Municipal Networks

In Jan, bills aiming to advance broadband connectivity by allowing public entities to participate in the retail broadband market were presented in the House and Senate of the Washington State Legislature. The two bills have both cleared their respective chambers, and are waiting to be heard in committees of the opposite legislative chamber. Both bills aim to grant public entities, such as Public Utility Districts (PUDs) and ports, the authority to operate as Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Sens Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the American Broadband Buildout Act (ABBA), a bipartisan bill to ensure that rural Americans have access to broadband services at speeds they need to fully participate in the modern society and economy. The legislation would help close the “digital divide” between urban and rural America by providing up to $15 billion in matching grants to assist states and state-approved entities build the “last-mile” infrastructure to bring high-speed broadband directly to homes and businesses in areas that lack it.The American Broadband Buildout

Early in 2008, a group of people living in east-central Vermont, who understood the importance of the Internet to economic development, decided to act independently. They formed ECFiber, the EC standing for East-Central Vermont, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation with the goal of providing fiber access to every premises in 23 contiguous towns and one municipality in central Vermont. At the end of 2020, almost all of the roads in the original 23 towns have been provisioned with fiber.

Gov Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) has approved a bill that allows municipalities to go into the broadband business. The bill, which amends the Telecommunications Regulatory Reform Act of 2013, was signed on Feb 4. Under the new law, local governments "may acquire, construct, furnish, equip, own, operate, sell, convey, lease, rent, let, assign, dispose of, contract for or otherwise deal in facilities and apparatus for" broadband services.

House Republicans have unveiled their plan for "boosting" broadband connectivity and competition, and one of the key planks is prohibiting states and cities from building their own networks. Rep Billy Long (R-MO) is the lead sponsor. The bill "would promote competition by limiting government-run broadband networks throughout the country and encouraging private investment," without explaining how limiting the number of broadband networks would increase competition.

Appalachia represents a key test for President Joe Biden's $20 billion plan to get broadband access to communities that don't have it. President Biden, who said during his campaign that rebuilding the middle class in America is the "moral obligation of our time," faces a myriad of challenges in closing the gap, from actually laying down fiber-optic lines to educating consumers and ensuring that prices are affordable. In 127 of Appalachia's 420 counties, less than 75% of households had a connected device.

On the eve of a hearing on connectivity during the pandemic, House Commerce Committee Republicans proposed a package of 28 bills aimed at promoting new and upgraded infrastructure deployments, boosting competition, streamlining permitting processes, facilitating broadband deployment on federal lands, and closing the digital divide in both rural and urban areas. The Members are calling it the Boosting Broadband Connectivity Agenda. Each of the Reupican member of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is sponsoring at least one of the bills.

As the Arkansas General Assembly recently found in enacting SB74, “without access to voice, data, broadband, video, and wireless telecommunications services, citizens of Arkansas also lack access to healthcare services, education services, and other essential services; and that this act is immediately necessary to allow government entities to provide high quality voice, data, broadband, video, and wireless telecommunications services to their citizens.” As a result, the Arkansas Senate voted 35-0 and the House voted 94-0 to give government agencies substantial new powers to help accelerate

As many local governments have scrambled to secure internet access for children in virtual school, some policies could last past the pandemic. One popular approach in cities like Washington (DC) and Chicago has been providing low-cost or free service to families who can’t afford a broadband subscription, and the tech devices to go with them.

Since Comcast is doing so well, one might think they could afford to be a good corporate citizen and community partner when it comes to bridging the digital equity divide. But apparently Comcast officials don’t have to play nice when they are the dominant game in town. Instead, the company has been at constant odds with Baltimore City officials and advocates over access to the internet services Baltimore children need for online learning.