Three years ago, President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $65 billion to connect everyone in America to reliable, affordable high-speed Internet service while providing connected devices and digital skills training to those who need it. As of today, NTIA has approved 55 of 56 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program Initial Proposals  and expects to approve the State of Texas in the coming days. Approval enabled states to request access to their BEAD allocations, and request they have: the Federal government has obligated more than $35 billion of the $42.45 billion available in the program. And states and territories are on the move. Nearly all states have begun their challenge process to determine the list of locations eligible for BEAD-funded projects and nine have begun the selection of Internet Service Providers that will build the networks to connect the unconnected. We anticipate that the first state to complete subgrantee selection will announce its results imminently, with many more to follow. All of the approved Initial Proposals contain common sense measures rooted in the statute and set out in the BEAD funding notice. This includes provisions that protect these taxpayer-funded networks against weather-related disasters like hurricanes and wildfires and that ensure the availability of affordable plans for seniors, Veterans, and other qualifying low-income households. It continues to be vital that these historic Federal investments be both available and beneficial to everyone in America and that they stand the test of time.

Government officials are working to calm concerns about disruptions to the nation’s broadband infrastructure buildout with the coming of a new presidential administration. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was designed and envisioned as a 10-year project, said BEAD director Evan Feinman, and changes in political leadership were expected. “Political changes, or not, there was going to be significant personnel turnover over the course of a decade, regardless,” he noted. The BEAD program, which is well underway, with money flowing to states to begin the process of awarding grants to Internet service providers for building out infrastructure, is part of President Joe Biden’s signature Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is investing more than $1 trillion in federal funding toward improving infrastructure of all sorts. Many of these projects are in motion, making their derailment difficult, though many of them are located in states and regions carried by President-elect Donald Trump.
 

Is satellite broadband a reliable method of closing the digital divide? If you were to consult the BEAD program’s rules, the answer would be no. But Donald Trump’s second term could flip that equation if the new administration determines fiber is no longer the preferred technology. Elon Musk, who owns satellite broadband service Starlink, was just appointed by Trump to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his second administration. And Musk has a strong incentive to push for changes to BEAD policy, as New Street Research’s Blair Levin has said. States that have enough funding to reach all or most of their unserved locations with fiber are unlikely to make significant changes to their BEAD plans, said Bryan Darr, VP of Smart Communities at Ookla. But some, especially states out west with large areas of low population density, are already including wireless and satellite in their deployment plans.

On Monday, November 11th, to commemorate Veterans Day, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society released Veterans and Digital Equity: Planning for Success, a collaborative research effort with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Offices of Connected Care and Rural Engagement. We reviewed state digital equity plans to better understand what states' strategies are for connecting Veterans. My coauthors, Dr. Leonie Heyworth, Lesly Roose, and DeAsia Nichols, and I identified five key strategies taken by states to address the digital divide experienced by Veterans: 1) Link needs assessments to their implementation strategies, 2) Leverage other state and federal agencies, 3) Identify specific standout partners, 4) Design a workforce strategy for Veterans, and 5) Prioritize access to health care. On November 12th, the Benton Institute convened four experts to discuss Veteran’s digital equity. The panel, which I had the honor of moderating, included:

• Dr. Leonie Heyworth, Deputy Director for Clinical Services, Telehealth Services, Office of Connected Care, Digital Health Office, VHA, Department of Veterans Affairs,
• Dr. Lindsey Thurgood, Digital Access Program Manager, Utah Broadband Center,
• Mark Casper, President and CEO, Tech For Troops, and
• Walter Prescher, Digital Navigator, BridgingApps Rep, Easter Seals Greater Houston

The state of Vermont has awarded all the broadband funds that it received through the federal Capital Projects Fund (CPF), said Rob Fish, deputy director for the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB). As a result of the construction, some previously unserved and underserved areas of the state won’t need funding through the rural broadband Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, according to Fish. VCBB awarded more than $184.5 million through its CPF-funded Broadband Construction Program, which was supplemented by funding raised by individual communities and network operators. When the VCBB started several years ago, there were about 64,000 unserved and underserved locations in the state. Only about 20,000 remain—and with the $229 million that Vermont will receive in BEAD funding and matching funds in that program, Fish is confident that the state will be able to achieve the goal of universal broadband.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are working together to significantly accelerate Endangered Species Act (ESA) reviews for Internet for All projects. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is driving historic investments in broadband and other infrastructure, including the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The ESA requires agencies to ensure their activities are not likely to jeopardize the existence of threatened or endangered species or destroy or adversely modify their designated critical habitat. The enormous number of projects expected from BEAD means that an innovative, collaborative approach to Endangered Species Act reviews is needed. To accelerate high-speed internet projects while also protecting endangered species, NTIA is partnering with FWS to implement programmatic strategies that reduce the volume of reviews and the time required to complete them, without undermining the conservation of listed species.

President-elect Donald Trump on November 17 chose Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, naming a veteran Republican regulator who has publicly agreed with the incoming administration’s promises to slash regulation, go after Big Tech and punish TV networks for political bias. Commissioner Carr is expected to shake up a quiet agency that licenses airwaves for radio and TV, regulates phone costs, and promotes the spread of home internet. Before the election, Mr. Trump indicated he wanted the agency to strip broadcasters like NBC and CBS of their licensing for unfair coverage. Carr, 45, was the author of a chapter on the FCC in the conservative Project 2025 planning document, in which he argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft. Carr could drastically reshape the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, telecommunications attorneys and analysts said. They predicted Mr. Carr would test the legal limits of the agency’s power by pushing to oversee companies like Meta and Google, setting up a fierce battle with Silicon Valley.

Broadband consumption experienced a milestone during the third quarter of the year as upstream traffic increased two times as fast as downstream traffic, according to OpenVault. The firm found that year-over-year upstream traffic increased 13.9%, while downstream increased by 6.8%. Overall traffic growth was 7.2%, according to the OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report. The trend of upstream outpacing downstream traffic is well established and consistent with the evolution of end point-generated content. OpenVault said that, with the exception of the COVID-19 era, downstream usage has consistently gone down annually and upstream has increased. Indeed, downstream traffic growth was the lowest since OpenVault began recording that number in 2017.