Lewis County, Washington and the Lewis County Public Utility District are making progress with their plan to deploy an open access fiber network that should dramatically boost broadband competition—and lower prices—county wide by 2026.

In November 2019, Lewis County PUD received a $50,000 grant from the Community Economic Revitalization Board to study the county’s broadband shortcomings and determine whether taking direct action to address them made sense. In early 2020, the PUD formed the Lewis County Broadband Action Team to further study community needs.

Those inquiries found what most U.S. communities know too well: concentrated monopolization had left county residents overpaying for substandard, expensive, and spotty broadband access unsuitable for modern living.

In response, the Lewis County PUD announced in 2021 it would be building an 134-mile-long fiber backbone and open access fiber network for around $104 million. Around $23.5 million of that total will be paid for by a recently awarded grant by the Washington State Department of Commerce, itself made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act.

In December of 2021, Lewis County PUD public affairs manager Willie Painter was a guest on our Community Broadband Bits podcast in which he discussed the PUD’s vision of deploying fiber across the county’s 2,450 square miles, which is home to about 75,000 Washingtonians, or about 30,000 households. Painter noted then how the PUD’s “shovel ready designs and estimates” is what “empowered our utility to be very competitive in going after state and federal grant dollars to help fund these construction deployments.”

The latest development to have emerged since we last reported on Lewis County PUD, is who the PUD selected as a partner to build the network. The network will be built as part of a 25-year public-private partnership with ToledoTel. While ToledoTel will install, supply and maintain a new fiber optic network connecting more than 2,300 homes and businesses in the Winlock area, Lewis County will ultimately own the final build.

ToledoTel is currently in the engineering and design phase of the project, and has stated it will provide an additional $2.35 million in matching funds for the project, which is slated to be finished before 2026.

Details of the arrangement were finalized in January, and county leaders state that ToledoTel will have exclusive access to the infrastructure for up to three years. After that, ToledoTel will be required to open the network to competitors at a wholesale rate, boosting competition and driving down costs in a residential broadband market largely dominated by Comcast.

Photo of Lewis County PUD building courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

“There’s the convenience, there’s business purposes; all those are really vital and becoming more and more a part of everyday life, and we want to provide those services to everyone in Lewis County that we can,” Lewis County Manager Erik Martin told The Chronicle. “This project is really the beginning, in terms of getting service out to folks, and we want to focus on getting broadband out to all rural areas and all residents of Lewis County.”

A 2021 survey by the WA Department of Commerce found that 64 percent of state households reported download speeds slower than the base FCC definition of broadband, currently a paltry 25 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream, 3 Mbps upstream. The state is currently considering raising the base definition of broadband to 100 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream.

A local survey by Lewis County PUD found that more than 77 percent of survey respondents had broadband speeds well below the acceptable federal definition of broadband, despite nearly 98 percent of county survey participants considering broadband access an essential utility.

Lewis County is one of many PUDs in Washington State taking full advantage of a flood of new grants — and recently-eliminated Washington State restrictions on community broadband — to belatedly expand access to affordable fiber across the state.

This article by Karl Bode originally appeared on the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks project on March 13, 2023, and is reprinted with permission.

February 27, 2023 – The chief financial officer of AT&T said Monday that the company doesn’t see fixed wireless as a great long-term solution as the company focuses on plowing fiber at a record pace.

“Fixed wireless in certain cases is kind of nice, it’s a nice catch product where we have a copper customer that we’re going to get to in the next 12 to 24 months,” said Pascal Desroches during Deutsche Bank’s annual media, internet and telecom conference.

“But long term, it’s not a solution we want to put a lot of resources behind. Why? It’s because it’s not a great product and the customer ultimately is going to reject it,” he said. “That is our belief. When you look at the amount of bandwidth that is consumed in the home, over time the customer’s experience is going to degrade and we don’t think it’s a product that we want to spend a lot of resources on.”

AT&T CEO John Stankey said early last year that fixed wireless still plays an important role for rural Americans.

Fixed wireless products use cellular airwaves to deliver internet to the home. It is a product that AT&T delivers to customers in rural and remote areas, which are regions that are otherwise financially difficult to connect with fiber.

It also has been the subject of reports and at the center of heated debates over whether governments should plow federal funds into such builds in an effort to connect the entire nation to high-speed internet. When the Federal Communications Commission, for example, announced its initial awards from its $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, critics panned its decision to award large amounts to fixed wireless technologies because of alleged unproven high-speed promises.

On review, the commission even revoked the RDOF money initially awarded to LTD Broadband – one of the largest initial recipients of the fund – because it didn’t think it was “reasonably capable of deploying a network of the scope, scale, and size” required by its bids.

