Heartland Forward's work through Connecting the Heartland in the coming months and years will be anchored in four guiding principles:

1. Public investments in high-speed internet should lift everyone up. The long-term success depends on having consumers who can afford the service, understand and trust its relevance for improving their lives and the skills to know how to use it.
2. Communities should drive solutions that meet their own unique needs. Communities need to be empowered with independent information, expertise and authority to develop plans based on their own local needs and circumstances.
3. Regulations and standards should maximize today’s investments for long-term impact. Regulations and standards should be designed to encourage maximum efficiency in the deployment process, transparency and speeds that will meet tomorrow’s needs.
4. Access to high-speed internet will positively impact our economy. Public funds spent to increase access to internet service can serve double-duty in addressing other needs, from healthcare quality and access, to education and training, to job creation. 

[Angie Cooper is Chief Program Officer of Heartland Forward.]

Included in the just signed infrastructure bill is a provision that will expand access to high-speed internet service and help narrow the nation’s digital divide. However, once this digital infrastructure is built out, many new broadband subscribers will also be exposed to online scams, invasions of privacy, computer viruses, malware and social media disinformation that unfortunately are enabled and accelerated by high-speed internet. Rather than simply connecting people who have not had much previous broadband expertise and letting them fend for themselves, the Biden administration should develop and distribute training materials to all such new subscribers on how to navigate the internet safely, responsibly and securely to ensure that this expansion of broadband doesn’t also result in a surge of digital dysfunction.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is teaming with Carnegie Mellon University, Allies for Children and others to take a regional approach to improving broadband service in the 10-county area in an effort to take best advantage of $65 billion in recently approved federal infrastructure funds. For more than a year, the planning agency has been working mostly behind the scenes with consultant Michael Baker to identify broadband dead spots, areas with insufficient service, and residents who can’t afford service, under a program dubbed SWPA Connected. Through funding from the Hillman Family Foundations, the group has held a series of meetings throughout the region to hear from residents about broadband service and developed a series of maps showing the level of broadband service in each neighborhood. On November 22, the group kicks off the more public part of the effort: a survey where users and would-be users can tell the agency about their broadband experiences and identify shortcomings to supplement the consultant’s findings. Ultimately, the agency’s goal is to serve as a regional clearinghouse for broadband policy development and to coordinate projects and applications for funding on a regional basis.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the conclusion of bidding in the first phase of Auction 110, an auction of licenses in the 3.45 to 3.55 GHz band. In the clock phase, bidders won 4,041 of the 4,060 available generic blocks, and gross proceeds in the clock phase reached over $21.8 billion, which places Auction 110 among the highest-grossing auctions in FCC history. The gross proceeds during the clock phase of the auction surpassed the congressionally mandated reserve price in which 110 percent of the expected sharing and relocation costs for federal users currently operating in the band must be covered by auction proceeds. Auction 110 makes available 100 megahertz of mid-band spectrum for commercial use across the contiguous United States. The spectrum licenses are divided into ten 10-megahertz blocks licensed by geographic areas known as Partial Economic Areas (PEAs).  License winners will operate within a cooperative sharing framework that will enable commercial use by an array of service providers, while also ensuring coexistence with federal incumbents where and when they require continued access to the band. Winning bidders will now have the opportunity to bid for frequency-specific licenses in the assignment phase of Auction 110. The FCC will release a public notice soon announcing further details regarding the assignment phase, including the date and time when bidding in the assignment phase will commence.

Among the key provisions of the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden is $65 billion that will be dedicated to improving access to reliable high-speed internet. This new law aimed at closing the digital divide also should be used to close the digital privacy divide — the gap between more personal information being stored and shared and the level of privacy protection for online users that is provided to them. Dedicated funding for enhanced broadband network availability should be coupled with a greater focus on digital privacy protection. If new requirements for those seeking grants under the new broadband funding program are established, it would go a long way toward providing a necessary link between massive network expansion and digital privacy protection. Given the unprecedented amount of money for broadband expansion that now is firmly allocated, we have a tangible opportunity to provide vital online capabilities more equitably to unserved areas. At the same time, our nation should enhance the digital privacy of those who live there, in urban and rural areas alike.

[Stuart N. Brotman is the Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law and Beaman Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.]

This research, conducted by RVA LLC Market Research & Consulting (RVA), concludes that when compared to other broadband technology—including cable, DSL/FTTN, satellite, mobile wireless and fixed wireless—fiber has stronger reliability, the highest satisfaction rates, and lowest cost per Mbps. This annual research provides a snapshot of the current broadband market. It includes the latest broadband technology deployment numbers, satisfaction rates, and market growth rates. The FBA leverages the results to set strategic initiatives, and FBA members utilize this data to guide current and future fiber deployment plans. Key findings:

• Highest Satisfaction Rating: Fiber has an average net promoter score of 20% (scores of other broadband types range from -5% to -45%).
• Highest Reliability based on reported outages
• Highest Speeds and Lowest Latency based on random speed tests.
• Lowest Cost per Mbps at $0.66 (Other technologies range from $1.00 - $6.00 per Mbps).
• Increase in value to Real Estate: Increasing the value of homes by 3.4%, apartment rental prices by 8.1% and apartment operating income by 15%.

Consolidated Communications launched a fresh “Fidium Fiber” brand for consumers in its New England footprint, pairing its residential connectivity with a new app that offers users more control over their in-home broadband experience. Currently available to customers in parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, Fidium Fiber offers symmetrical 50 Mbps, 250 Mbps and 1-gig service tiers. The latter runs $70 per month, with Wi-Fi equipment and installation costs included and no contract required. Erik Garr, Consolidated’s President of Consumer and Small Business Services, said what makes the brand special is its companion app, Attune WiFi. Built on smart home company Plume’s platform, the app provides customers a “360-degree view of their home’s Wi-Fi network,” Garr said. Among other things, consumers can use it to set content and access restrictions, conduct speed tests and troubleshoot connectivity issues. The new brand launch comes as Consolidated presses full steam ahead with an effort to upgrade 1.6 million passings within its footprint to fiber by 2025, with approximately 1 million of these set to be in northern New England. CEO Bob Udell said it is on track to push fiber to more than 300,000 locations in 2021.

80 civil-rights, media-justice, community-media, workers-rights and consumer-advocacy groups sent a letter urging Senate leadership to swiftly confirm Jessica Rosenworcel as chairwoman and Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, and Alan Davidson as the director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. “These agencies urgently need Senate-confirmed leaders to address the critical need for affordable and resilient access to the open internet in the midst of a global pandemic and worsening climate crisis,” reads the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker. “Through bipartisan infrastructure legislation, Congress has given these agencies enormous tasks on tight deadlines.” The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for Rosenworcel on Wednesday, November 17. “[T]here can be no delay in confirming [these nominees] and getting started in earnest on all of that urgent work,” the groups wrote. “These three nominees each bring decades of experience, a commitment to the public interest, and the skills necessary to fulfill the missions of these agencies.”