Doug Dawson

Penalties for FCC Mapping

On August 22, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened significant fines for eleven internet service providers (ISPs) that failed to participate in the FCC broadband data collection and mapping process. These ISPs have been issued several warnings from the FCC to begin complying with the broadband mapping rules.

The New Administration and BEAD

I’ve been peppered with questions about the impact of the change of administration on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. I don’t have any better crystal ball than anybody else. But it’s not hard to speculate on the kinds of changes that might come. Some possible paths for BEAD:

More Low-orbit Satellites

According to GSA, which tracks the satellite industry, 34 countries are either planning, evaluating, or testing broadband satellites. There have already been satellites launched by UK, Mexico, Japan, Papua New Guinea, the United Arab Emirates, and Timor-Leste. The skies are clearly going to be filled with satellites in a few years. It’s not hard to imagine 100,000 broadband satellites in orbit in a decade or so. One has to wonder what this will mean in terms of price competition. Starlink has one of the highest broadband prices in the U.S.

Merger Mania

The industry is suddenly awash with talks of acquisitions and mergers. In September, Verizon announced the acquisition of Frontier Communications in an all-cash deal valued at $20 billion. T-Mobile has announced two acquisitions of fiber overbuilders.

Still Talking About Poles

Across the country at federal, state, and industry association meetings there are dire warnings being issued that the cost involved on getting onto poles is going to be a huge hindrance to the implantation of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants. Everybody who is talking about this is right, but this is not a new topic—we’ve been talking about this for decades. Now that we are on the eve of finally seeing broadband offices reviewing BEAD grant applications, these warnings feel like too little too late for me.

Seeing the Impact of ACP

The Affordable Connectivity Program lapsed in May 2024. At the time the program ended, there were more than 13 million ACP recipients getting a discount on a cellphone plan and 10 million getting a discount on landline broadband.

The Trajectory of FWA

In what is bad news for many other internet service providers (ISPs), both T-Mobile and Verizon have plans to continue their aggressive growth of FWA cellular broadband.

Starlink and Broadband Subsidies

The House Oversight Committee recently decided to investigate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision in 2022 to deny Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to Starlink. The timing of this announcement clearly has political overtones since it was announced as Elon Musk took the stage at a campaign event with one of the presidential candidates. RDOF was awarded using a reverse auction, where the provider willing to take the lowest amount of subsidy winning the funding.

Is Broadband Inflation-proof?

Inflation has returned to the historical average of around 2.5% per year, but we’ve experienced several years in a row of much higher-than-average inflation. In times of inflation and rising prices, consumers and businesses normally cut back on expenditures. Most of us have good reasons for not wanting to lose broadband. At the end of 2023, over 12% of U.S. employees worked remotely. A huge percentage of homes use broadband for entertainment to stream video and music. 70% of American adults use social media. Three out of four Americans plan games online. Most households now bank online.

FWA and the Urban Digital Divide

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) put the kibosh on the business plans of internet service providers (ISPs) working to tackle the urban digital divide. I’m aware of a several ISPs working to bring broadband to neighborhoods where the majority of customers qualified for the $30 ACP discount.