In the first quarter of 2022, half of the new broadband customers went to the fixed-wireless access products from Verizon and T-Mobile. T-Mobile and Verizon are aggressively marketing the product, which is touted to have download speeds over 100 Mbps. The market is going to get hotter when Dish gets its launch underway soon. AT&T has also been promising a major new marketing effort to sell the product.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps low-income families and individuals ease the financial burden of making tough choices between paying for groceries and other household necessities or paying for high-speed internet service. The funds that the ACP provides for eligible households to afford high-speed internet access can help level the playing field for low-income families and individuals by increasing their access to educational, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities; civic engagement; telehealth services; and more. High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury—it is a necessary lifeline. Equitable access to high-speed internet service for low-income families and individuals is imperative for the US to close the internet access gap and build a viable workforce and economy, innovative businesses, and increase civic engagement. The ACP is a step in the right direction to make all of this happen. Spread the word about the ACP which is located at AffordableConnectivity.gov.

[Joycelyn Tate is the senior technology policy advisor for the Black Women’s Roundtable, CEO of Tate Strategies, and co-founder of Make Innovative Technology for Change (MakeIT4Change) Innovation Hub, a nonprofit organization that empowers youth and adults to create technology for social change.]

As part of his Better Kentucky Plan, Gov Andy Beshear (D-KY) announced a historic investment of over $203 million to expand reliable and affordable high-speed internet to more than 34,000 Kentucky families and businesses. The state’s Better Internet program is providing more than $89.1 million in 46 grant awards to 12 internet service providers and local governments across 35 Kentucky counties. Grant recipients have pledged funds to match the state’s contributions, bringing the total investment for this round of broadband expansion awards to over $203 million. The awards were made using a competitive process managed by the Finance and Administration Cabinet, which issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in August 2021. An evaluation team comprised of state government employees spent six months evaluating and scoring the nearly 100 proposals received in response to the RFP. The 12 successful applicants, representing 46 projects, were selected based on their demonstrated ability to meet certain conditions required to receive this funding. Charter Communications received the most funding for its 18 grant awards, totaling over $49 million with an overall project investment of $118,808,035 including the required matching funds.

The Biden-Harris Administration kicked off a summer-long Talent Pipeline Challenge to fill high-quality jobs to help rebuild our infrastructure and supply chains in the US. This is a nationwide call to action for employers, education and training providers, states, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, and philanthropic organizations to make tangible commitments that support equitable workforce development in three critical infrastructure sectors: Broadband, Construction, and “Electrification” (EV Charging Infrastructure and Battery Manufacturing). The Department of Commerce’s Internet for All program’s Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) prioritize high labor standards and protections, as well as workforce development initiatives, to ensure there is a trained, diverse workforce ready to support the programs. In particular, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) NOFO makes workforce development an eligible use of grant funds, and requires a highly-skilled workforce, which can be fulfilled through use of graduates of registered apprenticeships or other joint labor-management training programs. The NOFO also requires Eligible Entities to develop a plan for ensuring an available and highly skilled workforce in order to receive their funds.

The UK has nearly 5 million houses with more than three choices of ultrafast fibre-optic broadband, while 10 million homes do not have a single option, according to analysis that points to the inequality in internet infrastructure across Britain. While some parts of the country are benefiting from high internet speeds, others have been left behind, according to research conducted by data group Point Topic with the Financial Times. The government has pledged to bridge the digital divide and level up the economy by extending fast broadband to all homes. Its manifesto outlined plans to deliver “full-fibre and gigabit-capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025”, later revised to 99 per cent of homes by 2030. But a land grab by network providers for regions where it is cheaper and easier to build has created a fragmented market that some experts say makes little sense and will culminate in competitive options being unequally spread. The sluggish rollout of full-fibre technology by Openreach, BT’s networking division, led the government to stimulate competition in part by limiting the amount the former monopoly could reduce prices. That helped “alternative networks” — backed by billions in private capital — flourish. With companies overbuilding one another, by the end of the decade there are likely to be fibre lines to 80 million premises, way over double the 31 million housing stock, according to the analysis.