The recently signed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package includes $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion work, delivering an investment that advocates are calling unprecedented and historic. That number comes within a larger $65 billion sum going toward broadband connectivity. This money is earmarked for organizations at the state and local levels, a key structure choice given that effective digital inclusion programs vary significantly by community according to Amy Huffman, policy director for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). The $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion is set for two programs made up of grants. First, the money will go toward a digital equity capacity grant program for states. This will enable state government organizations to apply for funds they need to plan digital equity work. Once they have those plans, they can next apply for grant money to implement them. The second program funded by the digital equity section of the infrastructure bill is at the community level. Indeed, money will also go to competitive digital equity grants for community anchor institutions, which vary by jurisdiction but include libraries, public housing, local government, nonprofits and more. Those grants are intended to help with core digital inclusion efforts, including digital literacy training, digital navigation — wherein an expert guides a new user through every step they need to take to get connected — and more.

There is one quiet provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that slipped under the radar. Congress is requiring that the Federal Communications Commission revamp broadband labels that describe the broadband product to customers, similar to the labels for food. The Act gives the FCC one year to create regulations to require the display of a broadband label similar to the ones created by the FCC in 2016. Internet service providers (ISPs) are going to hate this. It requires full disclosure of prices, including any special or gimmick pricing that will expire. ISPs will have to disclose data caps and also any hidden charges. The labels also include other information that big ISPs are not going to want to put into writing, such as the typical download and upload speeds for a broadband product as well as the expected latency and jitter. I’m sure that big ISPs are already scrambling trying to find some way out of this new requirement, but that’s going to be hard to do since the directive comes from Congress. It’s going to get interesting a year from now, and I can’t wait to see the labels published by the biggest ISPs.

[Doug Dawson is owner and president of CCG Consulting.]

The share of U.S. adults using the internet has not grown significantly since 2013, according to the Pew Research Center. It’s a trend reflected in rural broadband subscription rates that continue to lag significantly behind rates in urban areas. The gigabit elephant in the room is the ridiculous amount we spend for broadband relative to the quality of services communities, especially rural areas, get. Federal agencies have been spending $6 billion per year since 2009 for rural broadband. Many of these federal grants have lax accountability penalties for internet service providers (ISPs) that fail to deliver what they promise. The fear among many people working for greater broadband access is that the accountability won’t get any better with the $65 billion just approved in the infrastructure spending law. Dr. Christopher Ali, an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, said, “Forty-seven billion dollars was spent between 2009 and 2017 specifically towards rural broadband deployment. But the pandemic painfully and dramatically exposed the gaps in broadband connectivity. Farm operators who thought they were paying for a great broadband network found out that they couldn’t actually do multiple Zoom calls from home if they had multiple family members or business acquaintances working under the same roof.” Grants and subsidies can help correct rural broadband market failure, but only if winners are held accountable. Kathryn de Wit, project director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Broadband Access Initiative, considers accountability a critical element in achieving universal broadband access because accountability “ensure that projects deliver on their promise to address the digital divide.”

California has identified 18 projects to begin work on an open-access middle-mile network that will provide missing infrastructure paths to bring broadband to all our communities. The initial project locations are based on known unserved and underserved areas across the state. The projects will connect to the core of the global internet and interconnect to last-mile infrastructure, which is the final leg that provides internet service to a customer. The initial 18 projects represent a range of geographic locations and technical approaches. Projects are being initiated in the following tribal communities, counties and cities: Alpine County; Amador County; Calaveras County; Central Coast; Coachella Valley; Colusa Area; Inyo County; Kern County; Kern/San Luis Obispo Area; Lake County Area; Los Angeles and South Los Angeles; Oakland; Orange County; Plumas Area; Riverside/San Diego Area; San Bernardino County; Siskiyou Area; and West Fresno. State partners implementing the middle-mile initiative include the California Department of Technology, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Caltrans. GoldenStateNet was selected as the Third-Party Administrator (TPA) to manage the development, acquisition, construction, maintenance and operation of the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network.

