Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

Organizations representing rural wireline internet providers have stated their preference for continuing to favor federal funding for fiber-based broadband construction. However, many participating in a recent National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) comment round said the agency is correct in opening the door to greater funding of alternative technologies, including unlicensed fixed wireless and low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite systems.

The lack of broadband in many rural and Tribal communities in the U.S. is widely recognized, but there are also claims of a lack of broadband availability in predominantly minority and urban communities, sometimes labeled digital redlining or digital discrimination. Motivated by such claims, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 includes a provision addressing digital discrimination and directing the Federal Communications Commission to write rules implementing the statutory provision.

A common restaurant principle—“Accuracy over speed”—should guide our country’s broadband funding initiatives, particularly the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, both now and in the future. Recently, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing titled, “From Introduction to Implementation: A BEAD Program Progress Report,” and while some lines of questioning seemed to grasp at straws, there were important points that should be revisited in future hearings.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Nebraska’s Initial Proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative. This approval enables Nebraska to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program. Nebraska was allocated over $405 million to deploy or upgrade high-speed Internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.  

Few people dispute the vital importance of affordability in closing the digital divide.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program—established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—gives priority to projects that will result in broadband internet access service being offered in areas where service wasn't available before. Given that federal funds will provide roughly 75 percent of the costs to deploy these networks,¹ the chances that competing networks will be built at any time in the foreseeable future are very slim.

A few years ago, an assessment of Alaska’s broadband needs suggested an investment of nearly $2 billion would be needed to bring high-speed connections to everyone in the nation’s largest state. The National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) awarded Alaska just over $1 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds.

Pretty much everybody in the industry agrees that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant process has taken too long. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act legislation that authorized BEAD was signed into law in November 2021. A few states are now opening a grant portal to accept BEAD grant applications—nearly three years after the legislation was passed. Not all grant programs have taken this long. An interesting contrast to BEAD is another huge-dollar federal grant program, the Capital Project Fund (CPF).

In May 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published an oft-quoted report that described federal funding for broadband as a “fragmented, overlapping patchwork.” Despite more than 100 broadband-related programs investing millions of dollars into deployment, affordability, planning, digital skills, and connective devices, GAO found that “millions of Americans still lack broadband, and communities with limited resources may be most affected by fragmentation.” GAO asked the National Telecommunications and Information Administra

Charter Communications' top executive appears to be warming up to the Biden administration’s $42.5 billion broadband expansion program. However, he said it will still depend on individual state rules. Charter CEO Christopher Winfrey has previously expressed disappointment with the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program’s rules around capped plans for low-income households and labor standards. He emphasized the company would stay out of states, which have some flexibility in implementing the program, where rules were unfavorable.