Analysis

The CHIPS Act and Wireless

The recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 is providing a lot of funding to bring more chip manufacturing back to the US. This funding fills a big hole in the US supply chain. Specifically, the CHIPS legislation: Appropriates $1.5 billion for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund, to spur movement towards open-architecture, software-based wireless technologies, funding innovative, ‘leap-ahead’ technologies in the US mobile broadband market.

The New Open-Access

In the open-access network model, an entity owns a fiber network and allows other broadband providers to use the network to compete for customers.

How You Can Partner With the FCC to Improve Broadband Adoption

To date, over 12 million low-income households participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program. However, a significant number of qualifying households have not yet enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program. The Federal Communications Commission believes that to achieve the program’s full potential and reach as many eligible households as possible, households must be clearly informed of the program’s existence, benefits, and eligibility qualifications, and how to apply.

FCC Maps and Professional Engineers

When the Federal Communications Commission first adopted the new broadband data collection and mapping rules, the FCC had a requirement that broadband providers must get FCC mapping data certified by a professional engineer or by a corporate officer that meets specific qualifications to make the certification. The genesis of this ruling was fairly clear – the FCC has taken a lot of flak about broadband providers that have been submitting clearly inaccurate data about broadband coverage. To some degree, this was the FCC’s fault because the agency never reviewed what broadband providers submi

Breaking Down Barriers to Broadband Access

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the effects of the digital divide. Those with broadband access could work, attend school, shop, and be seen by their doctors without leaving home, and those without sufficient access could not. Federal efforts to provide broadband access to all span multiple presidential administrations. Here, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explores its work about some of the ongoing challenges to achieving the goal of closing the digital divide. The GAO recommends synchronizing federal efforts through a national broadband strategy.

Who Should Report to the FCC Mapping?

I think there are a lot of broadband providers that are not participating in the Federal Communications Commission's data collection effort that the industry refers to as the broadband maps. I often run across small regional wireless service providers (WISPs) and occasionally across fiber overbuilders that are not listed in the database. These broadband providers generally have a website that lists broadband rates and coverage areas – but for whatever reason, these broadband providers do not participate in the FCC mapping database. My guess in most cases is that these small broadband provid

How far might broadband funding go? Estimating state-level deployment programs

In a previous post, I estimated how far the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program broadband funding might go in closing the digital divide. With this updated model, the national story is the same: after you factor in existing funding programs and private capital matches, there is plenty of money in BEAD to reach all of the unserved and reach far into the underserved. Maybe more interesting are the state-level stories.

Broadband Is Not Taking An August Recess

Each year, Congress recesses for the month of August. While the work—or, at least, the news—of Washington generally slows down in this period, all indications are that policymakers—and, most importantly, policy implementors—will be very busy throughout the summer of 2022 working on universal broadband and provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Here's what we're seeing and expecting from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). 

From a Silk Purse to a Sow’s Ear? Implementing the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Act

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) included some $42.45 billion to ensure “access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband” throughout the United States. However, $42 billion is unlikely to be sufficient to serve all households. To maximize the number of households receiving service, awards need to ensure sufficient quality at the lowest cost.

FCC Works to Increase Broadband Subscribership in Federal Housing

Over 10 million people living in 5.2 million households rely on some form of federal rental assistance. Every household that receives federal public housing assistance is eligible to participate in the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program and, by extension, the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Who is the Fastest Internet Service Provider?

I regularly run across articles that ask which major internet service provider (ISP) is the fastest. Most of these articles get their speed data from Ookla, which publishes comparative median broadband speeds for mobile and landline ISPs each quarter, like in this report for the second quarter of 2022. Americans love a horse race – we like to rank things, and articles that rank ISPs grab readers. But we have to take articles based upon the Ookla rankings with a grain of salt.

Comcast and Charter Losing Broadband Customers

It’s big news that both Comcast and Charter lost broadband customers in the second quarter of 2022. Both companies have steadily gained customers every quarter over the last decade. Comcast blames the customer loss on two factors.

Analyzing the June 2021 FCC Form 477 data release

The Federal Communications Commission released Form 477 data as of June 30, 2021. The top lines of the release are: 3.6 million housing units (as of 2019 projections) unserved by 25/3 broadband, which is 2.55 percent of the 141 million housing units nationally.

