finally here. 

This isn’t the first time that Dish ended up with a net positive in its pay TV subscriber base -- it gained about 148,000 in Q3 2019. But this gain comes after three straight quarters of losses at Sling TV (94,000 in Q4 2019, 281,000 in Q1 2020 and 56,000 in Q2 2020). Whether this means that Sling TV has turned the corner too also is up for debate. It could be a combination of the pandemic, the return of sports or the fact that rival vMVPDs raised their prices faster.

Related: Dish Reports Higher 3rd-Quarter Earnings

Sling TV implemented a $5 per month rate hike in January, but rival YouTube TV raised its prices by about $10 per month to $65, Hulu Live upped its monthly charge 22% to $54.99 and Sony PlayStation Vue shut down. While vMVPDs aren’t where cord cutters are going anymore -- they seem to gravitate toward a mixture of direct-to-consumer offerings -- it could be that Sling TV, by far the lowest-priced vMVPD at about $30 per month was able to take advantage of that. 

On the satellite TV side, MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a research note that the steady contraction of customers over the past decade -- Dish’s satellite subscriber base has fallen by about 5.4 million customers since 2010 -- has left a rural base for which traditional and OTT distributors don’t want to or can’t reach. That should at least last until cable operators complete the planned expansions of their fiber networks into rural markets. Until then, the rural-centric strategy is working, Moffett said. 

While Sling TV has improved -- the Q3 subscriber gain puts its subscriber base about where it was in 2019 -- it’s not necessarily in a good position. Moffett estimated that Sling is “almost certainly losing money,” given its price point and the amount of programming its offers.

“It’s hard to imagine that even Dish sees a path forward to meaningful profitability,” Moffett wrote. “So what, exactly, is it for?”

Moffett didn’t have an answer, and Dish probably doesn’t either. So far it looks that Dish’s TV business is becoming an accounting play. It managed to cut costs in Q3 by its timely decision not to carry Sinclair Broadcast Group’s RSNs and a decline in gross additions helped drive down subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) in the period. But those, according to Moffett, are “non-repeatable tailwinds.”

Bernstein analyst Peter Supino wrote in a note to clients that continued losses on the satellite side could be a good thing for Dish if it helps ease regulatory restrictions concerning a future merger between Dish and No. 1 satellite TV service provider Dish Network. Last month reports claimed that the Federal Communications Commission would object to a Dish/DirecTV merger. But with a new administration possibly on the way, that stance could change.  

“While we remain cautious about Dish's Pay TV business, over time, bad may be good for satellite TV, to the extent it improves the regulatory backdrop for a merger of DirecTV and Dish once the next FCC Chair is in place,” Supino wrote

DirecTV parent AT&T has been unofficially shopping the satellite unit to potential buyers -- with the most recent reports saying several private equity firms have expressed interest in buying an interest in a combined DirecTV, U-verse TV and virtual MVPD AT&T TV Now.  Dish chairman Charlie  Ergen, who in the past called a Dish/DirecTV merger “inevitable,” reiterated those thoughts Friday on a conference call with analysts.

“Make no mistake, whether it’s a year from now or 10 years from now, I believe it’s inevitable those companies go together,” Ergen said.

In the meantime, Dish is most likely running the satellite business for cash, which in turn could be a source of funding for the business most investors seem to care about -- wireless. But the wireless business is pretty murky too. Dish has a lot of spectrum but hasn’t yet built out the network that will take advantage of that. And the prepaid wireless business -- Boost Mobile, which it acquired from T-Mobile, part of the regulatory approval requirements for the larger company’s purchase of Sprint -- isn’t seeming much better. In its characteristically sparse Q3 press release, Dish said it had lost about 212,000 retail wireless customers. Boost ended the quarter with about 9.4 million customers.          

On the Friday conference call, Ergen offered more information regarding its wireless buildout plans. Dish’s wireless network will be based on open RAN (radio access network) technology, but Ergen said it won’t fire up service in its first major market until Q3 2021. Asked how he plans to cover 70% of the country by June 2023 -- one of the federal requirements for his wireless licenses -- Ergen said that Dish would activate smaller communities in Q1, and is on track in its 5G deployment.

“We look at businesses where we can build something less expensive and better,” Ergen said on the call, adding that the Dish wireless network will be more flexible. “This network can do what other networks can’t do.”

He explained that using the network slicing capabilities of its cloud-native open RAN technology, should be popular with businesses with private networks. “That’s relatively unique to Dish wireless,” Ergen said. “I’m not sure we have competition for that. ...We’ll be a factor in the consumer business, but an even bigger factor in the enterprise business.”

Ergen still believes he can build the network for $10 billion, a figure some analysts have called dangerously low. But Ergen said with the open RAN architecture and its MVNO agreement with T-Mobile, that cost can be spread out over a longer period.

