The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides the primary subsidy available to cover broadband subscription costs for low-income households, but only 1 in 4 eligible households have enrolled in the ACP since it launched in 2021. The problem of limited access to broadband can be especially acute in federally subsidized housing, where residents have incomes well below the area median and few resources to get online. Reducing enrollment burdens and improving federal data-sharing agreements would increase program uptake for residents who should be able to qualify automatically, especially older adults and people with disabilities. Implementation of the FCC’s recommendations on data sharing and expanded use of alternative verification processes would help reduce the review burdens associated with ACP enrollment. Federal and state policymakers should continue to evaluate options for facilitating ACP enrollment—not just for households receiving federal housing assistance but also for those qualifying through other federal benefit programs—to ensure that more low-income families can get and stay connected to broadband.

[Anna Read is a senior officer and Kelly Wert is an associate with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ broadband access initiative.]

In 2021, the South Carolina General Assembly established the Office of Broadband Coordinator within the Office of Regulatory Staff to serve as the central broadband planning body for the state and to coordinate with federal, state, regional, local, and private entities to encourage the continued development of access to broadband in the Palmetto State. The office was charged with convening a collaborative stakeholder process to identify challenges to expediting broadband access—and so it established the Broadband Advisory Council to help guide broadband planning in South Carolina. The council includes representatives from government, education, health, economic development, nonprofits, and broadband providers. The 2021 law also directed the office to prioritize funding broadband infrastructure projects to rural communities and communities with a lack of access to broadband, making high-speed broadband available to homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other institutions in unserved areas across South Carolina. 

Seven contestants have been selected to participate in a $7 million research competition to promote more secure and interoperable wireless network equipment, the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced. The 2023 5G Challenge, a collaboration between DoD and NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder (CO) aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks, and modular multi-vendor solutions toward the development of an open 5G ecosystem. The contestants, selected from 23 white paper applications, will comprise two teams of two pairs. In each pairing, one contestant will provide the central unit and distributed unit (CU+DU) while a second contestant will provide the radio unit (RU).

• Team 1
  • Pairing 1: Mavenir Systems, Inc. (CU+DU); NewEdge Inc. (RU)
  • Pairing 2: Radisys Corporation (CU+DU); LIONS Technology (RU)
• Team 2
  • Pairing 1: Capgemini Engineering (CU+DU); Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. and AT&T (RU)
  • Pairing 2: GXC, Inc. (CU+DU); GXC, Inc. (RU)

Several people have asked me recently if cellular companies will be pursuing Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants. Until recently, cellular companies didn’t have a product that would have qualified for broadband grants. BEAD and other grants are awarded to internet service providers (ISP) that serve homes and businesses, not cell phones. But the introduction of the fixed wireless access (FWA) product line has created a broadband product that might qualify for grants. Cellular companies must convince state grant offices that they can deliver broadband speeds greater than 100/20 Mbps. Another issue to consider is that cellular carriers are currently providing priority to cell phones over FWA customers. If the network gets busy, cell phone customers get the requested broadband, and FWA customers get throttled. Yet another issue is the ability of a grant winner to serve everybody in the footprint. Unless a grant area has extremely low density, it’s likely that the cell site doesn’t have the capacity to give everybody unlimited home broadband. Another interesting issue to consider is how mapping plays into this. I’ve heard a lot of comments from folks who are claiming that T-Mobile and Verizon are already claiming fast speeds in a lot of places. Folks are saying the coverage areas claimed in the FCC maps seem a lot larger than the reality. Claiming high speeds and coverage areas that are larger than reality are counterproductive to seeking grants. Will broadband offices not award grants in places the cellular companies claim to already offer fast broadband? The emergence of the FWA technology is so new that I suspect most state broadband offices haven’t come to grips with that question.

The government funding that Charter has received for rural broadband deployments generates revenue opportunities for the company beyond the funded areas, said Charter CEO Chris Winfrey. He noted that while the company has cited rural internal rates of return (IRR) in the mid- to high teens, “what’s not included in that return is a bunch of other opportunities.” He added that “Now you have the option to extend your footprint even further with new passings” and referred to this phenomenon as “a machine of continuous return.” He noted, for example, that Charter made service available to 145,000 locations in New York state through a funded program, but eventually brought service to close to 180,000 locations, including neighboring areas. Of rural builds in general, he said, “These are [faster-growing] systems by definition with lower operating costs and higher penetration.” From a company perspective, he said, “you now have a higher perpetuity growth rate,” adding that “I don’t think anybody has thought about the fact that you have a higher perpetuity growth rate and what that means from an overall valuation perspective.” Winfrey also noted that rural buildouts offer “a rare opportunity for cable to look good.”