The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it has awarded the first five grants as part of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC). Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves announced the grants at an event in New York with Mercy College, one of the first grant recipients. These grants, totaling $10,642,577.03, will be used to fund internet access, equipment, and to hire and train information technology personnel. The CMC program specifically directs $268 million from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 for expanding high-speed internet access and connectivity to eligible colleges and universities. The awardees include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) across the United States. NTIA is continuing to review the more than 200 applications received during the application window, which closed December 1, 2021. Additional awards will be announced on a rolling basis as they go through NTIA’s review process. More information about the awardees and grants is provided on InternetForAll.Gov.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed $4,353,773.87 in fines against 73 applicants in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction (Auction 904) for apparently violating FCC requirements by defaulting on their bids between July 26, 2021 and March 10, 2022. The FCC provided clear guidance in its rules and notices on the monetary forfeitures associated with defaults in Auction 904. The bid defaults prevented 1,702 census block groups with 129,909 estimated locations in 36 states from seeing timely new investments in broadband infrastructure. The proposed action, formally called a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) contains only allegations that advise a party on how it has apparently violated the law and may set forth a proposed monetary penalty. The FCC may not impose a greater monetary penalty in this case than the amount proposed in the NAL. Neither the allegations nor the proposed sanctions in the NAL are final FCC actions. The party will be given an opportunity to respond and the FCC will consider the party’s submission of evidence and legal arguments before acting further to resolve the matter.

While we're still a long way from seeing any of the much-hyped futuristic applications that 5G was supposed to bring, like autonomous vehicles or augmented reality, even the promised higher download speeds and super responsive networks have been inconsistent or simply unavailable to most people, especially those who live outside big cities or dense suburban communities. But there's a potential answer to the 5G coverage issue: more fiber. There's reason to be hopeful on the fiber front. The federal government plans to pour more than $42.5 billion into broadband as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021. The money, which is being distributed through the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration directly to states, is supposed to ensure all Americans have access to affordable, consistent high-speed internet. Experts have called it a historic opportunity to finally end the digital divide. While the program appears intent on getting fiber connected directly to people's homes, wireless experts say it could also provide a much-needed boost to core infrastructure that can be tapped for mobile 5G in less densely populated areas and rural regions.

One of the factors that need to be considered in any business plan or forecast is churn – which is when customers drop service. I often see internet service providers (ISPs) build business plans that don’t acknowledge churn, which can be a costly oversight. There is a maxim among last-mile fiber networks that nobody ever leaves fiber to go back to a cable company network. That’s not entirely true, but it’s a recognition that churn tends to be lower on a last-mile fiber network than with other technologies. I wrote a recent blog that asked if broadband is recession-proof. That was really asking if customers drop broadband when they lose jobs or see household income drop. The reality is that some folks have no choice but to drop fiber if things get tough enough. Churn is one of the details of operating an ISPs that many new ISPs don’t get for a while. But it’s vital to have a strategy. It’s far cheaper to somehow catch a new customer when they move to town. It’s far less costly to catch the new tenant moving into a building that always has a drop.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]