The Santa Barbara (CA) City Council is looking to spend $60,460 to work toward stronger broadband internet services. If the council approves the expenditure, which will be taken from American Rescue Act funds, it would join Santa Barbara County and other local agencies to work on a strategic plan. "As a region, our communities lack reliable connectivity to the internet to work and learn efficiently and effectively," states a letter from the Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast. "While some areas of Santa Barbara County are well connected, including government and higher education, our businesses and our families have been affected by a lack of capacity, connection, at an affordable cost. We need to work to ensure final mile connectivity for our communities, including our schools, healthcare providers and our families." The Santa Barbara Association of Governments is coordinating with the eight cities in the county to request participation in the regional broadband strategic planning process. The estimated cost is $400,000.

Mayor John Hamilton (D-IN) announced that the City of Bloomington and Meridiam have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the firm to build and operate a fiber network to bring high-speed internet to Bloomington (IN) residences. By the end of 2021, the City plans to enter into an agreement with the infrastructure developer to construct an open-access fiber-optic network delivering gigabit-class broadband service throughout Bloomington, including the city’s low-income neighborhoods. Meridiam intends to begin construction in 2022. The LOI stipulates that Meridiam intends to build a broadband network covering virtually all and at least 85% of Bloomington residences, including the areas currently approved for annexation if they go forward. The LOI indicates the network will be an open-access model, meaning that any internet provider may lease the infrastructure after an initial restricted period. The LOI commits Meridiam and the City to achieve digital equity goals and the principle of net neutrality--that all internet communications are to be treated equally. After commencing in Bloomington, Meridiam is also planning similar investments in other municipalities in central Indiana. “We are proud to lead and anchor what has become a regional broadband initiative reaching well beyond Bloomington,” said Mayor Hamilton.

The White House has nominated public interest advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to become the fifth commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, and acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel to remain as the agency’s permanent chair. The way lawmakers vote in their Senate confirmation hearings will reveal whether they really want to crack down on monopoly power and Big Tech abuses—or whether that’s just an empty slogan to stoke their fundraising efforts. Without net neutrality rules––which prevent Internet providers from blocking, throttling, discriminating or charging extra fees to access online content––and a functioning agency to enforce them, it’s only a matter of time before incumbent giants like Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon cut anti-competitive deals with internet service providers like Verizon and AT&T to prioritize their services, or exempt them from arbitrary (and unfair) data caps. Democrats and Republicans know that we need a functional FCC that’s working to get every American, regardless of their income or political affiliation, connected to the Internet. And we need that agency to be able to prevent companies like Google and Instagram from cutting anti-competitive deals that solidify their monopoly power, leaving us stuck with their parasitic business models forever.  It’s essential that both nominees move forward as quickly as possible, so that the FCC can get back to working for the public rather than telecom companies.

[Evan Greer is the director of digital rights group Fight for the Future.]

Congratulations are due to Congress and President Biden's team for the passage of the landmark infrastructure bill. Now it is time to probe where the execution might need additional help. After all, anything that makes it through a politically complex process is far from ideal — the outcome is a compromise that never solves the whole problem. Consider the $65 billion allocated for broadband internet that had rare bipartisan support and has one of the biggest gaps to close. My Digital Planet research team estimates that the true cost of connecting all Americans is closer to $240 billion — a whopping $175 billion shortfall. Which Americans should be left out of the deal? If our lawmakers are creative enough, perhaps no one. Ask Mark Zuckerberg's company, Meta, which can get everyone on a fast ramp to the internet in three moves. First, the Zuckerberg team developed its Bombyx robot to crawl along power lines, wrapping them with fiber cable. This avoids the single biggest cost of laying fiber-trenching, or digging holes to lay fiber under the ground. The second innovation is Terragraph, which uses wireless technology to deliver broadband internet. This is ideal for urban areas and lowers the cost of closing the broadband gap when deployed at scale — and Meta can be asked to do so. The third route to closing the budget gap involves levying a tax. A 19.5 percent tax on targeted ad revenues earned by digital companies would be sufficient to cover all of the $175 billion shortfall in the infrastructure bill over the bill's eight-year timeframe.

[Bhaskar Chakravorti is the dean of global business at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.]

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel, to continue as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (Rosenworcel also serves as chair of the FCC), and Alvaro Bedoya, to be a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. 

[read the full recap at the URL below]