The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award applications from Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, allowing them to request access to more than $100 million to implement their Digital Equity Plans. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The states can request access to:

• Nebraska: $6,500,627
• New Hampshire: $4,942,018
• Oregon: $9,947,586
• South Carolina: $12,846,583
• South Dakota: $5,010,234
• Texas: $55,641,147
• Wyoming: $5,251,485

There has been a lot of speculation since the election that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program is going to get revamped. This raises the interesting question if it’s too late for a new administration to make major changes to the BEAD program. There is also the question of the process needed to change the BEAD rules. The BEAD rules were created by Congress, and it seems that Congress would have to act to change the rules. There are several ways the administration could give more funding for satellite. For example, they could pause work at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) until they figure out the path to do that. But if Congress has to go along with any major changes, this is not necessarily an easy path. Putting BEAD on hold would mean the administration would be delaying broadband implementation—something that Republican Senators have been complaining about the NTIA for the last year.

Fiber deployment has significant incremental economic benefits even in the presence of other high-speed broadband technologies. The report also argues that because private actors will not capture all the benefits of fiber deployment the marketplace will not deploy enough fiber on its own. Based on these findings we suggest a few policy takeaways:

• Because the social return on investment is higher for fiber, directing more of the existing public funds towards fiber deployment will generate greater economic returns compared to investment in other high-speed broadband technologies such as hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC). Thus, the various public programs, such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, ReConnect, Capital Projects Fund and the federal Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP), which are prioritizing fiber builds are on the right policy path.
• Based on available data, our research implies that even if fiber is deployed as an overbuild to existing high-speed technologies, the incremental benefits are sizeable. Thus, when the federal or local governments are measuring the underserved population, one important metric may be using a fiber-unserved metric and not just a speed-based metric.
• Federal and local governments that promote fiber deployment should be encouraged and expanded.
• Fiber is a future-proof solution and when the benefits and costs are evaluated on a long-run horizon, fiber becomes the optimal choice for delivering fixed high-speed broadband.

Otis, Massachusetts, isn’t the sort of place you expect to spend a lot of time online. For Kirsten Paulson, who lives part time in Otis, that’s all a selling point. Another major one: Her internet service is better here than at her home outside Washington (DC). That’s because the town of 1,500 people built its own network to fill in the gaps left by private providers, which don’t offer high-speed internet in Otis. Now, after decades of slow and unreliable service, nearly every house in town is connected to a state-of-the-art fiber-optic network. Versions of that story repeat themselves across western Massachusetts, where dozens of rural communities have used state, federal, and municipal funds to get their residents online. Some, like Otis, have built their own networks, treating internet access like a public utility. Others, like neighboring Sandisfield, have formed public-private partnerships to entice companies to provide service. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute, a state agency tasked with making affordable internet widely available, says that 99% of the commonwealth now has high-speed internet. 

On November 5 North Carolinians continued a trend of ticket splitting during the 2024 elections. Although Donald Trump won in the state with nearly 51 percent of the vote, state Democrats were successful down-ticket, and broke a Republican supermajority in the state legislature. Back in September, I wrote about how broadband was on the ballot this year. As I noted, outgoing Roy Cooper (D-NC) has set achievable broadband goals for North Carolina. Here’s a look at the team of elected officials who will work to further the goals.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to launch a major, comprehensive review and update of licensing rules for submarine cables that transmit information between continents and fuel economic activity. Since the agency’s last review in 2001, the technology, economics, and national security environments surrounding these systems have greatly changed. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC seeks comment on how best to improve and streamline the submarine cable rules to facilitate efficient deployment of submarine cables while ensuring the security, resilience, and protection of this critical infrastructure. Security review of license applications often involves numerous federal partners through the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector and with a critical role for the State Department.

5G users report higher performance satisfaction than 4G users, but face issues in high-traffic locations, meaning that 4 in 10 users are no longer willing to accept best-effort 5G performance. Further, 35 percent of surveyed 5G users show a growing appetite for elevated connectivity beyond standard 5G performance, signaling a strong willingness to adopt and pay extra for differentiated connectivity. So, what can differentiated connectivity do for them? Today, 5G users are looking for performance assurance on core services such as video calls and streaming, while generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) users are going a step further and are already willing to pay a premium that is 35 percent higher than these core services. This signals a growing demand for enhanced, performance-assured connectivity that goes beyond traditional application expectations.

I want to thank Chairwoman Rosenworcel for her astute leadership on critical issues not only as the first woman ever to be confirmed by the Senate to lead the Federal Communications Commission but also as Commissioner. The list of issues is long. She focused on consumers, especially those that have been historically left behind and those that are in vulnerable situations, on economic priorities such as the space economy and our digital future, and on national security. Her impact will be felt by many. I also want to thank her for her support and friendship. Her commitment to good government and shrewd management of our agency, which is a special place, helped make my transition to Commissioner seamless.