WASHINGTON, September 25, 2023 – State broadband leaders addressed on Friday their key areas of focus as they look to allocate billions in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants.

The conversation took place at the Broadband Breakfast BEAD Implementation Summit, along with panels of other federal grant program officials, service providers, and investors. The $42.5 billion program is getting under way, with states releasing their initial proposals for implementing it and hearing public comments. Those proposals are due to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration by December 27.

Community outreach

Broadband heads cited engaging with communities – especially around challenges to broadband map data and fostering internet adoption – as being essential to the success of the program.

In New Jersey, broadband office leader Valarry Bullard and her team organized a listening tour. They go to churches and community centers to explain how high-capacity internet can play a role in people’s lives and local programs, without, she emphasized, jargon or acronyms.

“You kind of meet people where they’re at, you know?” she said.

Arkansas broadband director Glen Howie said his team went to all 75 counties in the state to explain how mapping challenges will work and work with counties to set up local broadband committees.

“You go into a county and you tell folks they have an opportunity to challenge their internet availability, they get fired up,” he said.

Mapping and data

As part of their proposals to the NTIA, states are required to outline a process for accepting challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s map of broadband coverage. That map, now on its third iteration, is based on coverage reported by internet service providers, which is widely considered to be overstated.

Those map challenges will be crucial, both for BEAD and other federal broadband programs, the panel said. 

“It’s the foundation of all of our programs. We spend a huge amount of time on mapping,” said Angie Bailey, North Carolina’s head broadband officer. “We can’t do this work without strong, location-level mapping.”

In Maine, Andrew Butcher and the Maine Connectivity Authority have been investing in broadband mapping efforts for years, he said. A parallel mapping process to the FCC’s has helped them allocate previous broadband funds and confirm coverage reported by providers.

“It has allowed us to have a data-driven conversation, as opposed to a policy of dibs,” he said. “We want to understand where there’s service and where there’s not.”

Timelines

Deadlines, both for submitting initial proposals and awarding subgrants, are on broadband leaders’ minds. Those initial proposals are being submitted in two parts, and states have one year from the approval of part II to award their entire BEAD allocations.

That has Howie’s office in Arkansas worried about completing the challenge process, grant awards, and state rulemaking before the deadline

“The one year, arbitrary timeline that we’re all under at the moment is a huge concern for us,” he said.

Taking time on the initial proposal deadlines is helping states with smaller and newer broadband offices, like Bullard’s office in New Jersey, she said, learn from other states and prepare for the task ahead of them.

“Our plan will be submitted December 27, probably at 11:59,” she said. “It’s giving us some more time for that investment. We’re learning more about our counties… we’re connecting with our community anchor institutions.” 

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

• July 2023 – A Deep Dive into Allocations Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program
• August 2023 – Precursors to BEAD Implementation: A Deep Dive Into Prior Broadband Programs
• September 2023 – A Deep Dive into the BEAD Program’s Matching Funds

Already a Broadband Breakfast Club member? Watch the videos!

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2023 – A small Michigan island, Beaver Island, is asking the Federal Communications Commission to require broadband carriers receiving legacy federal funds to lay fiber-optic cable, or face competition from other providers.

The 55-square mile island is the largest in Lake Michigan and had a population of 616, according to the 2021 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Beaver Island’s Joint Telecommunications Advisory Committee made the request in a September 18 filing to the FCC asking that the commission reconsider its adoption of the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model, or Enhanced ACAM. That model updates the previous allocation of federal money from the Universal Service Fund to internet providers in rural areas.

The model makes $13.5 billion available through 2028. It allows carriers to continue receiving funding if they upgrade or continue to provide service at 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) upload by 20 Mbps download – regardless of the technology they use to do so.

This, the island’s committee says, will prevent the island from being reached with fiber-optic cable, the highest capacity, most future-proof broadband technology. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, established in 2021, allocates $42.5 billion for states to expand broadband infrastructure, but disqualifies areas already served by federal funding.

Michigan’s broadband office estimated its portion BEAD funding could provide fiber-based internet to every location in the state currently receiving less than 100 * 20 Mbps service. That covers all of Beaver Island. But the island expects its providers will take the Enhanced ACAM  money and update their older, copper-based equipment to meet speed requirements rather than compete at auction for BEAD grants to build fiber.

“Rather than assuring [sic] those areas affected by the Order will receive adequate service,” the filing reads, referring to the commission’s official adoption of the new model on September 1, “the Order instead all but guarantees they will receive a service that will quickly become outdated.”

The committee  said in its filing that in order for an Enhanced ACAM recipient to prevent an area from being eligible for BEAD funding, it should be required by the FCC to use fiber.

Providers have until September 29 to accept or deny Enhanced ACAM funding.

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2023 –  The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is working on changes to the letter of credit requirements for its flagship broadband grant program, according to the program’s director Evan Feinman.

The letter of credit requirement in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program requires providers receiving grants to expand infrastructure to obtain a letter of credit from a bank for 25 percent of the project cost.

That means awardees will have to back the letters with cash, which many in the broadband industry have said will push small and community providers out of BEAD projects.

Feinman said the letter of credit requirement accomplishes two goals for the NTIA: it promises some recovery if a project fails, and offers a chance for third-party financial analysis of projects.

“What we did not do was offer a menu of options to do that. We are hard at work on that now,” he said. “You’re going to hear more from us about the letter of credit requirement in the relatively near future.”

The discussion was part of a question and answer session with the broadband community at the Broadband Breakfast BEAD Implementation Summit on Thursday.

The summit also featured state broadband leaders, other federal grant program officials, investors, and service providers in conversations about key focuses as states work to allocate and deploy BEAD funds.

When asked about a provision in the program allowing for internet service providers accepting grant money to conduct self-audits, Feinman said the NTIA, the agency responsible for administering the program, will be issuing more guidance to states on how to monitor BEAD projects.

That guidance will not be created in the next three months, though. 

“We have deep financial resources in the bank, but our human capital is not as thick as you might like,” he said. “We got to do initial proposals,” he added, referencing grant procedures which states will be submitting to the agency until December 27.

A new model for broadband expansion

Feinman repeatedly drew comparisons to the effort to bring electricity to rural America in the 1930s, but said that BEAD is different from other federal grant programs.

“This is not a normal grants program. This is in fact, not a grants program at all,” he said. “This is a universal coverage broadband infrastructure program. The tools that are being used to get there are grants.”

He said the program is a departure from previous broadband funding efforts because so much of its goal – universal broadband coverage in the U.S. – hinges on working partnerships, both between federal and state officials and between local governments, providers, co-operatives, and communities. That’s because of the complexity of the task and the sheer number of people who need to understand that task to accomplish it.

“This room, we have our hands on the pen. We are writing the next chapter of the great American infrastructure story,” he said at the event. “But this is going to require a true whole-of-society effort.”

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

• July 2023 – A Deep Dive into Allocations Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program
• August 2023 – Precursors to BEAD Implementation: A Deep Dive Into Prior Broadband Programs
• September 2023 – A Deep Dive into the BEAD Program’s Matching Funds

Already a Broadband Breakfast Club member? Watch the videos!