“While initially we thought that $10 billion might be spent over three years, with the MVNO network deal with T-Mobile, we have a nationwide network today, we have use of a nationwide network today,” Ergen said. “And now we don’t have to wait until we build the whole network to monetize it. ...The net effect is that $10 billion is spread out over seven years instead of being stretched out for three years.” 

Wireless margins in the period were a slender 5.9% (other prepaid providers like Tracfone, have margins in the 10% range, surprising in that Dish had earlier touted its low variable costs due to the great deal it got from T-Mobile, which at the time was  pretty desperate to sell Boost Mobile and get its Sprint deal done. But Moffett added that maybe those costs are still low, but other factors compressed margins. 

“Perhaps that’s not a sign of underlying costs of goods sold, and instead reflects inflated SG&A costs as Dish gets its arm around a new business,” Moffett wrote. “Only time will tell.” 

The FCC has launched its latest effort to bridge the rural digital divide, beginning the bidding on phase one its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). 

In August 2019, the FCC voted to propose handing out over $20 billion in Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidies for rural fixed broadband over the next decade, money that could go to cable broadband providers as well as telecoms. 

The FCC is giving out up to $16 billion in phase one to deploy broadband, with 386 providers having qualified to bid in the reverse auction.

Related: FCC Releases List of RDOF-Eligible Locations

The money will fund service for up to 10.25 million people. The FCC deemed roughly 5.3 million unserved locations--home and businesses--in areas eligible for the $16 billion in subsidies. Those are locations the FCC has determined lack high-speed broadband at the required speeds. The second phase of RDOF money--about $4 billion--will go to underserved areas. 

While service of at least the FCC's 25 mbps upstream/3 mbps downstream high speed definition is eligible for the money, the FCC will prioritize bids for higher speeds and lower latency. 

Related: Are You Ready for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund  

“Today, I’m excited to announce that the bell has rung on the start of our historic $16 billion auction—one that will pave the the way for up to 10 million rural Americans to get broadband service," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. "This is the biggest step yet in our ongoing commitment to close the digital divide."

The 386 applicants are a 75% increase over the number of bidders in the 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II auction, which was the forerunner of RDOF.

Commission Democrats had argued the FCC should not give out that money until it had gotten better data on where broadband is and isn't, something it is working on on its own initiative as well as at the command of Congress. But the FCC's Republican majority voted to proceed. Pai said the data on where broadband isn't was pretty solid--it is where data shows it is, but it turns out it isn't, that is the bigger issue. Delaying the bidding until the completion of a better data-collection framework would needlessly delay closing the rural digital divide, he argued, saying: "Digital opportunity delayed is digital opportunity denied." 

Actually, the June vote on the auction framework was unanimous--the Dems want the rural digital divide closed, too--but those Dems also used their public statements to hammer the item for giving out the money before the FCC had fixed the broadband maps, so both dissented from that part while approving the item as a whole.

As structured, the auction 1) adopts census blocks as the smallest geographic area for bidding, 2) reserves bids only for technologies proven to provide mass market retail broadband, 3) insures that bidders have the experience, the money, and the technology to meet performance requirements, and 4) adopts a multi-round, descending clock auction, which means low bid that meets performance and latency requirements wins. 

The FCC is prohibiting commonly controlled entities from filing more than one application and banning joint bidding arrangements.  

“RDOF’s mission: narrow the digital divide, maximize rural deployment and target the truly unserved is a connectivity mission shared by all USTelecom members," said Association President Jonathan Spalter. "These innovators built the high-speed communications networks that connect more rural Americans to the internet than any other industry segment, and they are leading the charge to connect all consumers. Broadband deployment can be tough and expensive work, but with a partner at the FCC that shares our belief in the essential role of broadband, bringing quality connectivity to the most remote parts of the country takes an important step forward today.”

The FCC has approved the final framework for giving out $9 billion in rural broadband deployment funds and it will not be handed out before the FCC collects better broadband deployment data.

The item was voted at the FCC's Oct. 27 meeting.

The FCC will use a two-phase, multi-round reverse auctions to hand out the money in two phases for the Rural 5G Fund. It will also use the improved maps on where broadband is and isn't based on its new Digital Opportunity Data Collection.

Related: FCC to Vote on Rural Broadband Funding Framework

Phase I will target up to $8 billion of support to areas "lacking unsubsidized 4G LTE or 5G mobile broadband, with $680 million specifically set aside for bidders offering to serve Tribal lands."

The broadband must be at least 35 mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream, and there will be build-out benchmarks.

The FCC also said the money would not be used to overbuild the 90% of the country where T-Mobile has pledged to build out broadband to rural areas, a commitment that was part of the FCC's agreement to allow the merger with Sprint.

Phase II will hand out at least $1 billion--"at least" because it would include any unawarded phase I funds--targeting 5G for precision agriculture, which is an avowed priority of President Trump.

FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly had signaled he would not vote for the framework unless the FCC used better data to identify where broadband already is or isn't. Given that the Democrats on the commission had pushed for better maps before money, that change to FCC chairman Ajit Pai's original proposal was clearly necessary if the item was going to be approved.

The FCC had voted back in April to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the proposal to give out up to $9 billion over a decade for 5G buildouts, which is about $450 million per year more than the Universal Service Fund (USF) Mobility Fund allocation, which it is replacing. The extra money will also come from USF. The FCC is targeting rural areas that will be less likely to get 5G absent that support. 

“A key predicate to bringing the transformative power of 5G to hard-to-reach rural communities is the extension of wired networks deeper into targeted rural areas where we must scale our communications infrastructure and lay lots of fiber," said USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter. "The approval of this major federal investment today will be critical to America’s collective 5G future and a down payment on the public/private partnerships that will transport superfast 5G traffic over our country’s wired communications networks.”

The FCC has released the list of rural areas eligible for the phase I of its Rural Opportunity Development Fund reverse auction for up to $16 billion in subsidies for rural broadband buildouts.

California has the most eligible locations--homes and businesses--with 370,986 and North Dakota the fewest with 2,780.

The money will go to census tracks lacking the FCC's definition of minimum high-speed broadband service.

The FCC said those eligible areas have about 5.3 million unserved homes, or perhaps upwards of 10 million people, as well as businesses.

Related: Rep. Doyle Says ISPs Claim Service Where it Isn't

The FCC released the preliminary list back in June then allowed for time to challenge that list if folks thought locations needed to be added or deleted.

While anything over the FCC's 25 mbps upstream/3 mbps downstream high speed definition is eligible for the money, the FCC will prioritize bids for higher speeds and lower latency. 

"The current pandemic has highlighted the importance of bringing broadband access to all Americans, and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is our boldest step yet to bridge the digital divide," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "Our announcement today demonstrates the broad impact that our investment in rural America will have across the country."

The FCC is scheduled to auction access to that $16 billion (phase one) of the $20.4 billion in RDOF funding starting Oct. 29. The money will be awarded over 10 years to providers to offer fixed voice and broadband to unserved, high-cost, areas, at speeds of at least that 25/3 mbps. 

The second tranche of RDOF money--about $4 billion--will go to underserved, rather than unserved, areas.   

The FCC has come up with the final framework for giving out $9 billion in rural broadband deployment funds and it will not be handed out before the FCC collects better broadband deployment data.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said he has circulated that framework for a vote at the Oct. 27 meeting.

Related: FCC Launches 2021 Broadband Deployment Data Collection

The FCC will use reverse auctions to hand out the money in two phases for the Rural 5G Fund. It will also use the improved maps on where broadband is and isn't based on its new Digital Opportunity Data Collection.

"This approach won’t be the fastest possible path to the Phase I auction, but it will allow us to identify with greater precision those areas of the country where support is most needed and will be spent most efficiently," said Pai. 

FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly had signaled he would not vote for the framework unless the FCC used that better data. Given that the Democrats on the commission had pushed for better maps first, the change appeared necessary if the item was going to pass.

The FCC voted back in April to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the proposal to give out up to $9 billion over a decade for 5G buildouts, which is about $450 million per year more than the Universal Service Fund (USF) Mobility Fund allocation, which it is replacing. The extra money will also come from USF. The FCC will target rural areas that will be less likely to get 5G absent that support.  

The "maps before money" mantra is more associated with Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and the FCC's $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunities Fund, but O'Rielly told a Senate Commerce Committee panel back in June that, "[U]nlike the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) proceeding, which was already in motion prior to the passage of the Broadband DATA Act [Congress' mandate for better maps], the Rural 5G Fund mechanism appears to be within the ambit of a 'new award of funding' for which the FCC would need to use the statutorily-required maps," he said when he voted for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking back in April. 

The FCC, Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are teaming up to tackle rural telehealth at the direction of the President and in the shadow of a pandemic that has lit a fire under that effort.

The three have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate and share information about disparities in rural health care, help ISPs and promote broadband tech to rural areas. The effort, which came at the direction of President Trump in his executive order on access to rural health and telehealth, also includes creating an interagency task force that will meet regularly and make recommendations for the exchange of "agency expertise, scientific and technical information, data, and publications."

"Rural Americans are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and strokes than their urban counterparts," the FCC said in announcing the MOU. "Telemedicine plays an increasingly critical part in treating patients, improving health outcomes, lowering costs, and helping health care providers maximize their impact on their communities, especially in rural areas of the United States."

"Increasingly critical" in part because the pandemic has made people less likely to venture out for a physical appointment.

“From the beginning of my tenure at the FCC, I’ve heard and shared the view that telemedicine is a game-changer for rural America," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. "The COVID-19 pandemic has made the rural healthcare challenge even more serious and has complicated healthcare providers’ efforts to serve rural Americans. More than ever, these areas of the country need enhanced connectivity to provide vital health services to residents."

