Infrastructure

In May 2023, the House Commerce Committee marked up nineteen pieces of telecommunications-related legislation.  One bill in particular, the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023 (H.R. 3557), represents what I’m seeing as a new trend of actions taken by big internet service providers (ISP) to preempt the authority of local governments.  H.R. 3557 would preempt a host of current rights of local governments to manage public rights-of-way for telecom infrastructure.

The US Department of the Treasury approved $162.5 million in federal funds for broadband infrastructure and multi-purpose community facility projects in Ohio under the American Rescue Plan Act's (ARPA) Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Data Task Force, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Wireline Competition Bureau, and the Office of Economics and Analytics seek comment on a Petition for Extension of Waiver (Petition) filed by the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) and USTelecom – The Broadband Association (USTelecom and, together with CCA, Petitioners).

Recognizing the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on financial markets and on the ability of providers to successfully conduct their operations, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) waived the FCC’s letter of credit (LOC) rules for Connect America Fund Phase II auction (Auction 903) and Rural Broadband Experiments (RBE) support recipients in 2020 and 2021. Recipients of support from both programs were permitted to comply with the less extensive letter of credit rules established by the FCC for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).

Officials from New Mexico and Minnesota are the latest to declare that federal and state funds currently available to them will not be enough to bring broadband to the underserved and unserved in their states. Bree Maki, the executive director of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development, said the state’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) allotment of about $651.8 million is “very close to” what her office expected. “However, we have statutory goals that are different when we talk about what unserved is,” said Maki.

Rural electric cooperatives, rural telephone companies, and Comcast were the biggest winners in the latest broadband funding announcement from the state of Minnesota. The awards were made on June 30, 2023, although it isn’t clear if an announcement was released at that time. The biggest winner was Federated Rural Electric Association, which was awarded a $7 million grant in the Low Density Broadband Grant Program. The next biggest winners were Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone and Comcast, both of whom will receive about $5.5 million.

The Wyoming Broadband Office (WBO), part of the Wyoming Business Council, made its draft Digital Access Plan available to the public on July 18, 2023, and is allowing one month for residents to submit their feedback. The draft plan includes a vision for digital equity for the state, a set of goals to activate that vision within Wyoming’s Digital Access program, current assets and barriers, and an implementation plan to achieve the goals and address the barriers identified.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to determine how much each state is to receive in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding based on the number of locations in their state unserved by high-speed internet service. One component in the allocation is a determination of the number of “high cost” unserved locations in each state divided by the nationwide total of high-cost unserved locations. Congress also tasked NTIA with defining what “high-cost areas” are.

Lumos Fiber successfully signed a $1.1 billion sustainability-linked infrastructure financing to fund its ambitious fiber roll-out plans and refinance existing indebtedness. This represents the first ever project finance style fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure financing in the US for an existing and integrated FTTH platform, and the first US FTTH sustainability-linked financing structure.

Tillman FiberCo received a $200 million investment from Northleaf Capital Partners to fuel plans to build an open-access fiber network in five states. The deal with Northleaf leaves the door open to another $300 million investment when the time is right. Founded in 2021, Tillman FiberCo is a subsidiary of Tillman Global Holdings, whose other subsidiary, Tillman Networks, is a well-known player in the telecommunications construction world. But unlike its sister company, Tillman FiberCo not only designs and builds fiber networks, but also owns them.