Affordability/Cost/Price

This Beyond Telecom Law Blog entry highlights the current rural broadband funding opportunity presented by the $1.15 billion “ReConnect” program administered by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS). Under the Funding Opportunity Announcement for its third round of Reconnect funding (ReConnect III), the RUS will be awarding loans and grants to construct, improve, or acquire facilities needed to provide broadband service to rural areas.

When Hillsboro (OR) officials first announced the city-owned high-speed internet service in 2019, they thought it would take about 10 years to roll out. Now they said half of all addresses in Hillsboro will have access to HiLight between 2024-25. The service first launched to about 800 neighbors about a year ago, but officials have updated their plan to expedite the process. HiLight officials plan to complete the rollout by 2027. HiLight offers city residents 1 gigabit per second for $55 per month.

Not long after Beth Ford became CEO of the Land O’Lakes cooperative in 2018, she toured agriculture co-ops and farms across rural America. By early 2019, she was alarmed that many small towns and rural residents lacked high-speed internet service, which she feared would leave them behind in the 21st-century economy. She recognized the technology deficit would greatly reduce access to education and health care and harm job creation. Ford became hell-bent on securing broadband funding at the federal level.

Before 2020, explaining why the US needed to invest in expanding high-speed internet infrastructure was not always easy. Lawmakers or community leaders often did not understand or could not justify spending money on what can often be an expensive venture. Fast forward to 2021, and the level of broadband-related federal funding is mindboggling – upward of $370 billion. Now that the infrastructure bill passed, that figure rises by billions of dollars more.

This paper is designed as a guide for philanthropic organizations interested in narrowing the digital divide, or the gap between those with internet access and those without, in rural communities. Philanthropy’s role in this space is not always clear. Broadband expansion is technically complex, extremely expensive, and often viewed as the domain of government and/or internet service providers.

The Senate voted 68-31 to confirm Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the first woman to hold that title, to another five-year term, narrowly avoiding a Republican majority at the agency once her current term was set to expire at the end of 2021. Rosenworcel will be tasked with expanding broadband connectivity, supporting 5G implementation and bringing back net neutrality rules.

Despite Americans using significantly more data over fixed networks than mobile, a new Mobile Experts report quantifies how consumers put a premium on the value they ascribe to mobile service. "Fixed Mobile Convergence 2021," the report from Mobile Experts, puts figures to the idea of this so-called “mobility premium” and forecasts the trend of fixed mobile convergence. It found that the average US household consumes over 11 times more data over fixed networks versus mobile access.

Real estate is complicated. Broadband is complicated. Together, they’re very complicated. The Federal Communications Commission recently launched a new proceeding to refresh the record on broadband competition and access in the multifamily and commercial real estate sectors. It sought similar information in 2017 and 2019.

Vice President Kamala Harris talked up the broadband benefits of the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure package, which included $65 billion for broadband buildouts and adoption. Harris was tapped by President Biden early on to be his point person on the goal of universal internet access.

As states start to allocate funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), enacted in March 2021, many policymakers are using some of the new resources to fund broadband expansion, by increasing funding for existing programs or establishing new ones. The relief package, which Congress passed to help Americans struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, includes two programs administered by the U.S.