Congress as part of its COVID-19 aid package gave the FCC $200 million for telehealth connected care services and devices , which it handed out in a matter of weeks, but clearly more needs to be done. 

Farmer cooperative Land O' Lakes has teamed up with more than four dozen other entities to formalize their coalition to close the digital divide and promote better broadband, the bread-and-butter of communities rural and urban. 

Precision agriculture is one of the applications driving President Donald Trump to try and close the digital divide, which is primarily rural though not exclusively, and Land O' Lakes has plenty of experience with collective action and power. 

“All too often, farmers, business owners and even school children are disadvantaged by being on the wrong side of our country’s digital divide, a problem that has become more acute as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19,” said Beth Ford, president of Land O’Lakes, Inc., who suggests it is a coalition of those willing to admit that the country's internet infrastructure is broken and understand the ramifications of that. 

The new American Connection Project Broadband Coalition will tap those almost 50 businesses and groups across finance, tech, healthcare and food production and more.  

It said they will take "direct action" to get high-speed internet to all Americans. It has already delivered on that promise, writing a letter to Trump and congressional leaders to pass and sign “groundbreaking broadband connectivity legislation that includes the necessary resources to close the digital divide in this country.”  

In addition, Land O'Lakes has teamed up with other partners, Microsoft was one of them, to set up free Wi-Fi access points outside Land O'Lakes business locations in over 150 communities.

NCTA-The National Cable & Telecommunications Association Thursday (July 2) was praising the introduction of the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act. 

The bill eliminates the requirement that only ISPs designated eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) can get USF high-cost dollars, something cable operators have been pushing for years.  

A Senate version was introduced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Doug Jones (D-Ala.). A House version was introduced by Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

“Tens of thousands of children in South Carolina have not been able to participate in online learning since this crisis began," said Clyburn. "Our bipartisan legislation will fund hundreds of rural broadband construction projects immediately. Rural America cannot afford to wait another day.” 

The bill also speeds up the distribution of the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which is $20.4 billion over 10 years, with the first phase targeted at unserved areas and the second to underserved.

"With cable broadband providers currently offering one gigabit service to 80% of American homes, our industry has the advanced technology and experience to ensure more Americans can benefit from the digital economy," said NCTA, adding that the legislation will "speed the delivery of federal funding to unserved communities and promote greater competition in the provision of broadband infrastructure." 

It is one of a raft of broadband deployment/funding bills in the House and Senate driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressing need for universal broadband access in a world of stay-at-home work, play, learning and healthcare. 

The Expanding Opportunities for Broadband Deployment Act, introduced earlier this month, would also eliminate the ETC fund requirement. 

The Democratically controlled House Wednesday passed H.R. 2, the Invest in America Act (part of the larger Moving Forward Act infrastructure bill), which would allocate billions to subsidize broadband competition--including from municipal providers--in "underserved" areas which according to the Dems could mean where service is already provided by private capitol at just short of gig speeds.  

The bill would allocate $60 billion to overbuild service the FCC now considers high-speed ("low-tier" service that can be overbuilt with that money includes anything under 100 Mbps). And if there is no service under 100 Mbps, a state could actually use it to overbuild service under 1 Gig.  

The definition of broadband service is at least 25 mbps downstream and 3 up--currently the FCC's working definition of high-speed--and at "a latency that is sufficiently low to allow real-time, interactive applications. Underserved varies widely, and can potentially be defined as amount of competition or price.   

“There is no better way to stimulate our economy and create millions of good paying jobs than to modernize our badly aging infrastructure, especially now that millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," said House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone. "I’m proud that the Moving Forward Act included key provisions from the Energy and Commerce Committee." 

The bill passed over the objections of House Republicans who called it a partisan package and missed opportunity for a compromise bill. 

"Today is another day Democrats in Congress could have put down their political swords and found common ground with Republicans who have offered proposals to make American energy infrastructure more resilient and safeguard it from cyberattacks," said House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.). "Republicans have proposed more than two dozen policies to help get high speed broadband to all Americans. Republicans have been working to bolster auto safety and put America in the driver’s seat of autonomous vehicle innovation and production," he said. 

 “Unfortunately, Democrats who rule the House continue to put politics over progress. Instead of working with Republicans to find bipartisan solutions that can actually become law and improve our nation’s infrastructure, Democrats have put forth yet another partisan messaging exercise without even consulting Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee. We continue to be at the table ready to work with Democrats, and hope they begin to show up to work for the American people." 

Republicans introduced their own framework for closing the digital divide with more than two dozen broadband bills, including ones speeding cable franchising decisions, zoning decisions, and making it easier to deploy infrastructure on federal lands.

“Today’s vote is a historic victory for the millions of people who are suffering through the COVID-19 crisis without access to the internet. H.R. 2 is the biggest and boldest broadband infrastructure bill that Congress has ever passed," said Joshua Stager, senior counsel for New America’s Open Technology Institute. "This legislation invests $100 billion to ensure that everyone in the United States can get online."

