On July 21, Vice President Kamala Harris went to North Carolina to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to achieve universal broadband in the US. "Every person in our nation, no matter how much they earn, should be able to afford a high-speed Internet plan," said Harris. The vice president highlighted the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides working families with up to $30 a month off of their Internet bill or $75 a month for those living on Tribal lands. It also gives families a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, a desktop computer, or a tablet. The Administration has also created GetInternet.gov to raise awareness of the program and direct consumers to sign up. According to Harris, over 13 million people are currently enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program. Maternal health, said the vice president, is one of many issues that benefit from universal broadband and the expansion of telehealth in the US. "Here is what it comes down to: We created this program because we know when we connect folks with high-speed Internet, it is also a connection to opportunity — the opportunity to live a healthier, happier, and more prosperous life and, importantly, more affordable lives," said Harris.

The House of Representatives passed a package of six fiscal year 2023 federal funding bills. This includes the 2023 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which includes $29.8 billion in funding, an increase of $4.3 billion – 17 percent – over fiscal year 2022. This bill provides funding levels for the Federal Communications Commission and supports working and middle-class families by increasing funding for consumer protection activities at the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. The 2023 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill provides funding of $27.2 billion– a critical increase of $2.075 billion, 8 percent– above 2022. In total, the bill includes $195 billion for both discretionary programs funded on an annual basis and mandatory programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The legislation aims to lift up rural communities with continued investments for rural broadband, a new 1 percent loan program for water programs for rural areas, and a record investment of $1.5 billion in single family home loans.

In March 2022, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 22-20) that asks if the rules should change for allocating the costs of a pole replacement that occurs when a new carrier asks to add a new wire or device onto an existing pole. The timing of this docket is in anticipation of a huge amount of rural fiber construction that will be coming as a result of the tsunami of state and federal broadband grants. The current rules push the full cost of replacing a pole onto the entity that is asking to get onto the pole. This can be expensive and is one factor that makes it a challenge for a fiber overbuilder or a small cell site carrier to get into poles. A number of telecom companies and trade associations have responded to the docket with various points of view. Still, as usual with a regulatory question, the right answer is somewhere in the middle of the extremes. It is unfair to force a new attacher to pay the full cost to replace a pole that is already in bad shape. Pole owners should have an obligation to do regular maintenance to replace the worst poles in the network each year – and many have not done so. It’s also fair, in some circumstances, for the existing attachers to pay a share of the pole replacement when existing attachments violate safety rules. And, if we are going to build billions of dollars of new broadband networks as a result of grants, it makes sense for regulators to gear up for an expedited process of resolving disputes between carriers concerning poles.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]

AT&T CEO John Stankey recently offered subtle hints about AT&T’s potential participation in broadband infrastructure funding programs. But he wasn’t coy about presenting AT&T as a good partner with the states, who will be key in doling out billions in funding. AT&T was proud to report its fiber broadband progress this quarter, having added 316,000 net new fiber subscribers in second quarter 2022. Since fiber technology is seen as the most favorable (although not exclusive) technology for programs like the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program and the US Treasury Capital Fund program, Stankey was quick to point out AT&T’s “street cred” if you will with regards to fiber. “I would point out there is no company that’s building 2 million connected locations of fiber in six months like we are, we are scaling in a way that no one else is,” said Stankey. “I think at the end of the day, states that care about somebody who is reputable, that can execute, that has a mature supply chain and the scale to, should make us very competitive for this money.”

Lumos will be making a big impact on the Tidewater region of Virginia, bringing ultra-high-speed fiber internet service to nearly 85,000 residents and businesses across the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth (VA) communities. The Lumos expansion will blanket the region with over 760 miles of the latest fiber optic technology featuring 100 Gigabit speed capacity at a cost of over $83 million. In addition, Lumos will generate jobs in the region with its plan to hire local sales, service and support teams. Lumos will fully fund the $83 million project, and engineering work will begin immediately. Construction will start in 2023, and the company estimates that most of the project will be completed in approximately two years, including in the Chesapeake and Portsmouth areas.

The City of Albuquerque (NM) has finalized its license agreement with Vexus Fiber, a Texas-based Internet company, to begin construction on a 100 percent fiber-optic network that will be available everywhere in the city with direct, cutting-edge internet access to all homes and businesses. With better performing, future-proof technology, the fiber network will support Albuquerque’s residents and businesses needs now and into the future at prices similar to and even lower than what other internet service providers currently charge. Fiber internet gives users greater bandwidth to carry more information at higher speeds with equal download and upload speeds of 150 Mbps, 400 Mbps, and 1Gig. Vexus Fiber participates in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, so customers are eligible for a $30 per month subsidy on internet service if the household makes less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level or an individual participates in certain government assistance programs. Albuquerque lags nationally in internet-connected households and currently only about 10 percent of households in the Metro participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program.