Infrastructure

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the agency responsible for administering the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, provided notice of a conditional programmatic waiver of the letter of credit requirements set forth in the BEAD Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The BEAD NOFO requires Eligible Entities to establish a model letter of credit substantially similar to the model letter of credit established by the Commission in connection with the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

The California Department of Technology (CDT) will pay Lumen Technologies $400 million to build out 1,900 miles of network infrastructure as part of the state’s Middle Mile Broadband Initiative. The Lumen award represents two of 11 total leases, joint-build or purchase agreements from the CDT with several companies that will contribute to the initiative’s open access middle-mile network. Open access networks, which are deployed by one company and leased to multiple internet service providers (ISPs), are starting to gain traction in the U.S.

Virginia will be receiving nearly $1.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding—one of the higher amounts allotted in the program. Virginia’s goal is to ensure universal service, and as Dr.

The House of Representatives will be led by Rep Mike Johnson, who represents Louisiana’s 4th district. A previous Chair of the Republican Study Committee and a Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, Johnson has also served on the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees. What could this mean for the Congressional broadband agenda? Speaker Johnson is largely in line with his Republican colleagues on most broadband issues.

Buried deep within the stunning array of broadband subsidy provisions contained in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 lies Section 60506—labeled “Digital Discrimination”—which requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules to prevent “digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin,” while taking into account the issues of “technical and economic feasibility.”1 Although Section 60506 perhaps represents a sign of our political times,2 there simply is no credible evidence of a racial disparity in

A recently released survey of fixed-broadband providers demonstrates their workforce expectations as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program gains momentum across states. Representatives of 46 broadband providers—including electric cooperatives and fixed-wireless, telephone, and cable companies—completed the survey. These providers typically served between 5,000 and 50,000 customers.

The Iowa Department of Management received 91 applications for round #8 of the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program which is designed to reduce or eliminate areas of the State of Iowa that are unserved or undeserved by broadband service. Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) #008 made $148,960,000 available for broadband expansion in Iowa. Funds for this grant round have been allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) Capital Projects Fund ("CPF") to provide a substantial infusion of resources to help turn the tide on the pandemic, address its economic fallout, and lay the f

The Federal Communications Commission authorized 368 rate-of-return companies in 44 states that elected offers of Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced A-CAM) support to receive model-based support. The authorizations specify support to the electing companies for a 15-year period beginning January 1, 2024, in exchange for these companies committing to deploy broadband service of at least 100/20 Megabits per second (Mbps) service to over 700,000 unserved locations across the United States, and maintain or improve existing 100/20 Mbps service to approximately 2 million loc

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI) announced $203 million has been awarded in the first round of the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant program to connect over 70,000 unserved Michigan homes and businesses to high-speed internet. In total, the ROBIN, program will provide $238 million in federal funding to support the deployment of high-speed internet to more than 90,000 unserved locations throughout the st

Cable giants Charter and Comcast reported considerably different broadband results for the third quarter. As financial analysts at MoffettNathanson put it in a research note about Charter’s earnings, “Every unit metric in Charter’s report is strong, and more to the point, much stronger than Comcast’s.