Connect with us

Infrastructure

Iowa and Missouri Representatives Speak to Legislative Importance of Broadband

Representatives asked industry leaders to communicate their deployment concerns.

Published

on

Photo of Louis Riggs, R-Missouri; Ray Sorenson, R-Iowa; Kathryn De Wit of Pew Charitable Trusts (left to right)

ORLANDO, August 24, 2023 – House Representatives for Missouri and Iowa told Fiber Connect attendees Wednesday that their primary role as legislators is to get government out of the way of providers seeking to connect unserved and underserved addresses across the nation. 

Ray Sorenson, R-Iowa, told conference attendees how important it is that government officials and industry leaders work together to figure out how best to connect all address in the United States. He works with people in Iowa’s state broadband office to help it “get done right,” he said. 

He praised the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program for being customizable by states that know their individual needs better than the federal government. “We have to get out of the way and make sure that this rolls out smoothly,” said Sorenson, referring to legislators and federal policies. 

Sorenson added that he is “technology agnostic,” meaning that he does not care what technology connects people to high-speed internet. We need to make sure we focus on those people that are not connected at all. He said that 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and upload speeds do not matter if the consumer has 0 by 0 Mbps. 

The next generation of farming equipment requires broadband connectivity, Sorensen continued, claiming that it is the nation’s future and urging providers to get ahead of the coming demand. It has been a revelation to talk to people who live in the suburbs and urban cores who all agree that broadband connectivity is something that needs to happen, he said.  

Louis Riggs, R-Missouri, added that legislators are likeminded across party lines about getting the necessary investments into BEAD projects. “We have one chance to get this right,” he said. He asked industry leaders to communicate with legislators about the problems they are facing in deployment.

Teralyn Whipple, who joined Broadband Breakfast in 2022, studied marketing at Brigham Young University. She has reported extensively on broadband infrastructure, investments and deployment. She has also headed marketing campaigns for several small companies.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Funding

Michigan Island Asks FCC to Require Fiber for Some Carriers

Missing out on BEAD-funded fiber could ‘materially impair’ the Beaver Island’s ability to compete, a local committee argued.

Published

on

Photo of Beaver Island from the Beaver Island Boat Company.

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.

Continue Reading

Funding

BEAD Director Says NTIA is Working on Changes to Letter of Credit

Evan Feinman, speaking at the BEAD Implementation Summit, said the agency will also issue guidance on project auditing.

Published

on

Photo of BEAD Director Evan Feinman at the BEAD Implementation Summit

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.”

Continue Reading

Funding

Louisiana the First State to Obtain NTIA Approval of Broadband Plan

The state became the first in the nation to receive approval from the NTIA on part one of its BEAD proposal.

Published

on

Screenshot of Veneeth Iyengar, Louisiana state broadband director

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2023 – Louisiana on Tuesday was first state to have volume one of its initial broadband grant proposal approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

States are required to submit in two volumes initial proposals for administering their portion of the $42.5 billion allocated under the NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. The two volumes are due December 27.

The first volume is aimed at preparing for the eventual disbursement of funds. It details existing broadband funding programs operating in the state, the types of community anchor institutions within the state, and, crucially, areas in need of internet coverage as shown by the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband map and how the state plans to accept and process challenges to the data in that map. 

The FCC is on the third version of the map, updated through its own challenge process. The second version, which updated the provider-reported coverage data after accepting challenges alleging slower on-the-ground internet speeds and other inaccuracies, was used to determine relative need among the states and allocate BEAD funds.

Louisiana will be adopting the model challenge process created by the NTIA. States are not required to use the model process, but the agency encourages them to do so to streamline the drafting and approval processes.

The state is making optional modifications outlined in the model process. It will designate any area served only by DSL – digital subscriber line – technology as “underserved,” and thus eligible for BEAD funded projects, regardless of what speed the provider advertises. The option was included in the model to phase out copper telephone wires in favor of more future-proof broadband technologies like fiber-optic cable.

Louisiana will not accept challenges on the basis of speed, the amount of data a user can download or upload at a time, but will allow subscribers to challenge coverage with speed tests that show excessive latency, or delays in those uploads or downloads. Challenges must be collected and submitted by eligible entities like nonprofits and local governments.

It will also require providers to prove their reported coverage is accurate for an entire building or census block group, rather than on a per-location basis, if enough subscribers there challenge its service.

With volume one of its proposal approved Louisiana can begin administering its challenge process, which it plans to finish in 90 days.

Continue Reading

Signup for Broadband Breakfast News



Broadband Breakfast Research Partner

Trending