Last week, fixed wireless service provider Starry filed for bankruptcy.

Fiber favored by federal government’s broadband build

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is the administrator of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, has already said that it favors fiber builds, but state recipients of the funds must consider all types of builds. The NTIA is expected to deliver the funds to the states by June 30.

“Candidly, we’d much rather take our resources, focus on deploying more fiber,” Desroches said, adding the company is exploring using spectrum to experiment and deliver new services.

“Let’s not get distracted by chasing empty calories in the near term,” he said.

On that front, Desroches said the company has exceeded its own expectations on how far it can drive fiber in its own footprint, saying that it is penetrating at twice the level compared to the first year of its plan. The company said it expects to bring 30 million or more households inside its footprint fiber over the “next several years.”

“This is a product that is durable, the maintenance associated with it is much more attractive than our copper footprint,” Desroches said.

Desroches also said the company’s joint venture with investment firm BlackRock to build fiber outside of its footprint could be expanded if things prove out as the company expects. The two companies are splitting the equity investment equally.

And the plan to plow fiber inside and outside of its footprint is expected to be accelerated, he said, with the money coming from the NTIA’s BEAD program.

“We are going to be able to capitalize on that money coming to the marketplace over the next several years at an accelerated pace versus if we had just done it ourselves,” he said.

WASHINGTON, February 9, 2023 — The 118th Congress will have critical opportunities to impact technology policy by reforming the Universal Service Fund, guiding infrastructure priorities and passing federal privacy legislation, said industry experts at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event last week

Broadband policies present a promising opportunity for bipartisan collaboration, said Marissa Mitrovich, vice president of public policy for the Fiber Broadband Association. “These are the issues that impact every single American, and they’re not a partisan issue — everyone needs access to affordable, reliable broadband.”

The most significant upcoming development to the national connectivity landscape will likely be the infusion of funding from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, expected to be allocated to the states by June 30. Many state entities have raised concerns about the national broadband map that will determine BEAD distribution, with several claiming they lacked the necessary time and resources to adequately challenge the map’s inaccuracies.

“The challenge process is important, but keep in perspective that this first go-around is really for state allocations — it is not the round that will really then determine where it is that’s unserved and underserved,” said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association.

Bloomfield also cautioned against becoming overly distracted by the “shiny new toy” of federal funding, noting the importance of reforming existing programs to ensure that new networks being built can be sustained and will remain affordable.

“If at the end of the day consumers can’t access and afford those networks, I’m not sure how far we’ve moved the ball forward,” she said.

One key program in need of reform is the Universal Service Fund, a multi-billion-dollar fund that subsidizes basic telecommunications services for low-income households and rural communities. The USF will likely run out of money during 2024, with some even predicting that this will happen during the first quarter of the year, said Grant Spellmeyer, president and CEO of ACA Connects.

Panelists at the Broadband Breakfast Live Online session on February 1, 2023.

“That means that we’re 12 months away from a real problem…There are 16 million households, 55 million Americans relying on that program right now,” Spellmeyer added.

With the future of the program — and the connectivity it provides to millions of people — in jeopardy, Congress may have the chance to play a crucial role in extending the program, Bloomfield said. “All Americans, regardless of where they live, should have access to comparable and affordable services.”

Industry experts disagree over whether fiber should be prioritized

The BEAD program’s prioritization of fiber over other broadband technologies has drawn both praise and criticism. Proponents tout fiber’s superior speeds and longevity, while others argue that emerging technologies should be given a chance to develop.

In November, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration — the Commerce Department agency responsible for administering the BEAD program — came under fire for its stated preference for fiber, which a group of Republican senators said was in “stark contrast to Congress’s tech-neutral intent.”

“Tech neutrality is critical… There are benefits of fiber, fixed wireless, satellite and traditional mobile,” said David Grossman, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association, at the Broadband Breakfast event.

“It’s going to take every tool,” Bloomfield agreed, noting that the best technology for any given area would depend on a broad range of factors. However, she emphasized the benefits of deploying fiber when possible. “We have this opportunity, and frankly, shame on us if we don’t actually put in future-proof technology the first time around.”

Fiber infrastructure will also support the rapidly growing demand for symmetrical gigabit speeds, Bloomfield added.

Spellmeyer pointed to a new ACA Connects study making state-by-state predictions for BEAD funding allocation and outlining two national deployment scenarios: a “baseline fiber” approach and a “maximum fiber” approach.

“It’ll be up to governors to decide how they want to approach the allocation of funding, but I think a whole lot of governors can deliver a whole lot of fiber,” Spellmeyer said. “And then there will be opportunities… in very high-cost areas for wireless to play a role as well.”

Mitrovich strongly supported fiber prioritization, noting that “what might be a little bit more investment on the front end is going to really save money in the long run — and create opportunity, whether it’s through jobs, access to healthcare, access to education.”

“We believe fiber is really the most important connectivity technology for consumers and how we’re going to connect America — and the only way this happens is if government and industry work together,” Mitrovich said.

Bipartisan privacy legislation may still have a chance

Although many policy proposals may struggle to gain traction in a politically divided Congress, Grossman was optimistic about the prospect of bipartisan privacy legislation.

“It’s something everybody can relate to, both sides of the aisle, and I think that that was reflected in the fact that we got to a ‘three corners’ bill last year,” he said, referring to the bipartisan House support and Republican Senate support garnered by the American Data Privacy and Protection Act toward the end of 2022.

The primary hurdle that stalled the ADPPA’s passage was its preemption provision, which was fiercely opposed by lawmakers from states with strong preexisting privacy legislation.

Tech associations and industry groups have been generally supportive of state preemption. “It’s very clear that a patchwork of 50 state laws is not workable — it’s burdensome, particularly for startups, [and] confusing for consumers,” Grossman said.

Bloomfield agreed, emphasizing the importance of “a national standard and uniform approach that really treats all online data consistently… so consumers know what their expectations are.”

Another contentious privacy debate at the heart of the ADPPA is whether individuals should be able to sue companies for infractions. The bill’s final version included a narrow private right of action — the product of significant bipartisan compromise.

However, Grossman rejected this agreement, arguing that “private right of action is hugely, hugely detrimental to the industry and to innovation.”

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, February 1, 2023, 12 Noon ET – What Will the 118th Congress Do on Broadband and Big Tech?

Hampered by a new partisan divide, what will the 118th Congress be able to accomplish in terms of broadband and technology policy? In particular, what do broadband and technology industry groups see as realistic policy priorities under divided government? Many members of Congress want to sharply curb the power of Big Tech, including through a potential national TikTok ban. Another issue left unresolved from last Congress was the state of information privacy legislation. These developments take place against a backdrop of the largest federal investment in broadband ever. Will Congress have anything new to say about infrastructure investment, wireless communication or network neutrality?

Panelists:

• Shirley Bloomfield, CEO, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association
• Grant Spellmeyer, President & CEO, ACA Connects
• Marissa Mitrovich, Vice President of Public Policy, Fiber Broadband Association
• David Grossman, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Consumer Technology Association
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist resources

• Rural Broadband Providers Increasing Speeds on Fiber Networks, Annual NTCA Report Finds, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, December 5, 2022

Shirley Bloomfield is CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, the premier association representing nearly 850 independent telecommunications companies that are leading innovation in rural and small-town America. With more than 30 years of experience representing the country’s smallest telecom operators, Bloomfield is an expert on the role of federal communications policies in sustaining the vitality of rural and remote communities and the benefits rural broadband networks bring to millions of American families, businesses and the national economy. Bloomfield has a strong track record of leadership in aligning strategic partnerships among rural telecom companies, their larger counterparts, other rural utilities and federal agencies, advancing digital equity and economic opportunities for rural Americans.

Grant Spellmeyer oversees the daily operations and affairs of ACA Connects-America’s Communications Association, a 700-member, non-profit advocacy association dedicated to serving smaller- and medium-sized, independent broadband, phone and video businesses that serve more than 10 million broadband customers nationwide. ACA Connects represents its Members and advocates their concerns before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and other agencies in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining ACAC, Grant was vice president of government affairs for US Cellular where his primary duties included directing the federal and state legislative and regulatory efforts across the company’s 21-state operating territory on all policy matters.

Marissa Mitrovich is the Fiber Broadband Association’s vice president of public policy, leading their efforts before Congress, the White House and regulatory agencies in Washington, D.C. She brings more than two decades of experience in governmental affairs and telecom, including previous roles as the vice president of federal legislative affairs for Frontier and vice president of public policy for Verizon, where she interfaced with the administration and worked on state government affairs issues and corporate responsibility initiatives. Mitrovich also brings experience in workforce development and public-private partnerships from her time as vice president of program development for the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

David Grossman serves as vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association, where he is responsible for representing the association before the FCC, FTC and other government agencies, with a focus on broadband, spectrum policy, cybersecurity and online competition. David spent nearly a decade in public service, including serving as Chief of Staff to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Legislative Director and Senior Advisor for Technology Policy to Rep. Anna Eshoo of Silicon Valley, and as Technology Counsel to the U.S. House Small Business Committee under the leadership of Rep. Nydia Velázquez.

Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He 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.

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