As the Senate returns, Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) says he’s ready to dive in on broadband discussions, an especially prime topic as Congress mulls its next phase of coronavirus relief. Chairman Wicker specifically invoked interest in reviewing Federal Communications Commission plans to dole out billions of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund dollars this fall. Chairman Wicker said that the auction would bring broadband to rural America. “We’re going to try to speed that up. It’s scheduled for October of this year. … It’s important to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic because it’s so important to education, to the people who still have to homeschool, it’s important to telemedicine.” He also recently weighed in on the FCC’s separate $9 billion 5G Fund, which the FCC voted on in April but has yet to schedule. He cautioned against offering up those wireless subsidies to companies without obtaining more accurate broadband mapping data.

Broadband access was a concerning issue in many rural North Missouri communities and elsewhere throughout the country before the pandemic, but now the problem is even more pressing. As Congress continues to respond to this pandemic, bridging this digital divide should be a key focal point. I serve as the Republican leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees the development programs that build these types of economic bridges – in addition to programs that build actual bridges out of steel and concrete. One such program, under the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), provides grants and assistance to grow and retain jobs in economically distressed communities. In recent years, our committee investigated development issues facing these communities and learned of barriers to broadband deployment that impede individuals’ access to telehealth services and pose hurdles for communities in attracting doctors and potential employers.

Rep. John Katko (R-NY) and I introduced the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-BRIDGE) Act, which removes hurdles for completing projects under existing EDA programs. For example, giving local communities more opportunities to partner with the private sector in carrying out broadband projects is a challenge the EDA faces, often making last-mile efforts difficult to complete. Our bill ensures that communities can leverage private sector expertise without disqualifying them from EDA assistance. Furthermore, for many small and rural communities with extremely limited budgets, meeting local funding match requirements can be difficult. Our bill gives local authorities the flexibility to use properly-valued in-kind donations, such as real property, to meet their match requirements.

The Federal Communication Commission released its annual Broadband Deployment report for 2020. It notes the narrowest digital divide to date as more than 85 percent of Americans have a fixed terrestrial broadband service at 250/25 Mbps, a 47% increase since 2017 with many of the biggest gains in rural areas. However, the two Democrat Commissioners rejected the report, saying the data was fundamentally flawed, that as many as 162 million people lack broadband (half the population of the USA!). What’s going on? Here are six sleights of hand used in the debate:

1. Confuse deployment with adoption. People adopt services, not networks. 
2. Change the definition of broadband speed to fit predetermined policy.
3. Discriminate against technology. It is only a matter of time—and FCC delay—before wireless broadband is the perfect substitute for wireline.
4. Flip-flop on accepting the data. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks rejected the report saying the Form 477 data is inaccurate because of a methodological shortcoming. However, Democrats had no problem accepting the 477 data when they were in the majority.
5. Dismiss the level of private investment
6. Say Europe is better.

[Roslyn Layton served on the President Elect Transition Team for the Federal Communications Commission in 2016-2017 and is a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.]

Key findings in the OpenVault Broadband Industry Report (OVBI) Q1 Quarterly Advisory: 

• The COVID-19 pandemic changed broadband usage patterns in substantial ways, perhaps permanently
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated anticipated broadband consumption trends by almost one year and has exponentially increased the number of >1TB/2TB “power users.”
  • Average consumption at the end of 1Q20 jumped to 402.5 GB, an increase of 47% over the 1Q19 average of 273.5 GB and a 17% rise over the 344.0 GB in 4Q19.
  • The areas of sharpest growth during 1Q20 were power users of 1 TB or more and extreme power users of 2 TB or more. The percentage of subscribers who were power users in 1Q20 reached 10.0%, an increase of 138% over the 4.2% of power users in 1Q19.
• Median usage, a leading indicator of usage growth across all subscribers, increased dramatically
• Increased usage is moving subscribers toward faster speeds
  • The percentage of subscribers provisioned for gigabit-speed service increased 97% to 3.75% in 1Q20 year-over-year from 1Q19’s 1.9% and was up 34% from the 2.8% at the end of 2019.

Even before it announced that it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Frontier had a well-deserved reputation for mismanagement and abusive conduct. In an industry that routinely enrages its customers, Frontier was the literal poster-child for underinvestment and neglect, an industry leader in outages and poor quality of service, and the inventor of the industry's most outrageous and absurd billing practices. As Frontier’s bankruptcy has shown, there was no good reason it—and all old big Internet service providers—couldn’t provide blazing-fast fiber on par with services in South Korea and Japan. The reason American Internet lags so far behind South Korea, Japan, and Norway isn’t because fiber isn’t profitable. It just falls under the old adage “you have to spend money to make money,” an anathema to American ISPs’ entrenched position of prioritizing short-term profit over making lasting investments. So long as major national ISPs continue to operate with that same short-term mindset, they will never deliver high-speed fiber to the home broadband of their own accord. If they will not do it, then policymakers need to be thinking about incentivizing others to do it.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that its decision to grant wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) temporary access to 5.9 GHz spectrum is helping them keep Americans connected during the coronavirus pandemic. In late March, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau began granting temporary access, called Special Temporary Authority (STA), to 5.9 GHz spectrum for WISPs serving largely rural and suburban communities. The STAs allow WISPs to use the lower 45 megahertz of the band to help serve their customers. To date, the FCC has granted STAs to more than 100 WISPs, and many of those providers have reported that the spectrum is helping to address the increased demand for broadband associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

I called for this convening because I recognize that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are unique institutions and play a powerful role in this country. We must be proactive and create a comprehensive approach to combat existing and potential challenges to broadband access. And this moment serves as an opportunity to do what HBCUs have historically done for our communities—advocate. During my time at the Commission, I have focused my efforts on addressing internet inequality. And I use this term because we can no longer say that this is simply a digital divide. It has hardened -- the same people in the same neighborhoods have been left behind over and over again.

Today, I encourage us all to remember that when we empower HBCUs, we are making an investment in our communities and the future of our nation. I hope today’s conversation is meaningful to both our participants and our viewers online as we discuss the connectivity needs of students, faculty and staff at HBCUs.