Analysis

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in a filing on behalf of the US government, urged the European Commission to promote affordable access to broadband, protect users’ access to online content, and avoid discriminatory measures that distort competition. The filing on May 19 is in response to the European Commission’s exploratory consultation on The Future

Some counties have a bigger cellular coverage problem than they do a broadband problem. There are often a much larger number of homes in a county that don’t have adequate cellular coverage than those that can’t buy broadband. I always knew that the cellular coverage maps published by the big cellular carriers were overstated; now I know that they are pure garbage. Before the pandemic, the Federal Communications Commission came up with a plan to spend $9 billion from the Universal Service Fund to build and equip new rural cellular towers—using a reverse auction method.

States are implementing a variety of strategies as they allocate the initial rounds of federal Capital Projects Fund (CPF) dollars to help expand access to broadband services. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has officially released more than half of the CPF dollars, with $6 billion awarded to 40 states as of May 2023.

The US Treasury Department has released the final version of important compliance guidance applicable to broadband projects funded through the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) or Capital Project Fund (CPF) awards.

In Europe,  fibre networks have been expanding, driven by a combination of private investment and competition, and by ambitious policy targets to connect every European to a gigabit network by 2030. Full-fibre networks are now available to a majority of Europeans. Nearly everyone in Spain, Portugal and France has the option to buy full-fibre-based connections; in Germany, where DSL and cable perform relatively well and deployment costs are reportedly high, fibre investment and roll-out has been slower to materialise.

The clock is ticking on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Current estimates show the program may run out of funding as soon as the end of the first quarter in 2024. The only solution for keeping ACP operating is for Congress to refill the ACP funding bucket somehow. Angela Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance said that reauthorizing ACP was one of the biggest broadband issues on the plate for Congress. She talked about the many gains that have been made in getting broadband to low-income homes.

The Federal Communications Commission’s “Funding Map” was just published and, at first glance, it needs work. The FCC’s own Rural Digital Opportunity Fund originally had winning bids for 5.2 million locations. As of the latest release of authorized winners, 3.5 million locations were moving forward.

The Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) is housed within the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Congress created OICG in the ACCESS BROADBAND Act of 2021, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, to oversee all broadband activity at NTIA and lead federal efforts to fund and expand broadband access across the country.

The Florida Legislature recently passed a bill that brings poles under state jurisdiction for any electric cooperative that elects to enter the broadband business.

As the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) prepares to release the first tranche of state allocations of broadband funds in 2023, one of the statutory requirements mandates workforce development as an important program outcome, especially in the rebuilding and expanding of national infrastructure. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program has also implemented a number of requirements that, according to its Workforce Pl