The Federal Communications Commission released a Report and Order creating the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model program which extends subsidies for rural broadband providers for 10 additional years (beyond the remaining 5 years) at a cost of $1.27 to $1.33 billion annually to the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. In exchange, any ISP that elects this subsidy would be required to deploy 100/20 broadband to everyone in its service area. According to my estimates, if all these ISPs accept the A-CAM offer and build fiber, cable, or licensed fixed wireless, that takes 582,675 locations off the board for the BEAD program. The FCC picking up the tab for some locations will significantly help some states. In Nebraska, the A-CAM areas include 24,776 Unserved and Underserved locations, 23% of their total Unserved and Underserved locations.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced how much Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding each of the 50 states would be allocated. The answer varies from state to state, but one thing they all have in common is that Volume 1 and Volume 2 of their initial proposals are due December 27, 2023. Once NTIA approves the proposal, the state will get 20 percent of its BEAD funding. Volume 1 must include: Existing broadband funding, Unserved and underserved locations, Community anchor institutions, Challenge process plans. Volume 2 must include: Local tribal and regional planning coordination, How initial 20 percent of BEAD funds will be used, Low-cost options & affordability plans, Labor standards and readiness, Minority & women-owned business inclusion, Climate assessment, Other details.

Some states also are working on BEAD five-year plans. Rules call for states to file these within 270 days of when their BEAD planning funds were released. The BEAD Five-Year Plan must include:

• Existing broadband program information,
• State broadband funding currently available and where it came from,
• Existing federal funding, including Universal Service Fund (USF),
• Employees to be involved in BEAD,
• Known or potential BEAD implementation barriers,
• “Asset inventory” about broadband activities and partners such as community anchor institutions, community organizations,
• External engagement process description,
• Data available such as Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollment, NTIA internet use survey, American Community Survey, NTIA Indications of Broadband Needs Map,
• Local and regional broadband service needs and gaps, including unserved and underserved locations and community anchor institutions without 1 Gbps connectivity,
• Digital equity and inclusion needs, goals and strategies,
• Alignment of plan with other economic development, telehealth, workforce development plans,
• Technical assistance and additional capacity needed,
• High-level planning.

The latter planning must include:

• estimated timeline and cost for universal service,
• planned utilization of federal, state and local funding,
• priority of areas for federal support,
• any consideration about public-private partnerships or cooperatives,
• strategies to address affordability issues,
• strategies to ensure skilled workforce and labor standards plans.

Oregon faces a range of challenges on the route to making broadband available throughout the state, said Nick Batz, director of the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO). “Our biggest challenge is the size of the state,” he said. “We’re roughly the size of the United Kingdom but have six percent of the population. We have a number of mountain ranges and a number of rivers and valleys.” He also noted that there are areas of the state that have large chunks of lava rock just under the surface, making it difficult to bury anything, including telecommunications cabling, in the ground. While connectivity in population centers is “pretty good,” Batz said, it’s a different story in what he calls “frontier communities” – areas of the state where a person can drive long distances without seeing another car, but where the driver will pass isolated houses. Another broadband deployment challenge that Oregon faces is permitting, Batz said. Providers will need to get permits from the Bureau of Land Management, and that bureau did not receive any additional budget to handle the additional workload that government funding programs are expected to generate. The OBO also identified workforce as a major challenge to meeting deployment goals. To address that challenge, staffers have been exploring whether community colleges can provide appropriate training. Broadband mapping also has been a challenge. The office is one of several that have said that they weren’t able to file availability challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's map.

A GOP consultant set to be the next deputy campaign manager for presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was part of the infamous astroturfing campaign against net neutrality. Ethan Eilon, who Bloomberg reported is being promoted by Gov. DeSantis from digital director to deputy campaign manager, is alleged to have numerous ties to the myriad efforts that saw the Federal Communications Commission flooded with millions of fraudulent comments supporting the 2017 decision to repeal net neutrality. As reported by Gizmodo in 2019, an organization co-founded by Eilon, Free Our Internet, was one of numerous groups subpoenaed by the New York attorney general over the astroturfing campaign. Aside from his work with Gov. DeSantis, Eilon ran a marketing firm known as Conservative Connector. The firm received over $31 million during the 2016 presidential election from the campaign of former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee. The astroturfing effort helped give the Trump administration cover to repeal net neutrality, a popular initiative among big telecom companies, but one that the vast majority of Americans oppose.