“The only thing that can keep us connected to our families, friends, and communities while staying safe during a pandemic is an internet connection,” said Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton. “For working people, a reliable internet connection is not optional -- it’s an absolute necessity. Thanks to Whip Clyburn and the Rural Broadband Task Force, the Moving Forward Act includes provisions that would support providing broadband access to millions of families and would ensure that workers doing that build out are able to exercise their rights. The Senate has already stalled on the Heroes Act, which would help in the short-term in keeping working families connected during the pandemic. It’s past time for Mitch McConnell and the Senate to act on this key issue. If they don’t, we must hold them accountable--and make sure that the Moving Forward Act becomes the new baseline for expanding broadband access across the country.”

The FCC Wednesday (July 1) opened the short-form application window for phase one of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction (Auction 904).

All potential bidders must complete and submit such an application.

Carriers will be bidding on how economically they can deliver service that meets FCC speed and build-out metrics. The money is for fixed voice and broadband service to unserved, high-cost, areas at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. 

RDOF is the re-imagined Connect America Fund II subsidy.

Related: FCC Names New Rural Auctions Chief of Staff 

RDOF, phase one, is the $16 billion over 10 years the FCC is spending to close the rural digital divide to get broadband to unserved areas. Phase two has another $4 billion to go to underserved areas. 

The application window closes July 15 at 6 p.m. 

On July 25, the FCC released an updated list of the census blocks it has determined lack the requisite service and thus are eligible for the "unserved" subsidies. 

The FCC said that 5,392,530 unserved locations have been "deemed eligible" for carriers to bid on in the auction beginning Oct. 29. 

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC was releasing the list Thursday (June 25) of locations eligible for the first $16 billion in Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) money.

That cat came out of the bag on an Internet Innovation Alliance webinar. 

Only minutes later, the list was issued. The FCC said that 5,392,530 unserved locations have been "deemed eligible" for carriers to bid on serving with the $16 billion being auctioned beginning Oct. 29

The FCC released a preliminary list back in March and gave commenters a chance to challenge/weigh in on the list until April 1. 

Legislators will be eager to check the list to see where money will be going in their states and districts.  

Related: FCC Names New Rural Auctions Chief of Staff 

The FCC is scheduled to auction access to that $16 billion (phase one) of the $20.4 billion in RDOF funding starting in October. The money will be awarded over 10 years to providers to offer fixed voice and broadband to unserved, high-cost, areas, at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.     

Related: WISPA Praises Bill Speeding RDOF Auction 

Pai said on the webinar that by the end of the day the FCC would be releasing that list of proposed locations that the FCC has been working to verify--or not. 

Those are locations the FCC has determined lack high-speed broadband at the required speeds. The second tranche of money--about $4 billion--will go to underserved areas. 

The White House said that the President's American Broadband Initiative has made "important progress" in expanding rural broadband access. 

That is according to the just-released American Broadband Initiative Progress Report. 

“President Trump has made expanding rural broadband access a top priority, and Americans nationwide are seeing results," said chief technology officer Michael Kratsios (he is in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy). Kratsios said that since the launch of the initiative last year that important progress has come in "removing barriers to broadband deployment and spurring investment in network buildout." 

Related: Trump Calls for National Spectrum Strategy

The initiative launched last February, driven in part by the President's desire to help farmers get high-tech connections for precision agriculture, but the pandemic has put an exclamation point on the need to close the rural digital divide for everything from remote healthcare to virtual classrooms.  

The progress report was issued the same day that House Republicans unveiled over a dozen bills to further speed deployment of wireless and wired broadband, principally by cutting regulatory "red tape" related to infrastructure buildouts. 

Among the examples of progress the report points to was the FCC's creation of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which will give out a total of $20 billion over 10 years for broadband buildouts "in the hardest to reach areas." The reverse auction for the first tranche of those funds--$16 billion--is slated to be held this fall. 

Related: FCC Invests More in Rural Broadband

The White House also cited the FCC's coordination with the USDA so that its rural broadband subsidies don't overlap with either the RDOF fund or the FCC's $9 billion 5G buildout fund. 

Other examples of progress include that 1) about four million rural Americans have gained access to broadband internet; 2) since 2017, the number of Americans with no access has decreased by 30%; 3) consecutive records (in 2018 and 2019) for new fiber deployment. 

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) was joined by members of the House Rural Broadband Task Force and other House Democrats Wednesday (June 24) to introduce H.R. 7302, the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, yet another bill to boost broadband in the time of COVID-19 and beyond. 

The bill would put $100 billion into building high-speed broadband infrastructure in underserved as well as unserved communities and subsidize the service to make sure it was affordable. It would also put billions of dollars into broadband adoption programs. 

