Universal Broadband

Rural communities must often get creative if they want to bring broadband to their residents, and sometimes their hands are tied due to state restrictions or a lack of favorable legislation. Smaller municipalities in New Hampshire, however, may soon have the option of forming a multi-town district for the purpose of establishing a broadband system. State Sen.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted the ambitious National Broadband Plan in 2010, laying out a policy framework meant to end the connectivity gap over the decade.

The lack of adequate bandwidth to properly power computers for homes, schools and businesses is a problem in some rural areas but also in some bigger cities, according to Matt Schmit, new director of the Illinois Office of Broadband in the state’s commerce department. Schmit, 39, a native of Red Wing, Minnesota, who has served in his home state’s Senate, took his post with the state of Illinois in early September and is now living in Evanston.

Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced the introduction of their Broadband Parity Act, bipartisan legislation that would bring all federal broadband programs to the current definition of what the Federal Communications Commission defines as high-speed internet (currently 25/3 Mbps). Their bill would ensure that all communities and entities receiving federal broadband support have access to internet service that is actually at broadband speeds. Currently, there are over twenty federal broadband programs promoting access to fixed broadband service.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau issued an order granting two petitions seeking waiver of obligations to provide service to a specific number of locations as part of the rural broadband experiments program, filed by Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative and Consolidated Communications Networks. The bureau said petitioners demonstrated the required number of locations exceeds the actual number the petitioners have been able to identify within their respective study areas.

Access to reliable, affordable broadband is critical in today’s economy, however, hundreds of Idaho communities have been left behind. Our state ranks 43rd for connectivity and 46th for speed. Too many Idahoans lack high-speed Internet service and those that have it pay too much because of weak competition. In May, Governor Little took an important first step, convening a Task Force to study how we improve Idaho’s broadband infrastructure. The Task Force determined that rural Idahoans should be given priority.

NH legislators in 2019 passed a law allowing municipalities to fund broadband networks through bond offerings – and that action already is spurring broadband deployment in sparsely populated areas of the state. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this is Consolidated Communications. Consolidated is already offering service on a new network in Chesterfield (NH) that was paid for, in part, by Consolidated and, in part, by the city.

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the principal membership association representing the US state and territorial educational technology leaders, announced the release of the Broadband Imperative III: Driving Connectivity, Access and Student Success. This report advocates for equitable, reliable, robust broadband access both on and off campus to prepare all students for life and work. This report builds upon SETDA’s earlier work, including the groundbreaking Broadband Imperative series of reports and State Broadband K12 Leadership reports.

Jonathan Sallet, now a Senior Fellow of the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and FCC General Counsel during Tom Wheeler's chairmanship of the Obama-era Federal Communications Commission, has published a new paper titled, "Broadband for America's Future: A Vision for the 2020s." Because I disagreed with much (but not all) of the Obama FCC's broadband policy – especially including its imposition of public utility-like regulation on Internet service providers – I am not surprised that I disagree with much

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey announced USDA has invested over $4.2 million in high-speed broadband infrastructure that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for rural households and farms in Oklahoma.