The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the agency responsible for administering the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, provided notice of a conditional programmatic waiver of the letter of credit requirements set forth in the BEAD Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The BEAD NOFO requires Eligible Entities to establish a model letter of credit substantially similar to the model letter of credit established by the Commission in connection with the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. NTIA has determined that, for good cause shown, and in the best interest of the Federal Government, a conditional programmatic waiver of the letter of credit obligation should be granted. The waiver modifies the letter of credit requirement in the following ways: 

• Allow Credit Unions to Issue LOCs. The NOFO requires subgrantees to obtain a LOC from a U.S. bank with a safety rating issued by Weiss of B− or better. The waiver permits subgrantees to fulfill the LOC Requirement (or any alternative permitted under the waiver) utilizing any United States credit union that is insured by the National Credit Union Administration and that has a credit union safety rating issued by Weiss of B− or better.   

• Allow Use of Performance Bonds. The waiver permits a subgrantee to provide a performance bond equal to 100% of the BEAD subaward amount in lieu of a letter of credit, provided that the bond is issued by a company holding a certificate of authority as an acceptable surety on federal bonds as identified in the Department of Treasury Circular 570.  

• Allow Eligible Entities to Reduce the Obligation Upon Completion of Milestones.  The waiver allows an Eligible Entity to reduce the amount of the letter of credit obligation below 25% over time, or reduce the amount of the performance bond below 100% over time, upon a subgrantee meeting deployment milestones specified by the Eligible Entity. 

• Allow for an Alternative Initial LOC or Performance Bond Percentage. The NOFO requires that the initial amount of the letter of credit be 25% of the subaward (or the initial amount of the performance bond be 100% of the subaward under the option described above). The waiver allows the initial amount of the letter of credit or performance bond to be 10% of the subaward amount during the entire period of performance when an Eligible Entity issues funding on a reimbursable basis consistent with Section IV.C.1.b of the NOFO and reimbursement is for periods of no more than six months each. 

Virginia will be receiving nearly $1.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding—one of the higher amounts allotted in the program. Virginia’s goal is to ensure universal service, and as Dr. Tamarah Holmes, director of the state’s broadband office, noted, “Before federal funding was made available, our biggest challenge to reach this goal was money.” While some states only recently established broadband offices, Dr Holmes has been in her position since 2019 and has overseen the office grow from just herself to a 15-person team within the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Virginia’s broadband program originated in 2017, when $1 million was allocated for the creation of a broadband deployment program whose sole purpose would be to supplement construction costs for the private sector. The Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI) was developed and launched under Dr Holmes.  VATI has already allocated approximately $900 million to serve almost 400k locations. Much of this was facilitated by the American Rescue Plan Act, which made funding available to states that could be used for broadband. Most recently, VATI handed out $59.5 million in broadband funding.

On October 19, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to reinstate the agency’s 2015 decision that brought internet service providers (ISPs) under the agency’s jurisdiction as Telecommunications Carriers. This action is necessary because the Trump FCC repealed the previous rule in 2018 at the request of the ISPs. Predictably, the telecom industry and its allies in Congress have come out with guns blazing in opposition to the recent FCC proposal. Also, predictably, the debate is being mischaracterized around a few tried-and-true buzz phrases that obscure the importance of what is being proposed. For the longest time, both advocates and opponents of net neutrality have spoken in terms of preventing “blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization” by ISPs. It is, however, a mischaracterization of the policy challenge that cheapens the importance of the real issue: that the nation’s most important network has no public interest supervision. The issue isn’t “net neutrality.” The issue isn’t even about an “open internet.” The issue that is once again before the FCC is whether those that run the most powerful and pervasive platform in the history of the planet will be accountable for behaving in a “just and reasonable” manner. The real issue is why such an important pathway on which so many Americans rely should be without a public interest requirement and appropriate oversight.