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new model on September 1, “the Order instead all but guarantees they will receive a service that will quickly become outdated.”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.”

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.