Broadband Bytes, April Issue
Your Source For The Latest Fiber Optic Industry News
This edition of Broadband Bytes includes ReConnect Program Rd 5, the new NTIA Permitting tool, RDOF default and penalty debate, loss of ACP and impact on BEAD, $811M in Digital Equity Funds and municipal drive for competition.
1. USDA has begun accepting applications for $700 million in funding in round five of the ReConnect program, which covers some of the costs of high-speed broadband deployments in rural areas where service is not available. Eligible applicants have until May 21 to apply. The original deadline of April 22 was extended. Read more.
2. NTIA launched a public permitting tool to help ISPs identify the permits they will need. The agency unveiled a new, publicly available permitting tool to help federal broadband grant recipients and subgrantees identify and understand the types of permits they’ll need and avoid potential environmental impacts. Dubbed the NTIA Permitting and Environmental Information Application, the tool is a map that combines public federal maps from agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and other sources. Read more.
3. As the FCC considers pleas for more lenient RDOF fines, electric co-ops are saying it is time for defaulters to own up. Last month a coalition of ISPs, unions and local officials penned a letter to the FCC appealing for a brief amnesty period, during which defaulting companies could surrender their contracts with reduced penalties. Mostly, they warned that locations covered by RDOF awards are ineligible for grants through the BEAD program.
In a letter to the FCC, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which represents nearly 900 rural electric co-ops, said the time for amnesty to have a positive effect on BEAD has passed, because most states’ Volume One plans for the BEAD program have already been approved by NTIA, and over half have begun or completed their challenge process to determine location eligibility. Read more.
4. Service providers should not let reporting requirements or a requirement to offer low-cost service stop them from applying for BEAD funding, said Evan Feinman, BEAD program director for NTIA. The requirement to offer a low-cost service has become a big concern as funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is set to run out. Many providers had seen the FCC $30-a-month ACP benefit for low-income customers as a means of meeting that requirement. Without the ACP, some providers might be reluctant to participate in the BEAD program.
As Feinman explained, individual states will set their own low-cost program requirements within guidelines set by NTIA. Some states are saying that providers have to offer a $30-a-month service, he noted. But if a service provider says the economics do not work, the state can issue waivers to allow prices up to $65 or $75 a month, he said. Read more.
5. The FCC announced that the maximum benefit in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) for May for non-tribal areas will be no more than $14 unless Congress makes additional funding available for the program. That is a bit less than half the usual monthly amount of $30. The ACP program, launched in January 2022, is designed to make internet connectivity more affordable for low-income households by covering some of the costs for monthly broadband service.
The program will run out of funding in May, however, unless additional funding is made available. Congress appears unlikely to do that, as the legislators have not voted to allocate more funding, despite pleas from the FCC, consumer groups, President Biden, and others. Without the additional funding, the ACP will end in May, with no benefits paid beginning in June. Read more.
6. NTIA Gets Set to Release $811M to the States for Digital Equity. NTIA said that it will make $811 million available through the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program. The agency also announced tentative allocations to each U.S. state through the program. The funding announced March 29th is the first tranche that NTIA will administer in the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program. The program has a total budget of $1.44 billion.
The total funding allocated to the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in this tranche is $760 million. An additional $8.4 million will go to American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with the funding divided equally among the four territories. In addition, $45 million is available to native entities. Receipt of funding is not automatic. Each state must apply for funding, following guidelines to be released March 29th. States will have until May 28 to apply. Read more.
Read more : Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program Fact Sheet.
7. NTIA aims to streamline National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews for broadband projects via 30 new categorical exclusions. Categorical exclusions are actions that a federal agency has determined will not have a significant environmental impact, so they do not require an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement. Typically, broadband deployment projects have limited, if any, significant environmental impacts, according to NTIA. NTIA relied on 11 categorical exclusions that were established in 2009. Read more.
8. Net neutrality is happening whether broadband providers like it or not. The FCC plans to publish its final proposed order for net neutrality April 4th. And then, the full FCC will vote on the order at its meeting on April 25, where it is expected to pass on a 3-2 partisan vote. At a high level, net neutrality means that the FCC is reclassifying broadband service providers as Title II carriers under the Communications Act. This will subject them to the same rules as telcos. Most controversially, the rules say that broadband providers cannot selectively block or throttle internet traffic or sell unreasonable paid prioritization. Read more.
9. Some Wireless Services Deemed ‘Underserved’ in 4 States, Expanding BEAD Locations. Vermont, Georgia, Missouri, and Nevada received Commerce Department approval to mark areas whose sole source of internet comes from cellular fixed wireless service as “underserved,” hence making these regions eligible for broadband infrastructure funding under the BEAD program. Gaining approval of the NTIA, the four states’ broadband availability maps will now consider all locations served only by CFWA as “underserved.” Providers will be able to rebut the claims of underservice. In Georgia alone, the implementation of the cellular fixed wireless modification resulted in over 25,000 locations being reinstated on the state broadband map as eligible for BEAD funding.
