Universal Broadband

The US ranks forty-sixth when it comes to pregnancy-related deaths and is the only industrialized country in the world with an increasing maternal mortality rate. Maternal mortality is a particularly striking issue in rural America.

Rural broadband is a win-win-win: more income for farmers, more tax revenue for the government, and more affordable food for everyone. Before broadband, we relied on the slow and unreliable service of satellite internet. Broadband made everything better. We keep excellent records of our herd, monitoring every animal’s health and production.

At one time it looked like the high-speed broadband network built 10 years ago by EPB (formerly the Electric Power Board) in Chattanooga would be an island of gigabit connectivity, as the state of Tennessee had rather restrictive laws about what types of entities could offer broadband and where. But things have changed, as J. Ed Marston, EPB vice president of marketing, explained in an interview about new EPB gigabit partners. The state now allows municipalities and electric cooperatives to offer broadband, Marston noted.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed establishing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which would direct up to $20.4 billion to expand broadband in unserved rural areas. The proposal would raise the bar for rural broadband deployment by making more areas eligible for support and requiring faster service than the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II reverse auction. In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC seeks comment on continuing the expansion of broadband where it’s lacking by using an efficient reverse auction that builds on the success of the CAF Phase II auction.

The Federal Communications Commission initiated a new process for collecting fixed broadband data to better pinpoint where broadband service is lacking. The Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concludes that there is a compelling and immediate need to develop more granular broadband deployment data to meet this goal, and accordingly, creates the new Digital Opportunity Data Collection. To provide the data required by the FCC, the Report and Order, among other steps:

The Federal Communications Commission reformed the Rural Health Care Program (RHC) aiming to ensure limited program funds are disbursed efficiently and equitably, promote transparency and predictability in the program’s administration, and strengthen safeguards against waste, fraud, and abuse. The action takes a number of steps to reform the distribution of RHC funding, in particular by revising the rules governing the Telecom Program to simplify calculation of the urban rate—the amount health care providers pay—and the rural rate—the amount that service providers receive.

Fort Collins Connexion -- a public broadband service -- is on track to have its first broadband customer online by Sept.

The Pew Charitable Trusts’ state broadband policy explorer lets you learn how states are expanding access to broadband through laws. Categories in the tool include: broadband programs, competition and regulation, definitions, funding and financing, and infrastructure access. As you choose categories, a 50-state map illustrates which states have adopted such laws, which includes state statutes related to broadband as of Jan. 1, 2019.

As high-speed, reliable internet access becomes increasingly important in modern life, state leaders are seeking ways to fund projects to expand this vital service. Although the mechanisms that states use are fairly consistent—grants and loans, among others—they have different approaches for distributing funds and encouraging investment. This brief explores the ways in which states support broadband deployment projects and what they aim to accomplish.

Universal service is the core principle of US telecommunications policy, and Congress has directed the Federal Communications Commission to ensure affordable advanced telecommunications capabilities are available to everyone. Members of Congress from across the political spectrum, the Administration, the FCC, and state and local lawmakers vigorously agree that bringing the benefits of high-speed broadband to all areas of the US is a moral and economic imperative.