Analysis

The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I encouraged many with the promise of needed support to connect homes with true broadband services in unserved rural communities. However, RDOF’s Phase I exposed many issues that will likely lead to deployment delays, missed expectations, or worse. Specifically, some applicants that bid in the Gigabit tier have submitted unrealistic wireless network designs that are highly unlikely to produce Gigabit service to rural communities.

This paper considers specifically the extent to which fixed wireless services may be capable of delivering Gigabit‐level services in the kinds of sparsely populated rural areas that the Rural Digital  Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction primarily seeks to serve. Fixed wireless networks will face difficult, if not insurmountable, challenges to provide Gigabit services in very select circumstances when attempting to service distant, non‐town rural subscribers.

Three institutional and strategic problems that President Joe Biden’s Federal Communications Commission will have to resolve:

For some time, many experts have been warning that the universal service funding system is in a death spiral, as the base on which the fees are assessed—generally a telecom company’s interstate and international end-user revenues—is shrinking. The new Federal Communications Commission is forced to consider a rising assessment on a shrinking revenue base to address an increasing demand, with Ajit Pai’s FCC having not done any of the analytic, political, or legal work necessary to make adjustments. Pai was willing to spend billions to address the needs of rural communities lacking broadband.

Russia asked the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to have the group’s 193 member states “discuss the status of global governance system for … Internet domain names, addresses, and critical Internet infrastructure.” In a curt statement, the ITU said simply that it had “noted the contribution” of Russia.

 If you’re going to build broadband and have a choice of technologies, why is fiber the best choice?

As longtime Benton readers know, since 1996 Congress has charged the Federal Communications Commission with encouraging the deployment of broadband to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis. Congress also requires the FCC annually to initiate an inquiry concerning the availability of broadband.

The National Urban League unveiled the framework of a comprehensive agenda for leveraging the tools of the information economy to create a more equitable and inclusive society. The Lewis Latimer Plan for Digital Equity and Inclusion would:

Monopoly control of high-speed internet access is leaving many Americans — particularly rural communities and communities of color — disconnected, underserved, or, at best, paying too much for substandard service. While community scaled internet service providers are more effective at delivering fast, affordable, and reliable Internet, monopolies, state-level regulations, and other factors stand in the way of these locally driven solutions to America’s broadband challenges. The report recommends a range of policy actions for improving broadband at the local level, including:

On Jan 25, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance submitted comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s public notice on the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB). Along with thirty-six signatories, they wrote their comments focusing on: