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Broadband Breakfast Live Online on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 – Federal Broadband Funds and Opportunity Zones

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Broadband Breakfast Live Online on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 12 Noon ET – “Federal Broadband Funds and Opportunity Zones (Topic 3 at Digital Infrastructure Investment on August 10).”

For the most up-to-date information about the event, visit our Digital Infrastructure Investment page.

This pathbreaking event brings the broadband infrastructure and financial services communities together to focus on the digital infrastructure and investment asset profile, including fiber, small cells, towers and data center assets required to support a 21st Century information economy.

The annual Digital Infrastructure Investment conference will unite infrastructure investment fund managers, institutional investors, private equity and venture capitalists with senior broadband leaders and bring clarity to the next business model for advanced digital infrastructure.

Digital Infrastructure Investment will take place on August 10, 2020, from 1 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET.

Register for free for the virtual Digital Infrastructure Investment.

Digital Infrastructure Investment Sponsors

This Broadband Breakfast Live Online session on June 17, 2020, previewed one aspect of the contents of the Digital Infrastructure Investment event. The conference takes place on Monday, August 10. In this preview session, our panelists considered:

The FCC is making $20.4 billion available for rural broadband. The U.S. Treasury’s Opportunity Zones help urban projects. Can these funds make a difference?

In this session, panelists will explore how the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund might impact project financing. Funding from RDOF will also be discussed in the context of the relatively recent Opportunity Zone investments, plus other sources of federal funding available to supplement the return on investment for broadband projects.

  • WATCH HERE, or on YouTube. Also available on Twitter and Facebook. Or SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube Channel
  • Blair Levin, former executive director of the National Broadband Plan
  • Graham Richard, former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana
  • Carol Mattey, former Deputy Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau
  • Drew Clark (Moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Blair Levin is a nonresident senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. He serves as the executive director of Gig.U: The Next Generation Network Innovation Project, an initiative of three dozen leading research university communities seeking to support educational and economic development by accelerating the deployment of next generation networks. Previously, he worked with the Communications & Society Program with the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, following his departure in 2010 from the Federal Communications Commission where he oversaw the development of a National Broadband Plan.

Graham Richard was the founding CEO of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a fast growing national association of businesses working toward a prosperous future based on secure, clean, affordable energy. He served as mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 2000 to 2007, following a 20-year career in business. Richard was a cofounder of enterprises in diverse fields including business consulting, hydropower, public television, cogeneration, and a small business incubator. He also served in the Indiana State Senate, where he chaired the public policy/utilities committee and served on the finance committee.

Carol Mattey, founder of Mattey Consulting LLC, has over 30 years of experience as a senior executive in the U.S. government, consultant and lawyer focusing on communications public policy. From 2010 to 2017, Carol was Deputy Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, focusing on the FCC’s ongoing initiatives to reform over $9 billion in annual federal spending known as the Universal Service Fund, which supports broadband connectivity for rural areas, schools, libraries, healthcare providers and low-income consumers. She led the development and implementation of the Connect America Fund to extend broadband to unserved areas in the United States.

Follow upcoming Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

Broadband Breakfast is a decade-old news organization based in Washington that is building a community of interest around broadband policy and internet technology, with a particular focus on better broadband infrastructure, the politics of privacy and the regulation of social media. Learn more about Broadband Breakfast.

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How to Watch the Videos from the BEAD Implementation Summit

The recordings of all the videos from the BEAD Implementation Summit are available to Breakfast Club members.

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Watch the videos from the BEAD Implementation Summit on September 21, 2023.

Those who attended the BEAD Implementation Summit or watched the webcast are able to access the videos. Members of the Broadband Breakfast Club also have access to the BEAD Implementation Summit videos, as well as videos of all in-person events.

If you missed BEAD Implementation Summit, sign up for Broadband Breakfast’s BEAD Starter Pack for $35/month (cancel anytime). You’ll get access to each of the Breakfast Club reports for the BEAD Implementation Summit:

Questions? Email drew@breakfast.media!

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State Broadband Heads Address BEAD Implementation Focuses

Broadband leaders touched on letter of credit requirements, subgrant timelines, and speed test data.

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Screenshot of the Broadband Breakfast Live Online Event

WASHINGTON, September 20, 2023 – Three state broadband leaders highlighted at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event Wednesday key points of focus ahead of their implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. 

The BEAD program allocates $42.5 billion to states for expanding broadband infrastructure. States are in the process of releasing their initial proposals for administering the program – due to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration by December 27 – and hearing public comments.