Related: Birpartisan Bill Would Goose Broadband Buildouts 

“Over a year ago, I formed the House Rural Broadband Task Force with the goal of bringing affordable high-speed internet to 100 percent of Americans,” said Clyburn. “Since then, the disparity between those served and unserved has become clearer. In my home state alone, nearly 1 in 10 South Carolina households lack access to a reliable broadband connection." 

The bill is part of the Democrats' massive ($1.5 trillion) infrastructure bill, the Moving Forward Act. 

The Clyburn bill would spend $80 billion to close the digital divide with high-speed broadband infrastructure nationwide, with $5 billion going to low interest broadband deployment loans. It would establish an office in the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), the FCC's chief communications policy advisor, to make sure the money allocated for the program was spent efficiently. 

On the affordability end, the bill would 1) require an "affordable option" for users of the built-out braodband infrastructure, 2) provide a $50 monthly subsidy for low-income residents, and 3) require the FCC to collect nationwide data on broadband pricing.  

On the adoption side, it would give states $1 billion to spend on closing adoption gaps, provide $5 billion for distance learning, and funding for Wi-Fi in school buses. 

The bill currently has 30 co-sponsors. 

Boosting broadband funding for low-income communities runs in the family. Clyburn's daughter, Mignon, was the FCC's first African American chair and a champion for closing the digital divide.

“OTI is proud to support this bill, which would make internet service more accessible and affordable during COVID-19 and beyond," said Joshua Stager, senior counsel at New America's Open Technology Institute. "The bill would also end the FCC's regulatory war on Lifeline, remove barriers to municipal broadband networks, and make internet pricing transparent for the first time. These are all long overdue steps that would help millions of people. We applaud the Task Force for their work and urge Congress to pass this bill.”

The FCC has authorized $7.4 million in funding over 10 years for rural broadband buildouts in Oklahoma and Oregon. 

Viasat will get $2,708,529.40 to serve 3,811 rural locations in Oregon and tribal provider Redwire will get $4,766,845.60 for fixed broadband "of at least 25/3 Mbps" for 8,041 rural homes and businesses in Oklahoma, including tribal areas. 

The providers must build out to 40% of those homes and businesses within three years and add another 20% yearly until all are served by year six. 

The funding is the 13th tranche of subsidies under the FCC's 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II auction, which is being replaced by the Rural Development Opportunities Fund auction that launches this fall.

The 2018 Phase II auction allocated $1.488 billion in subsidies in an effort to get broadband to 700,000 more rural residents within 10 years, with over half of them getting at least 100 Mbps speeds. The FCC has now authorized over $1.4 billion in 13 tranches.   

The largest incumbent price cap carriers—AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink—declined about $2 billion in Connect America Fund phase II (CAF II) support for building out broadband to high-cost, generally rural, areas, so the FCC opened that pot of money up to competitors, like cable broadband providers, via auction.  

“Access to the internet is more important than ever as our nation responds to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. “Far too many Oregonians still lack access to reliable broadband internet service and thus access to things like telemedicine, remote learning, next generation emergency services, and video streaming because of insufficient Internet service. Expanding access to rural broadband in Oregon brings us closer to narrowing the urban/rural digital divide and ushers rural Oregonians into the 21st Century. This money is welcome news for the over 2,000 individuals and small businesses in the second district that will be impacted. I am grateful to Chairman AjitPai, who saw firsthand the need for expanding rural broadband in eastern Oregon when he visited in 2018, for his efforts to strengthen connectivity in Oregon and I look forward to continuing to work with him on expanding rural broadband across our great state and nation.”

"The task ahead of you requires integrity of planning, especially cost-to-performance analysis with the ability to compare different architectures/deployment options, and insight into potential competitive bids, guided by clear milestones and business objectives along the way." -Raj Singh, CEO, VCTI

Nothing in U.S. history has exposed the rural digital divide as has the COVID-19 pandemic. Too many students in rural communities are being asked to participate in “distance learning” but are being left behind because their community’s infrastructure is insufficient. Adults, too, in rural communities are struggling with access to job listings and unemployment benefit applications as these services are frequently only available online. Without access to broadband, working from home is not an option, nor are the video chat services that many of us use to catch up with our friends and family.

Prior to COVID-19, the FCC announced its next step to bridge the digital divide, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). This $20 billion program aims to drive better broadband more deeply into the un-served and underserved communities around America. The final list of eligible locations is not yet published (as of this writing) but is expected to include approximately 6 million households.

The auctions for phase 1, with $16 billion allocated, are scheduled to begin on October 22, 2020.

Like its predecessor, the Connect America Fund II (CAF II), winning bids will be determined by a combination of committed speed (up and down) and latency performance. The performance tiers will also be weighted to provide a bias to speeds above 100/20 Mbps. Unlike CAF II, which gave incumbents the right of first refusal, there is no advantage to incumbency in the RDOF auctions.