Always Online Customers

Recent Ookla analysis has revealed some interesting trends in mobile broadband usage that I think have implications for internet service providers (ISPs). The percentage of consumers who describe themselves as always online grew from 30 percent to 69 percent during the pandemic, and Ookla delves into some of the reasons why. By 2021, users who identified as always online were twice as likely to have reported an issue to customer service. About one-third of cellular customers are unhappy with customer service.

Attending the first Generation Connect Global Youth Summit

In early June 2022, around 500 young people from more than 100 countries descended on Kigali, Rwanda for the International Telecommunication Union’s first Generation Connect Global Youth Summit. Throughout my brief visit to Kigali, a number of themes emerged:

Is a Fiber Roll-up Coming?

When I look at all of the new market entrants into the broadband industry and the frenetic pace that internet service providers (ISPs) of all sizes are building fiber, one of the first thoughts that come to my mind is this is an industry that is headed for a roll-up. There has already been some consolidation of last-mile fiber networks, but the handful of networks that have been purchased will pale against the big roll-ups that I think will be coming in a few years. The industry will be ripe for roll-ups for several reasons.

Licensed Spectrum and Broadband Mapping

Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants in a given location could go sideways because of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)’s decision to declare facility-based wireless technologies that use licensed spectrum to be considered as a reliable technology that is eligible for BEAD grants. I can foresee two different problems that might result from this decision.

Reusing Existing Easements

Keller & Heckman recently highlighted an issue that anybody building fiber on utility poles should be aware of. In some cases, an easement obtained for using private land to bring electric service might not automatically allow an easement for bringing fiber. There is a subtle difference between easements and rights-of-of way. An easement allows somebody to carry out an activity on private land.

Should Grant Networks Allow High Prices?

Should higher-than-market rates be allowed on a broadband network that is being subsidized with public funding? Should an agency that awards grants or other broadband subsidies somehow insist that broadband rates are somehow tied to market rates? That’s a lot harder question to answer than you might think because the question implies that these agencies have the power to regulate or cap broadband prices in grant areas. The Ajit Pai Federal Communications Commission voluntarily gave away the right for the FCC to regulate broadband rates when it gave up Title II authority.

Please Make Broadband Grant Applications Public

Most broadband grant programs do not publish open grant applications for the public to see. But we are in a time when a broadband provider that is awarded funding for bringing a new broadband network is likely to become the near-monopoly provider in a rural area for a decade or two to come. The public ought to get to see who is proposing to bring them broadband so that these decisions are not made behind closed doors. It turns out that the Nebraska Public Service Commission posts grant applications online.

Small Broadband Providers and the Affordable Connectivity Program

Several small broadband providers are having trouble navigating the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Care Program (ACP). They are wondering if they should drop their participation. There is no one major specific complaint about the administration of the program but a string of problems. The ACP rules are overly complex. There doesn’t seem to be any training available to providers joining the program. The ACP system returns unhelpful error messages when something doesn’t work. Why are these kinds of issues problematic for smaller providers?

Planning for Churn

One of the factors that need to be considered in any business plan or forecast is churn – which is when customers drop service. I often see internet service providers (ISPs) build business plans that don’t acknowledge churn, which can be a costly oversight. There is a maxim among last-mile fiber networks that nobody ever leaves fiber to go back to a cable company network. That’s not entirely true, but it’s a recognition that churn tends to be lower on a last-mile fiber network than with other technologies. I wrote a recent blog that asked if broadband is recession-proof.

How the Capital Projects Fund Can Help Your State Close the Digital Divide

On July 14, the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved the plans of Kansas, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota to use Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund support to help close the digital divide. Combined with the approval of Louisiana's, New Hampshire's, Virginia's, and West Virginia's plans in June, Treasury has announced nearly $1 billion in support to connect nearly 250,000 locations in the eight states.

The FCC Tackles Pole Replacements

In March 2022, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 22-20) that asks if the rules should change for allocating the costs of a pole replacement that occurs when a new carrier asks to add a new wire or device onto an existing pole. The timing of this docket is in anticipation of a huge amount of rural fiber construction that will be coming as a result of the tsunami of state and federal broadband grants. The current rules push the full cost of replacing a pole onto the entity that is asking to get onto the pole.