The Federal Communications Commission authorized over $4.9 billion in support over the next decade for maintaining, improving, and expanding affordable rural broadband for 455,334 homes and businesses served by 171 carriers in 39 states and American Samoa, including 44,243 locations on Tribal lands. The support is targeted to smaller rural carriers, traditionally known as “rate-of-return” carriers. These carriers agreed to accept subsidies based on the FCC’s Alternative Connect America Cost Model, or A-CAM, which provides predictability, rewards efficiency, and provides more value for each taxpayer dollar. The homes and businesses are located in sparsely populated rural areas where the per-location price of deployment and ongoing costs of providing broadband service are high, requiring support from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to facilitate network improvements and keep rates reasonably comparable to those in urban areas. In return for the support that is being approved today, carriers must maintain, improve, and expand broadband throughout their service areas, including providing service of at least 25 Megabits per second downstream and 3 Mbps upstream to over 363,000 locations, including more than 37,000 locations on Tribal lands. Providers will be held accountable through an enforceable schedule for delivering improved and expanded service, with the first interim deployment obligation occurring in 2022.

Access to health care is a critical problem in many rural areas of the United States. Few physicians choose to practice in rural counties, according to the National Rural Health Association, yet the rural population is, on average, older and more in need of medical care. Census Bureau data show that 18 percent of the rural population is age 65 or older, compared with 13 percent in urban areas. Rural clinics and hospitals are consolidating or closing, leaving people to drive long distances to see doctors. Policymakers are counting on telemedicine to fill in the gaps. Patients have access to a wider array of health services if they can consult with doctors from home or a local clinic. Telemedicine has been proven effective for many types of medical care, but its adoption is still limited. To find out whether reliance on telemedicine is justified, Coleman Drake of the University of Pittsburgh and three other researchers examined how many people had access to broadband that supports video-based doctor visits. They used the National Broadband Map to measure each county’s access to broadband (as defined by the 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps standard) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) classifications to determine each county’s access to health care. 

Drake and his colleagues found parallels between broadband access and health care access – especially access to psychiatric care, for which telemedicine is very suitable. Overall, counties with adequate access to primary care physicians had 82 percent access to broadband, but counties with inadequate access to primary care physicians had 79 percent access to broadband. Counties with adequate access to psychiatrists had 83 percent access to broadband, and counties with inadequate access to psychiatrists had only 65 percent access to broadband.

A Verizon Boingo deal aims to bring Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband coverage indoors, thereby extending the range of the service, which operates in the millimeter wave spectrum band. In addition, Verizon said it will launch 5G Ultra Wideband service in Phoenix (AZ) Aug 23. Phoenix will be the tenth market in which Verizon has launched mobile 5G service. As with previous Verizon mobile 5G launches, coverage areas will be limited.