Infrastructure

Nearly 800 homes and businesses in Greene County (PA) will be able to get high-speed fiber internet for the first time, due to a $5.2 million public–private partnership with broadband provider Kinetic. The project, expected to start in mid-November and be completed in the spring, will provide internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second to eligible homes and business in parts of the townships of Aleppo, Freeport, Gilmore, Perry, Springhill and Wayne.

Cable operators and vendors are a bit defensive about comparing cable’s hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks with fiber networks. New fiber builds are being driven by the $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Jay Lee, chief technology and strategy officer with ATX, said he attended the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect conference in August. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised the fiber guys were going to beat up on the cable guys,” he said.

We write today to ask the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to provide guidance on alternatives to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program’s requirement that all applicants for program funding obtain an irrevocable letter of credit of 25% of the award, in addition to the 25% company match requirement. We believe that the letter of credit requirement in its current state will force many ISPs out of the program.

Verizon is hiring 1,800 additional technicians to support its East Coast broadband expansion efforts in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Washington (DC). Many of the targeted markets are rural and traditionally underserved communities, and so they qualify for funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Velocity, founded in 2018 and located in south central Kansas, is a subsidiary of the Butler Electric Cooperative and serves approximately 5,500 consumer customers. Velocity’s fixed wireless service operates on more than one band of unlicensed spectrum, depending on the loading and density of each tower. However, the organization will be migrating to fiber in the coming months and years. As a nonprofit, Velocity is trying to provide service as close to cost as possible. Velocity’s current fixed wireless pricing ranges from $49 (up to 15/3 Mbps) to $84 (up to 100/10 Mbps).

The Utah Broadband Center (UBC) has important updates about significant progress on its Broadband Access Grant projects. The Broadband Access Grant is an American Rescue Plan Act-funded grant that set aside $10 million to help households and businesses impacted by COVID-19.  The UBC awarded the grant to subgrantees All West Communications, Box Elder County Government and CentraCom Interactive.  Beehive Broadband placed 36,000 feet of fiber In Mantua, installed 72 handholes for splice enclosures, and completed 100 percent of all aerial pole attachments.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's new dashboard allows anyone to track how Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Eligible Entities are progressing through the major milestones necessary to submit their Initial Proposal by the December 27, 2023 due date.

Lumos announced its expansion into Greenville County (SC) with nearly a $100 million investment to build out over 775 miles of its 100% fiber network throughout the county.  As a result of this expansion, Lumos will be the first fiber provider to families, households, and businesses throughout portions of the Greenville market, establishing underserved areas of South Carolina for economic success in the future. The expansion will bring fiber-optic internet to thousands of residents and businesses in the greater Greenville area.

It’s my understanding that the annual Agriculture Reauthorization Bill includes new money for the ReConnect grant program that is administered by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), which is part of the Department of Agriculture. The ReConnect grants only fund areas that are remote and include a test that gives priorities to grant areas that are the farthest distance from towns and cities. There have been changes in the broadband industry that have made it harder each year to define a ReConnect grant area. The RUS grant rules favor grant requests that cover large contiguous areas.

A discussion about why universal access to affordable, robust broadband is a matter of social justice and necessary for a thriving democracy. That might seem obvious to many of you—how can one fully participate in our society, our economy, our education, health care and financial systems or our democracy without a broadband connection?