Doug Dawson

Throughout this year, I’ve been hearing the phrase “good enough broadband” to describe consumers willing to take slower, less robust broadband connections in order to save money. This is most commonly used when referring to fixed wireless access broadband, but I’ve seen big internet service provider executives using the phrase when talking about customers who leave fiber for any slower technology. This is not a new phenomenon.

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University recently published an excellent report, Beyond Connectivity Among Rural First Responders in Pennsylvania. The report is based on the findings from focus groups and interviews with law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs, 911 center representatives, local officials, and other key stakeholders. The in-depth discussions identified multiple problems that hinder public safety work in rural areas:

There are at least two federal agencies that have been awarding smaller grants that are broadband-related. The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) makes grants aimed at economic development in 255 counties and parishes in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. A similar agency is the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), which plays a similar role across 423 counties in Appalachia across thirteen states. These agencies are required by law to make most of their awards in economically distressed counties.

A look at why ISPs fail or get into early trouble and struggle, including the common mistakes I’ve seen that have led to big problems for ISPs. 

SpaceX has now told the Federal Communications Commission multiple times that the agency should begin the process of phasing down and eliminating all rural high-cost subsidies from the Universal Service Fund. The company filed comments asking for the end of subsidies in FCC Docket 26-96, which is looking at reforming the High-cost fund for an all IP Future, and in Docket 10-90 that was looking at Universal Service Fund reform. In both filings, SpaceX says that its proliferation of low-orbit satellites means that rural subsidies are obsolete and are no longer needed.

There is a lot of talk about improving the Federal Communications Commission broadband maps. I published a blog a few weeks ago that described a bill passed by the Senate that would require a new review of the FCC broadband maps. The bill is labeled the Modernization, Accountability, and Planning for Broadband Funding Act. I’m all for changes that would create an accurate broadband map.

Since nobody I know will even be using a government spy satellite, you might wonder why I am writing about Starshield, the military-grade network operated by SpaceX. I’ve been wondering lately about Starlink’s claim that it is interested in providing backhaul to cell sites and bigger broadband connections to rural businesses. This has always puzzled me because, at the local network level, a satellite network is no different than any other network.

I can think of only three sources of locations that the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program missed the first time around. One group of locations is those being turned back to State Broadband Offices when BEAD awardees decide not to accept a BEAD grant. The broadband offices have been trying to find other internet service providers to take these locations at the original award price. But I already know of several examples where there are no takers—at least at the dollar level of BEAD that was awarded after the Benefit of the Bargain round.

One of the most common tasks required when building a new fiber network, particularly when burying fiber, is fixing the damage caused during the construction process. In the industry, we refer to this work as remediation, which means, in plain English, putting everything back to the way it was before the start of construction. There is a huge list of things that can go wrong and messes that can be made during the fiber construction process. There can be serious consequences for an internet service provider who bungles remediation.

AT&T and Verizon (and now the newly purchased Frontier) have continued with their big push to shut down copper networks. There are good reasons to finally walk away from this obsolete technology. Copper networks are largely far past the end of economic life and are rotting on the poles. Vandalism is rampant since the price of copper is making it attractive for people to rip down copper for the resale value. A large majority of customers who have a good alternative have fled the copper networks, so there are fewer people each year on the remaining copper networks.