Affordability/Cost/Price

The White House made much ado of an announcement that it had secured commitments from a collection of large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to adjust speed tiers and monthly costs for their existing plans so as to be able to offer a $30/month, minimum 100 megabit per second (Mbps) download offering for low-income households across the country.

Gov Tom Wolf (D-PA) was joined by Department of Commerce Under Secretary Jed Kolko at Marion-Walker Elementary in Centre County (PA) to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s $45 billion Internet for All Initiative and Pennsylvania’s readiness to manage more than $100 million in federal funds to deploy affordable, high-speed internet to Pennsylvanians. The Department of Commerce announced the launch of Internet for All to provide affordable, reliable, high-speed internet for everyone in America by the end of the decade.

Gov Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced that California is awarding new contracts that will supply the materials necessary for building 3,000 miles of broadband infrastructure.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has established basic rules for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grants in the recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). One of the most important aspects of the rules that potential applicants need to understand relates to funding and financing. Note that the NOFO instructs the States what it expects to be included in each state’s broadband grant program for the BEAD funding. The first set of rules concerns the amount of grant funding.

The Centri Tech Foundation launched the Digital Advancement Municipal Index (Muni Index), which uses 16 indicators from four categories – technology, socioeconomics, education, and housing – to capture and compare a city's overall prosperity and digital equity metrics across 308 US cities with populations over 100,000 people. The interactive digital tool offers city leaders seeking to achieve digital advancement a clearer perspective on the greatest opportunities to drive impact in their communities.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to seek comment on a proposal to provide additional universal service support to certain rural carriers in exchange for increasing deployment to more locations at higher speeds. The proposal would make changes to the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) program, with the goal of achieving widespread deployment of faster 100/20 Mbps broadband service throughout the rural areas served by rural carriers currently receiving A-CAM support. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on whether and how the FCC could:

Between inflation, rising interest rates and turmoil in the stock market, it’s no wonder fears are rising that another recession might be around the corner. But broadband providers don’t seem all that concerned about how such a turn might impact the sector.

Heartland Forward and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society announced the six communities selected to participate in the second cohort of the Accelerate Illinois Broadband Infrastructure Planning Program, which is administered in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The newest cohort of participants include: Bond County, Kankakee County/Pembroke CDC, Kaskaskia College area, Livingston County, Ogle County and Peoria/Woodford (IL) Counties.

AT&T and DISH have entered into a distribution agreement that will allow DISH to offer AT&T Internet services, including AT&T Fiber with Hyper-Gig speeds, to prospective, new and existing DISH customers starting May 18, 2022. Telecompetitor reports that the DISH deal is for AT&T home internet services, including AT&T Fiber. It does not include AT&T wireless services.

Altice USA followed rival AT&T in hiking service costs for consumers, raising internet pricing by $10 per month for new customers and also bumping up promotional rates for TV and phone service. An Altice representative stated the change applies to promotional rates for new customers rather than the monthly cost for existing customers, and said rates will vary by market.