The conversation was a preview of some topics up for discussion with state broadband heads, BEAD and other federal grant program officials, and service providers at the Broadband Breakfast BEAD Implementation Summit Thursday. Registration is open for in-person and virtual attendance.

Subgrantee selection timeline

States will have one year from the approval of their initial proposals to award subgrants under the program and submit their final proposals to the NTIA. Those awards have to be allocated via a bidding process.

Getting that done will be difficult, said Jim Stritzinger, the head of South Carolina’s broadband office.

“It’s really, really hard to deploy $551 million in 12 months,” he said. “And other states have much larger allocations than ours, I don’t know how they’re going to do it.”

Brian Newby of the North Dakota Broadband Program, echoed the concern.

“I am concerned that there will be locations that just won’t be bid on,” he said, and a second round of bidding to hit those areas would be difficult to fit in before the deadline.

Stritzinger noted that state offices are permitted under NTIA rules to negotiate directly with providers to BEAD-supported infrastructure in areas missed by the bidding process, rather than open a second round, which could save time, he said.

Letters of credit

BEAD requires grant recipients to get letters of credit from banks for 25 percent of the funds they receive to undertake projects. The requirement has been flagged by the industry as potentially blocking smaller providers from being able to accept grants.

The requirement still applies to publicly owned entities, Vermont broadband director Christine Hallquist noted. That will be a problem in Vermont, she said, where some communications infrastructure is owned by coalitions of towns.

“Municipalities just do not have that kind of money,” she said.

Speed test data

The broadband heads also noted the importance of reliable locations in speed test data. When speed tests are run in computer browsers, as opposed to direct measurements from equipment or from GPS-enabled devices like smartphones, they have less precise locations attached to them.

“You could very easily see a bunch of speed tests stacking up on a single dot in the center of a zip code,” Stritzinger said. “You have to be careful about that.”

Hallquist emphasized collecting speed data from different points along a network’s infrastructure to pinpoint where speed loss is happening.

“We want to help people address all of the issues that are a part of that stream of data,” she said.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023 – Preview of BEAD Implementation Summit

Ahead of the Broadband Breakfast BEAD’s Implementation Summit on September 21, this free live online event will offer a sneak peek into what the summit has in store. It will set the stage for the upcoming panels, including a roundtable with state broadband officers, a discussion of past broadband efforts, the role of public-private partnerships and a town hall session on problems still to tackle. Tune in to see what’s in store at the BEAD Implementation Summit in Washington on Thursday, September 21, 2023.

Panelists

  • Brian Newby, Director, North Dakota Broadband Program Director
  • Jim Stritzinger, Director, South Carolina Broadband Office
  • Christine Hallquist, Executive Director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board
  • Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Register for the BEAD Implementation Summit on September 21, 2023.

Brian Newby leads the North Dakota State Broadband Office, targeting broadband for all in North Dakota by administering more than $175 million in federal grants. Formerly served as the State Election Director at the North Dakota Secretary of State; previously was the Executive Director for U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a federal government agency, and Election Commissioner for Johnson County, the largest jurisdiction in Kansas and in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Before elections, worked as director of strategy for Sprint’s $10 billion Global Markets Group.

As part of the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, Jim Stritzingerserves as Director of the Broadband Office which was formed in July 2021. He manages a full-time team of five and is directly responsible for ensuring the rapid deployment of broadband infrastructure statewide and overseeing $1 billion in state and federal grant investments.

Christine Hallquist is the Executive Director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board. Their mission is to connect every Vermont address to fiber, make it affordable and maximize positive social impact. Christine was the former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

Register for the BEAD Implementation Summit on September 21, 2023.

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Broadband Breakfast on Wednesday, October 25, 2023 – Broadband Deployment from India, Australia, South Africa

What can the United States learn from fascinating broadband deployments in the Global South?

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Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, October 25 – International Examples of Broadband Deployment – India, Australia, South Africa

As the United States channels unprecedented investments into broadband expansion, the nation’s counterparts worldwide are also ramping up their deployment efforts. In India, nearly 900 million out of its 1.4 billion population have adopted broadband services as of December 2022. Meanwhile, Australia said it’s on track to deliver broadband download speeds of at least 500 megabits per second to 90 percent of its homes and businesses by 2025. Across the ocean, South Africa is also making great strides in broadband buildouts. What lies behind such rapid expansion in those countries? How do they compare to the U.S.’s initiative under the bipartisan infrastructure law?

Panelists

  • Panelists have been invited
  • Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

WATCH HERE, or on YouTubeTwitter and Facebook.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTubeTwitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

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