10. The city of Joplin, Missouri, has taken broadband competitiveness into its own hands and has wooed ALLO Fiber to build a fiber network in the city that will compete against the long-time incumbent Cable One. This deal between Joplin and ALLO is a new animal. It is not by definition a municipal network. The network will be funded, built, and operated entirely by ALLO. The city is involved because it was fed up with what it considered sub-par internet for its residents, and it put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a fiber company to enter the market. Read more.
| Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD, and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions. He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift. |
General
Broadband Bytes, February Issue 1
For this week’s Broadband Bytes, the first 3 articles are interesting in that they cover topics that ISPs must deal with and factor into their budgets outside the scope of what we usually deal with (price and labor costs).This article gives a good summary of the challenge process for BEAD, which most states are currently evaluating or will be soon. 1. What exactly is the BEAD challenge process what steps must ISPs take to make sure they are not building in a location that is covered by another BEAD-funded service provider? And why does the BEAD challenge process matter to ISPs? Tarana Wireless hosted a recent webinar to address these questions for ISPs. Read More 2. Seven telecom organizations filed comments to the FCC Tuesday opposing an electric utility association’s reconsideration petition, which attempts to remove some of the pole attachment reforms the FCC adopted in December. The December ruling requires pole owners to share in the costs of preparing utility poles for replacement even if they are considered “grandfathered” – meaning they were installed or existed before certain regulations were enacted. This ruling found that when an attacher requests access to a pole that is out of compliance with current safety standards, replacing the pole is “not necessitated solely” by the attacher’s request, and both the pole owner and the attacher who wants access to a pole must share in replacement costs. Read More3. The Georgia House passed a measure on 2/13/24 that would exempt certain federal grants for broadband investment from state income taxes, passing by a vote of 162-1. If enacted, the legislation would waive state income taxes on any grant acquired through the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program or the American Rescue Plan Act, retroactively effective from January 2022. The bill must now pass through the state Senate. Read More4. Fixed Wireless Access providers, led by T-Mobile and Verizon, added nearly one million Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter last year while many wireline rivals moved in the opposite direction by losing thousands of customers. Nevertheless, Gregory B. Maffei, President & Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Broadband Corp., believes that FWA providers can’t sustain their growth curve because their networks do not have sufficient spectrum capacity. Comcast President Michael Cavanagh has said his company is focused more on competition from fiber network overbuilders than FWA providers. Read More5. LTD Broadband has filed a petition for review of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to deny its funding as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. LTD was initially the largest winner in the FCC’s 2020 RDOF auction, securing over $1.3 billion in planned support over a decade from the $ 9.2 billion program.However, in August 2022, the FCC rescinded LTD’s award, citing failure to meet eligibility requirements in several states and doubts about the company’s ability to deliver high-speed internet to the designated areas. In March 2023, the owners of LTD created a separate entity, GigFire, which operates under a services agreement with LTD. Read More6. Where the first 3 articles cover non-traditional cost factors for ISPs, this article reinforces the importance of the labor savings and cost savings our solutions offer:Rob Laudati, who joined the executive team at Render Networks last year, said fiber network builders often face ballooning labor and material costs, leading to fears that some projects may become unprofitable. Despite resistance to new technology in the telecommunications industry, many firms eventually reach a tipping point caused by market pressures that cause them to look at new solutions to increase efficiency. Read More7. The following funding was just announced. The majority of the funds will be to ensure clean water access. But there is $42M from USDA ReConnect Round 4 that is going to two awardees in Florida: Suwannee Valley Electric Co-op $17,800,000 and IBT Group $24,200,000. The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled a $772.6 million investment on February 21st to fund 216 projects in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands which will enhance rural broadband connectivity and digital skills, ensure access to clean water, and bolster economic growth in underserved communities. A sum of $42 million is coming from the USDA’s Reconnect Program. The program offers both loans and grants to help cooperatives, telecommunications companies, and local governments cover the costs associated with deploying high-speed internet networks in underserved communities. Read More Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD,and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift.