Incumbents and Independents will be competing to out-underbid each other from the starting gate.

With more competition and less predictability to factor into bid decisions, the caliber of the analysis on prospective markets – the demographics, the services, and the best technology to deploy -- is more critical than ever to the development of bids that will have a high probability of success and profitability.

Develop the Framework

The task ahead of you requires integrity of planning, especially cost-to-performance analysis with the ability to compare different architectures/deployment options, and insight into potential competitive bids, guided by clear milestones and business objectives along the way.

Which takes us to the first best practice. Define the products/services and cost structure needed to win the bid for each specific target market, and the shortlist of deployment architecture options to be modeled.

The weighting gives an advantage to speed and performance, but that does not mean fiber is the only viable architecture. For homes that can’t be viably served by fiber, fixed wireless is a practical and attractive option.

Therefore, your shortlist of deployment options should include both fiber and fixed wireless architectures.

In bidding for multiple markets, maybe even hundreds of communities, establishing standard templates to model against is critical to work through the analytics efficiently. Anticipate running multiple iterations with different architecture criteria so that you can glean insight into the best end state architecture, technology, economic return and bid viability for each target market.

Here are four critical planning analytics that you need to guide your target market selection and bids:

Determine middle mile costs-options-constraints.

For the non-incumbent prospective service provider, understanding the options and costs involved with reaching remote locations is a critical component in building your cost model.

For the incumbent service provider, understanding capacity constraints and any required upgrades are one of the critical foundation data points for your cost model.

Review architecture options.

Analyze fiber reach to DLC/DSLAMs/Routers in current infrastructure (COs/remote cabinets/data centers/substations). Model adding fiber and converting current equipment to Ethernet-based backhaul, or model using wireless backhaul options, when the cost of extending fiber makes the upgrade out of reach.

Model Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and next generation XGS PON and beyond.

Model Fixed Wireless Access and propagation analysis and bandwidth estimation.

For service providers with cable infrastructure, model fiber closer to the customer, deep fiber and DOCSIS support for Symmetrical.

Evaluate service target penetration by architecture, including hybrid options. What percentage of the market will receive above average vs. baseline vs. minimum speeds? What individual or hybrid architecture delivers the best, broadest coverage?

Model cost and projected revenue per household with each of the service target scenarios. Be sure to include a complete cost per home as well as first cost to upgrade to the service targets and technology.

Preparation for the bidding process will require modeling numerous network scenarios. The fixed wireless modeling must include the specifics of the signal propagation, such as strength and reach, within the target coverage area. An automated planning tool that lets you analyze across technologies, such as fiber and fixed wireless and household demographics, is a necessity.

With focused decisions on fiber and fixed wireless architectures, supported by automated planning tools, you’ll be in a position to undertake in-depth, detailed comparative analysis of hundreds of markets and define your bid packages with greater precision and confidence.

Raj Singh serves as CEO ofVCTI, the broadband network services firm.

The FCC has authorized its 12th tranche of broadband buildout funding from its 2018 CAF II auction. 

That was funding for buildouts to uneconomic, mostly rural, areas that incumbent providers did not bid for in the CAF I auction. It was then made available to competitive carriers, including cable broadband providers, in a second auction. 

Related: Public Knowledge Says Government Should Allow Overbuilding

The latest round of funding is $7.5 million to get broadband to 3,100 unserved rural homes and businesses in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, and Oklahoma. The providers must build out to 40% of their respective chunk of those households within three years, and to all of them by year six. 

“The FCC’s Connect America Fund is delivering real value at a critical time for our nation, particularly to those living in unconnected rural areas," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.  

Getting everyone connected given a shelter-at-home pandemic whose end point is not yet in sight and which may represent an inflection point for virtual connections far into the future is a big priority for the FCC, the Trump Administration and the Congress.

A bipartisan, bicameral, quartet of legislators has called on the Trump Administration to back dedicated COVID-19 aid-related funding for smaller broadband providers in the next COVID-19 aid package. 

That came in a letter to the President Thursday (April 23), a copy of which was supplied to Multichannel News. "As you work with Congress to provide additional economic relief for Americans impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, we urge you to support dedicated funding for small broadband providers to keep students and low-income families connected to the internet," the legislators said. 

Related: FCC Hands Out More Rural Broadband Bucks

The "they" doing the saying were Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.). 

The idea is to make sure low-income families and students can stay connected during the shelter-at-home pandemic-driven reality. 

Many small providers have pledged to keep students and low-income residents connected—per a pledge solicited by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and on their own initiative. But these small broadband providers, which contribute to more than 77,000 jobs and support more than $10 billion in economic activity in the United States, may be unable to continue to provide these services if customers are unable to pay for a prolonged period of time,” the lawmakers told the President. 

Related: All the Latest on COVID-19 and Communications Industry

The CARES Act included money for rural broadband deployment, but not specifically for small broadband providers underwriting the cost of keeping those key connections for those who may not be able to afford it. "Without support from your Administration, small providers may be unable to ensure that the communities they serve have access to critical internet connectivity," they said. 

