Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

This brief examines how place-based factors—such as education levels, social vulnerability, regional economic strength, and measures of income inequality—influence broadband affordability. These measures reinforce that income is not the only factor policymakers should consider when seeking to understand broadband affordability and adoption challenges.

Pennsylvania will be getting $1.2 billion in Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding, making it one of the top states in terms of the amount awarded. Telecompetitor spoke with Brandon Carson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, about BEAD and other efforts to make broadband available throughout the state. Pennsylvania aims to deliver service to 236,000 unserved and 52,000 underserved locations.

State Broadband Offices and the BEAD grant process have designed grant rules that put pressure on internet service providers to provide inexpensive rural broadband. But in doing so, I’m not sure that they understand the high prices that rural folks are paying for broadband today. In rural areas I've looked at, most households are paying over $100 a month for broadband. There are state BEAD rules that are trying to force rates down to rates between $50 and $75 per month for gigabit speeds. I find several faults with these rate-setting efforts:

Altice USA was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (“RDOF”) funding to deploy 100/20 Mbps service to 18 census block groups (“CBGs”) in Louisiana. Now Altice notifies the Federal Communications Commission of its plans to surrender its awarded RDOF areas in Louisiana. Altice had begun connecting unserved locations in its RDOF areas.

There’s 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. Unfortunately, many RDOF awardees have officially defaulted on their obligations to build fiber, or they just haven’t made any progress in deploying the fiber.

Federal broadband expansion efforts aim to ensure that every American household has a reliable and affordable internet connection in order to learn, work and access online services. But even with a fiber connection, many challenges still stand in the way of access to the internet and digital services. Some are unable to afford the necessary devices or internet services. Others lack a high-quality connection or digital literacy skills altogether.

Streamlining permitting efforts is crucial to quickly deploy the high-speed Internet networks needed by families and businesses across the U.S. The impact of the Advisory Council’s action will be felt immediately in our current broadband projects, and will make it easier for future deployments to connect unserved locations across America.

Our journey towards providing Internet for All will only succeed if we are able to quickly build high-speed Internet networks and get people the connections they need for doctor’s visits, distance learning, and applying for jobs. One important way to meet this moment is to streamline permitting reviews.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) Chair Sara Bronin announced her approval of the Amended Program Comment for Federal Communications Projects. The amendment was requested by the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The purpose of the amendment is to assist federal agencies in efficiently permitting and approving the deployment of wired and wireless next generation technologies of communications infrastructure, including 5G, to connect all communities with reliable, high-speed Internet.

I believe we can’t ignore the history of our industry if we want to avoid the worst of it from happening again. There are a variety of factors that led to the rural mess that created the need for BEAD and other broadband grant programs. I think the downward trajectory started with the divestiture of AT&T into AT&T as a long-distance company and large regional telephone companies. The newly-formed company lobbied hard to be able to make profits over and above the low, but steady profits that could be earned by a regulated utility.