State and federal government officials said that state laws restricting municipal broadband deployments aren’t expected to delay the distribution of funding from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. BEAD support is expected to be divvied up among all 50 states in the coming months, but, as BroadbandNow noted, rules for BEAD stipulate that states with laws that either restrict or prohibit municipal broadband must disclose whether or not they plan to waive such laws. BroadbandNow argued that in theory, nothing would prevent the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) from withholding money from states that decline to dispense with these laws. An NTIA representative said, "There is nothing in our rules that any state’s or territory’s BEAD allocation would be delayed or reduced due to a state’s restriction on pre-existing public eligibility to compete for BEAD grants."

Operators across the board have already flagged rising deployment costs related to inflation, geopolitical issues, and labor shortages. And it’s no secret that shipping delays of all stripes have plagued construction projects across the nation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Between international shipping container delays, shortages of truckers, the steady climb of the price of diesel, and rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve, it would seem that telecom is slated to take a serious hit in costs in the near term. According to Christian Riddle, a Project Manager with Incab, most cable shipping on the national scale occurs via truck, though very occasionally products are moved via air or sea freight. Those applications are more costly, with trucks being the cheapest method followed by sea and air.

History always renders a powerful and positive verdict for any group that understands that there are some things that cannot be allowed to divide a nation. And then acts to close that divide. I don’t want claim that the achieving universal broadband connectivity has the same moral imperative as ending slavery or drastically reducing poverty. But it is no small thing. And sometimes things that are not front-page news, overtime have enormous impacts. The point for today is this: everyone here must recognize the reality that there will be a state that becomes the Solyndra of the Congressional mandate to close the digital divide. And it is our job here to act in ways so that Maryland is not that state. What can we do to make sure that Maryland is the Tesla—the success story--and not the Solyndra of this effort? I am happy to say that Maryland is off to an excellent start. For one thing, according to data I have seen, Maryland is the second best positioned state—just behind Rhode Island—to have enough funding to connect all unserved and underserved locations to fiber. For another, it has a head start in funding broadband deployment projects. Since Maryland created the state broadband office in 2017, it has invested more than $270 million into broadband infrastructure and programs. Third, as you’ve seen in the morning sessions, you are lucky to have a skilled broadband expert, Rick Gordon, heading up the effort.  And he has assembled a great team. There are, however, also pitfalls ahead.

[Blair Levin  is currently a policy advisor to New Street Research, an equity research firm, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Project. Blair Levin oversaw the development of the FCC’s 2010 National Broadband Plan.]

Mobile data demand is exploding, with aggregate data downloaded quadrupling in the last seven years. New and innovative uses enabled by 5G, as well as the prospect of 6G applications, point towards further increases in expected demand for mobile network capacity. Unfortunately, the US spectrum landscape appears to be stalled, with no clear prospects for significant spectrum reallocations in 2023 and insufficient bands under consideration for reallocation in the coming years. This lack of a spectrum pipeline, coupled with the lapse of the Federal Communications Commission auction authority, has raised the prospect of significant capacity constraints in the terrestrial wireless space, and concern that this may limit the US’s ability to be a leader in this area. Extrapolating from historical trends, we project that data traffic on the macro network is expected to increase by over 250% in the next 5 years and by over 500% in the next 10 years. If no new spectrum bands are allocated for wireless use in the next 5-10 years, we estimate that by 2027, the U.S. could face a spectrum deficit of approximately 400 megahertz, and by 2032, this deficit will have more than tripled to over 1,400 megahertz, normalized to lower mid-band equivalent spectrum, licensed at full power.

[This report was prepared by The Brattle Group for CTIA]

The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society introduced its inaugural Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund Fellows. The six broadband practitioners, advocates, and researchers are leading efforts to close the digital divide and realize a stronger, more equitable, and more just America.

1. Pierrette Renee Dagg will investigate the role community champions play in community connectivity solutions and what factors allow these leaders to succeed.
2. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is launching a pilot hybrid fiber-mesh network that is expected to connect up to 50 affordable housing developments in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. HPDChief Digital Equity Officer Dave Seliger will document the learnings from this initiative to share with other municipalities, public housing authorities, and affordable housing organizations across the country.
3. EveryoneOn CEO Norma Fernandez  is researching the barriers to adoption, particularly for low-income women of color. In order to ensure that digital equity planning efforts and broadband policy center the voices of underrepresented and marginalized groups, her qualitative research with income-insecure Latinas and African American/Black women will explore their journeys to broadband adoption, computer ownership, and digital skill development.
4. Dr. Jorge A. Rodriguez, a clinician-investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will look at digital inclusion work in healthcare settings.
5. Dr. Erezi Ogbo, Assistant Professor at North Carolina Central University, will study the impact of subsidized broadband on historically marginalized communities.
6. Greta Byrum's work will focus on online safety, privacy, and well-being, developing strategic guidance for how state digital equity plans can help new and  historically marginalized  users navigate the internet safely.