Building on previous initiatives, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents a potentially significant improvement over previous efforts to help low-income families get online. But as always, much will depend on how the Federal Communications Commission carries out its new congressional mandate. The Affordable Connectivity Program will provide $30/month in assistance on an ongoing basis, plus equipment subsidies. There is much to like about the new Affordable Connectivity Program. For example, the consumer choice provisions reduce the soft paternalism reflected in Lifeline and the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, where government dictated which plans low-income households could use. The goal of any low-income subsidy should be to increase the recipient’s purchasing power, so they can participate in the marketplace like any other consumer. For that reason, many (including me) have long advocated for giving vouchers directly to consumers. Affordable Connectivity Program does not go that far, but allowing recipients to apply the benefit to any commercially available program allows recipients to choose the plan that best fits their family’s specific needs. Taxpayers should also appreciate that the program is funded through the traditional appropriations process rather than the opaque and increasingly unstable universal service program.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an advisory raising concerns with respect to Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program enrollments based on the USDA National School Lunch Program’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Households with a student enrolled in a school or school district participating in the CEP can qualify for the EBB Program. The FCC recognized that because participation in the CEP allows the highest-poverty schools and school districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without needing to collect applications from students, households with a member that attends a CEP school would not have submitted an application to qualify for free or reduced price school breakfast or lunch. Accordingly, the FCC directed the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to allow households that participate in the CEP to qualify for the EBB Program by providing the name of the CEP school or school district. Following the OIG's advisory, the FCC's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announced measures to mitigate any harm to the EBB Program. The Wireline Competition Bureau also released information on their actions to implement these measures here. The measures include:

• Directing USAC to modify the EBB Program application portal to require applicants seeking to qualify for the EBB Program based on attendance at a USDA National School Lunch Program’s CEP school to submit school enrollment documentation in addition to providing the name of the CEP school;
• Conducting program integrity reviews of households enrolled through this mechanism to ensure continued eligibility;
• Issuing a Public Notice notifying providers and consumers of this change and specifying additional steps needed to demonstrate eligibility for the EBB Program;
• Referring bad actors to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to investigate and safeguard consumers;
• Reviewing programmatic audit procedures to ensure proper checks are in place to identify similar concerns in the future; and
• Recouping improperly disbursed funds as a result of any EBB Program payments to unqualified CEP enrollees.

Winsome Sears (R-VA), Virginia's lieutenant governor-elect, expressed the importance of rural broadband access and her concerns over how funds allocated for broadband access in the newly signed infrastructure law would help Virginians, especially in the southwestern part of the state. Sears does not believe funding for broadband internet would benefit southwestern Virginia, saying, "We're using the budget, the money to try to make things happen that are not happening and it's not right." Sears' comments come days after President Joe Biden signed the massive infrastructure law to help close the digital divide and provide a $65 billion investment in improving the nation's broadband infrastructure in which each state will receive at least $100 million. Virginia has already made strides to expand broadband access in the state and Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced over the summer plans to invest $700 million in American Rescue Plan Act to fast-track his goal to achieve universal internet access from by 2024. But many rural counties in Virginia lag behind other parts of commonwealth in the number of households with broadband subscriptions, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

As millions more federal dollars flow to Mississippi for expanding broadband internet access, large cable and telecom companies and rural electric cooperatives are already sparring over the money. During two days of state Senate Energy Committee hearings, officials from both sides laid out their cases for how they could best provide more rural high-speed internet access. At issue is about $162 million the state is expected to receive as part of the American Rescue Plan Act that can be used for broadband expansion projects — plus hundreds of millions more expected to soon be earmarked for Mississippi internet expansion. In 2019, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law allowing electric cooperatives to provide internet service — an effort to expand broadband access in a poor, rural state where an estimated 40 percent of the state lacked access. Proponents said large cable and telecom companies were failing to expand service into rural areas because it wasn’t profitable enough. However, cable and telecom providers say they have spent millions in private funds expanding internet service in Mississippi, and that they shouldn’t be cut out of government funding for expansion.

The digital divide facing tribal communities is stark and has remained pronounced despite the best efforts of advocacy groups and tribes themselves to help Indigenous people get online. According to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2021 Broadband Deployment Report, just under 47 percent of households on tribal lands in 2019 had access to broadband internet as the FCC defines it: 25 Megabits per second download speed and a 3 Mbps upload speed. Many tribal leaders are not waiting for the federal government or the private sector to intervene, as planned investments would do little to address the gaps in coverage. Instead, they are going it alone in their communities by building out their own networks to get their residents connected. These networks, often not profit-driven, have also been used to buy and sell goods, create apps, and educate others about locals' heritage and history.

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to approve—with strong consumer protection conditions—the transfer of control of TracFone Wireless from América Móvil to Verizon Communications. After rigorous review, the FCC found that the transaction, as modified by Verizon’s enforceable commitments, will make Verizon and TracFone stronger providers of prepaid and Lifeline services. Given the communities that TracFone primarily serves within the US, the FCC adopted a number of binding conditions to address potential harms and to ensure the transaction will be in the public interest. The FCC also adopted strong, independent mechanisms for enforcing these conditions and ensuring that the transaction does not harm low-income or other consumers. These enforcement mechanisms include both an internal and an independent compliance officer who are empowered to proactively monitor conditions, ensure that low-income consumers are not being harmed, and facilitate consumer complaints about potential violations. Given the likelihood that any violation of these conditions could harm low-income consumers, the FCC is also requiring regular public reporting and more than seven years of oversight.

Diversified broadband provider Cable One is on a path to launch 10 Gbps service. The company said it has already made gigabit service available to 99 percent of its footprint across 24 states, first offering it back in 2016. Cable One is actively upgrading its network to facilitate DOCSIS 4.0, which is the cable industry’s answer to the proliferation of fiber broadband from primarily telco competitors. The move to DOCSIS 4.0 involves upgrading the operator’s return path to facilitate symmetrical multi-gig service. In Cable One’s case, it is reclaiming spectrum that was historically used for linear video transmission and upgrading its hybrid fiber coaxical (HFC) plant to 1.8 GHz. The broader cable industry is embracing its R&D arm CableLabs’ 10G initiative, which lays out a technical specification for 10 Gbps service over existing HFC networks. Referred to as the DOCSIS 4.0 standard, the upgraded service should allow cable operators to offer 10 Gbps downstream and 6 Gbps upstream, enabling symmetrical multi-gig service.