Under the Senate infrastructure bill, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) would distribute $42.5 billion in new broadband subsidies through grants to eligible states. Local authorities would then competitively award that money to broadband service and infrastructure providers.
The Senate infrastructure bill gave the primary responsibility of universal broadband deployment and adoption to the states, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) providing oversight. To help achieve the Senate’s goals, the FCC should:
Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC) proclaimed August 16–20 as Rural Broadband Week to call attention to the urgent need to improve broadband access and adoption across the state.
Senate infrastructure bill’s four interconnected broadband components
Google and Facebook announced their participation in a new subsea cable system for 2024 set to improve internet connectivity across the Asia-Pacific region. Dubbed Apricot, the infrastructure project will link Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Indonesia and help serve growing demand for broadband access and 5G wireless connectivity.
Congress has done a lot more than just set goals for access to broadband services—it finally provided the funding to do so. Most recently, the Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which, if passed by the House, would provide another $65 billion in funding. But to understand what the Senate both did and did not do in the new infrastructure package, we cannot simply focus on spending levels.
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