Apr 01, 2024
General
Broadband Bytes, February Issue 2
1. NTIA Finalizes BEAD ‘Buy America’ Waivers. With the waiver now finalized, the NTIA is waiving a program requirement that certain electronics and equipment used in broadband projects funded by the BEAD program be domestically sourced in the United States. Read more2. USDA Extends ReConnect Round 5 Application Deadline. The Department of Agriculture extended by 30 days the deadline to submit applications for the fifth round of the ReConnect rural broadband funding program, by pushing the deadline to May 21. Beginning March 22, internet service providers, state and local governments, rural electric cooperatives, and other eligible entities will have 60 days to apply for loans up to $50 million or grants up to $25 million to support broadband infrastructure initiatives in rural areas. The funding from USDA’s ReConnect Loan and Grant Program will amount to $700 million if all available money is fully utilized.3. Charter potentially eyes a merger with Altice USA. Looks like Charter might be eyeing a takeover of fellow cable rival Altice USA. Sources told Bloomberg that Charter is working with financial advisors to determine if it makes sense to buy Altice. But there’s no telling if Charter would go through with the plan. Both Altice and Charter declined to comment. However, according to New Street Research’s Jonathan Chaplin, a Charter-Altice merger makes sense given their respective footprints. Read more4. FCC Urged to Grant Amnesty for RDOF Recipients Nearly 70 broadband experts, internet service providers, state and local officials, and nonprofits jointly urged the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday to grant limited amnesty to RDOF recipients so that those communities are eligible to receive BEAD funding.As outlined by the guidelines of the $42.5-billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment federal initiative aimed at expanding high-speed internet access, communities that have previously obtained grants from other federal broadband initiatives, including the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunities Fund and Connect America Fund II, are ineligible from accessing any portion of the funding allocated under BEAD.5. Alabama is getting a major open-access fiber boost via private investment. Meridiam, an infrastructure investment firm, is kicking off a $230 million project to build an open-access network that will reach 17 Alabama cities, including Selma and Demopolis. Read more Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD,and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift.
Apr 01, 2024
General
Broadband Bytes, March Issue
This edition of Broadband Bytes includes articles on fiber penetration in the U.S. market, a new definition of broadband speeds, RDOF, and the impact on BEAD, municipal broadband, and broadband “nutrition” labels.1. Fiber now passes about 51.1% of US households, and fixed wireless access continues to make inroads. But cable is still the top tech for delivering broadband. Fiber network deployments have reached a milestone as they now pass more than 50% of US households, according to recent data from the Fiber Broadband Association and RVA Market Research and Consulting…fiber lines now pass nearly 78 million U.S. homes, up 13% from a year ago. Read more2. After nearly a decade, the FCC is finally raising the bar with a new definition for broadband of 100/20 Mbps. The upgraded definition for fixed broadband service could influence billions in federal and state broadband funding…and marks a substantial departure from its old benchmark of 25/3 Mbps, set in 2015. Read more3. The German news outlet Handelblattis reported that T-Mobile is about to enter a joint venture with Lumos Networks to build fiber networks in the U.S. T-Mobile would invest at least $1 billion in the joint venture (JV), according to Handelsbatt’s sources at T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom. Initially, the JV plans to build fiber-optic connections in Virginia. Read more4. RDOF defaulters hinder state BEAD programs. There is a lot of talk about how the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) might make a mess of things with the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) program. That’s because if a location is covered by an RDOF award, then it’s ineligible for a BEAD grant. Read moreUnfortunately, many RDOF awardees have officially defaulted on their obligations to build fiber, or they just haven’t made any progress in deploying the fiber. As a result, the locations that were supposed to be covered by RDOF could be left empty-handed. Read more5. Altice USA has joined a growing list of companies that have told the FCC they will not deploy high-speed broadband to areas for which they won funding in the 2020 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. The company said it will relinquish 18 census block groups in Louisiana. Altice already had deployed service in parts of the area for which it won funding.The company said in a letter to the FCC that it was making the move to ensure that remaining unserved areas would be eligible to receive funding to receive symmetrical gigabit service through federal programs such as the BEAD program. Read more6. Municipalities can apply for BEAD. Will it matter? Despite (those opposed to) public broadband, municipalities will be allowed to vie for money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Whether they’ll win BEAD grants or even bother trying, however, is still anyone’s guess… Public networks have seen opposition from incumbent providers and political adversaries. According to Broadband Now, 16 states have legislation that either restricts municipal broadband or bars it entirely. Read more7. And here is a municipal public broadband success story: Longmont Colorado Municipal Network Now Connects Customers Outside the City. Longmont’s fiber-optic internet service NextLight has now…expanded to serve customers beyond the Longmont city limits.When Longmont residents first voted in 2011 to let Longmont provide municipal internet service, the ballot issue allowed it to be built anywhere in the Longmont Power & Communications electric service area, which included some outlying neighborhoods. However, the bond issue that funded the initial build from 2014-2017 could only be used for construction within Longmont city limits. Colorado widened the potential options for growth in 2023 when it repealed the state’s restrictions on municipal broadband, allowing communities to explore all their choices and permitting municipal networks like NextLight to grow without being limited to a particular service footprint. Read more8. The FCC’s new broadband ‘nutrition’ labels are designed to inject clarity into the often confusing process of shopping for broadband. As previously reported, The FCC has introduced a new regulatory requirement for internet service providers (ISPs) to display “broadband nutrition labels.” The initiative is a key component of the wider Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and mirrors the concept of nutrition labels on food products, providing a standardized format for ISPs to present critical information about their broadband services.The labels aim to enhance transparency and promote fair competition. ISPs with more than 100,000 subscriber lines are required to comply with the new labeling regulations by April 10, 2024. Smaller ISPs have a slightly extended timeline, with a compliance deadline set for Oct. 10, 2024. Read more Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD,and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift.
Apr 11, 2024
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