Last month, Klobuchar and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), introduced a bill to appropriate $2 billion for rural broadband, and more recently called on Congressional leadership to support that funding.   

“ACA Connects appreciates the effort of the House and Senate lawmakers to recognize this important issue," said a spokesman for the trade association representing smaller operators. "We look forward to working with them and the White House on these matters. Smaller ISPs have been keeping their customers connected, and they appreciate the recognition by these policymakers of their unique circumstances.”

As the FCC prepares to vote on a proposal to fund $9 billion in 5G network builds, a group calling itself the Irregulators wants the FCC to force telecoms to build out their promised terrestrial fiber networks first.  

The Irregulators, in concert with more than 100 local organizations under the umbrella of non-profit Americans for Responsible Technology, argue telecoms have raised prices and exacted fees for decades on the promise of fiber buildouts, but now want billions more to build the wireless networks that are more profitable and cheaper to build out, branding it "fibergate."

Related: FCC Rural Broadband Fund Draws Crowd 

The FCC plans to vote at its April 23 public meeting on the fund. The $9 billion will be given out over a decade and is about $450 million per year more than the Universal Service Fund (USF) Mobility Fund allocation, which it is replacing. The extra money will also come from USF. The FCC will target rural areas that will be less likely to get 5G absent that support. 

"If the phone companies had finished building out the fiber-optic network they promised years ago, there would be no rural divide," said Irregulator Bruce Kushnick, a former telecommunications analyst. He said the telecoms are trying to capitalize on the pandemic to get billions from the government--rural broadband is a priority in a nation of a broadband-reliant shelter-in-place populace.

The FCC's Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force has scheduled a May 5 webinar on the big bucks the FCC plans to provide for closing the rural digital divide. 

That effort has taken on new urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic-driven shelter-in-place populace and the Trump Administration plan to try and make sure all kids K-12 have access to broadband for remote learning. 

Currently millions of homes--there is some disagreement over just how many--lack access to high-speed broadband, most in rural areas. 

The FCC is giving out up to $16 billion in the first phase of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.  

Related: FCC Sets Rural Broadband Fund Auction Date 

The May 5 webinar is free and will give an overview of how the auction of that $16 billion in subsidies (Auction 904) will be set up. 

The FCC said that almost 6 million homes and businesses will be eligible for service in the auction.  

The FCC in January approved a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to support broadband deployment in rural areas, with $16 billion handed out in phase one via a reverse auction. 

Related: All the Latest News on COVID-19 and Its Impact on Industry

The Report and Order adopted the two-phase reverse auction framework for providing high-cost universal service support to bring fixed high-speed broadband service to millions of unserved Americans in high-cost areas.  

The fund will go toward deploying high-speed broadband over 10 years to areas currently lacking fixed broadband service of at least 25 Mbps download speeds and 3 Mbps upload.  

Congress continues to add to the rolls of bills seeking more funding for broadband buildouts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Reps. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) and Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) have introduced the Serving Rural America Act. The bill would authorize $500 million over five years for a pilot grant program overseen by the FCC. 

Related: Legislators Push for $2 Billion in Broadband Bucks

The legislation would encourage broadband providers to get together to determine where service is or isn't available, a big issue on the Hill, and to make sure there is no overbuilding of existing plant by limiting support to one provider in a rural area. It would also put a premium on higher speeds. 

Wittman called the bill "must-pass legislation to insure we close the digital divide." 

One way to do that would be to add it to the next must-pass COVID-19 aid bill being worked out in Congress. 

Related: Dems Say Infrastructure-Targeted COVID-19 AID Bill Is Priority

"If solutions like this aren’t enacted soon, there won’t be a rural broadband problem left to solve, because people will leave rural America and move to places where they and their children have access to the ever-expanding digital world," said Johnson. 

Specifically, the bill would:  

1. "Requires an eligible provider to partner with a locality, city, county, wireless authority, or planning district commission to ensure the needs and input of residents are included. 

2. "Prioritizes funding to areas without 25Mbps/3Mbps.

3. "Includes important measures to ensure interagency coordination and safeguards against overbuilding of other federally funded broadband projects.

4. "Features a challenge process that allows the public or other existing service providers in the proposed service area to submit a challenge to the FCC, to determine whether the proposed project would duplicate existing broadband service in the proposed service area.

5. "Includes important measures to improve mapping including: analysis of third party data, crowd sourcing, and site specific testing in service areas where mapping data has been contested.

6. "Instructs the FCC to report to Congress annually on the progress of the program based on buildout data provided by recipients."

NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association applauded the effort.  

“From prioritizing higher speeds and better performing services to promoting effective coordination among federal programs, this bill represents a significant advancement in the discussion about how best to solve our country’s remaining broadband challenges," said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield.