The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is committing $5,781,987.00 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to Puerto Rico through the territory's first “Internet for All” grants. The grant is for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs, as well as for planning for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet service throughout the territory. Puerto Rico will receive $5 million to support the following:

• Identification of unserved and underserved locations;
• Creation of a report assessing high-speed broadband service in Puerto Rico and an action plan;
• Conducting surveys and community outreach to better understand residents' broadband needs;
• Local engagement with diverse stakeholders.

Puerto Rico will receive $781,987.00 to support:

• Developing a digital equity plan to connect unserved and underserved populations to the Internet;
• Identification of communities lacking digital inclusion and literacy;
• Development of strategies to close digital inclusion gaps, and steer public and private stakeholders to action in response to the gaps;
• Hiring of personnel to oversee the digital equity plan and support community outreach;
• Engagement with community members and stakeholders while collecting data.

The Federal Communications Commission committed nearly $54 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. The funding commitments support applications from all three application windows, benefiting approximately 150,000 students across the country, including students in Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, and West Virginia. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education. To date, the program has provided support to approximately 10,000 schools, 900 libraries, and 100 consortia, and providing approximately 12 million connected devices and 8 million broadband connections. Of the over $6.4 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.14 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $833 million from Window 2; and $1.43 billion from Window 3.

US Senator John Thune (R-SD) will launch a nationwide oversight effort that will review numerous broadband programs spanning several federal agencies. The primary goal of Thune’s effort is to hold these agencies accountable and ensure that previously authorized broadband funding is being used in the most efficient way possible to protect taxpayer dollars. Sen Thune seeks input on the current broadband regulatory structure from a diverse group of stakeholders, including broadband associations, public interest groups, and free market think tanks. In light of the importance of ensuring federal dollars for broadband services are implemented properly and broadband deployment more generally, Sen Thune asks organizations to provide comments on the current broadband regulatory structure and their organization’s priorities, as well as provide responses to the following specific questions no later than Friday, January 6, 2023:

• As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Congress established a technology-neutral approach for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Do you believe the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) followed Congress’ intent in establishing a technology-neutral approach? If not, should Congress consider amending the IIJA statute to make it more explicit that all technologies are allowed to participate? If so, how?
• In the BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), there are detailed reporting requirements on subgrantees who do not use a unionized workforce or a project labor agreement. As a practical matter, do you think this favors certain providers over others? Does Congress or NTIA need to take further action to remove this requirement?
• The BEAD NOFO promotes government-owned networks. Do you believe government-owned networks are an effective entity to deploy broadband networks? If yes, please explain.
• One of the provisions of the IIJA requires products and materials used for broadband projects to be produced in the United States. Given the current supply chain issues, should Congress consider modifying this obligation or otherwise clarify this provision?
• The Broadband Buildout Accountability Act, S. 3671, would remove the Freedom of Information Act exemption in the BEAD program. Should Congress enact this legislative proposal? If not, why?  
• Are there other technical issues in the BEAD program that Congress should address before NTIA announces funding allocations by June 30, 2023?

The following questions relate to general broadband issues:

• As noted above, there are over 130 programs supporting broadband access across 15 agencies. 
  • To date, which of these programs do you believe has had the most success in delivering broadband services to truly unserved areas?
  •  Should Congress consider eliminating any of these programs? If so, which ones?
  •  Should Congress merge and combine any of these programs? If so, which programs would be best suited to be merged?
• What specific reforms and constraints should Congress consider ensuring federal funds are not being awarded where providers are receiving other federal or state broadband funding support? 
• Should Congress take additional action in response to concerns that broadband funding may be conditioned upon recipients imposing some form of rate regulation of broadband services, whether or not such requirements are explicitly denominated "rate regulation?” If so, what reforms and constraints should be implemented?

A full list of questions can be found here. 

Public-private partnerships (P3s) between service providers and communities are well-established in Europe and growing in popularity across the US. The model in which a service provider desires the next-generation network but may not build, own or operate the network outright can be a great way to deliver a reliable, high-speed fiber broadband network with unlimited capacity to communities. The two standard flavors of P3s are "open:" a model in which the wholesale network is owned by a public-private entity and operates as an open-access wholesale network. And "not open:" a model in which a single public or private entity does not own parts of the network. As government funding ramps up, fiber builds will grow exponentially. P3s have shown to be instrumental in accelerating these projects as they unite stakeholders in ways that create balance to bring fiber broadband to communities as efficiently as possible. The benefits of doing so far outweigh the costs, as shown in communities entering P3s across the country.

[Deborah Kish is the vice president of research and workforce development for the Fiber Broadband Association]

Netherlands is also the world’s top supplier of seeds for ornamental plants and vegetables. The country is a hub for agricultural research, with 15 of the top twenty agribusinesses having research and development labs in the country. All of this agriculture needs broadband. Like the U.S., the rural areas of the country are the last to get broadband. But the country has put a big push on connectivity. 100% of homes and farms can buy DSL. This is not like the slow rural U.S. DSL, but mostly with reliable speeds between 25 Mbps and 50 Mbps. Over 92% of residents have access to cable company broadband. Over 30% of homes now have access to fiber. It’s obviously easier to fully wire a small country than our humongous far-flung farming areas. But the Netherlands example is highlighting a different way to raise food by putting greenhouses close to the people who consume the crops.

Fixed wireless access (FWA) is a bright spot for UScellular’s wireless business. UScellular CEO LT Therivel said that the company’s FWA subscriber base is doubling every 18 months. “I don’t see that rate of growth slowing,” he said, noting that the majority of UScellular’s FWA customers are using the lower speed service that runs on its LTE network. UScellular plans to expand its FWA offering in late 2023 and early 2024 using its mid-band spectrum, which means customers will get download speeds closer to 300 Mbps, and Therivel expects that the higher speed FWA service will be an even bigger draw. Like many broadband providers, the company plans to draw on various government funding programs to help it expand its FWA footprint, including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.  But UScellular is in a bit of a unique situation because it owns a portfolio of 4,000 towers (the big three operators sold their towers years ago). Because of this, UScellular wants to use the government’s broadband funding to build more towers so it can serve more FWA customers and increase its 5G mobile coverage too. Therival said that currently UScellular needs to have a certain number of potential customers within a seven-mile radius of a tower to justify the expense of building and operating a tower. However, with government funding, it could lower that threshold and build a new tower where there are fewer customers and still achieve a return on its investment.