Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

In Fall 2022, states, territories, and the District of Columbia (DC) will receive Digital Equity Act (DEA) Planning Grant awards – and, with approximately a year to develop their state digital equity plan, they’ll start the process quickly. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires states, territories and DC (or the administering entities) to engage with a variety of stakeholders in creating the plan, including community anchor institutions, county and municipal governments, local educational agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

As America’s kids get back to school and continue to recover from the challenges of the pandemic, ensuring that all families have access to affordable high-speed internet is more important than ever. That’s why President Biden and Vice President Harris worked with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to create the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Biden-Harris Administration’s “Back to School” enrollment drive includes:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allocated $65 billion toward addressing disparities in broadband access across the nation. A key component of the legislation, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), subsidizes broadband subscriptions for low-income households. However, participation in the program has been low so far, suggesting that the ACP may not yet be reaching many of the underserved households that the legislation targeted.

With US cable broadband subscriber growth remaining flat or going negative, operators are hard-pressed to find a remedy that will rekindle growth in a service category now considered central to the overall business.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting applications for ReConnect Program loans and grants to expand access to high-speed internet for millions of people in rural America nationwide. USDA is making more than $1 billion available from the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA). The USDA has made several improvements to the ReConnect Program for the current round of applications:

 Nokia has partnered with Ready.net – makers of the Broadband.money platform – to help local broadband providers connect unserved and underserved communities. Nokia will provide tutorials, blueprint network designs, grant expertise, and equipment planning tools for inclusion in Broadband.money’s portal. Nokia will add its expertise and market-leading innovation to the platform, accessible to users in the form of tutorials, blueprint network designs, and tools to help work out the equipment they will need, further simplifying the grant application process.

As a historic amount of funding comes down from the federal government to the states to expand broadband, industry experts estimate this will create new jobs, and there are steps state governments and other groups can take to support this growth. In fact, some states are already proactively working on expanding their broadband workforce to meet current and future needs, while others have seen an increase in the need of trained professionals to help build out infrastructure.

The lack of broadband in many rural and Tribal communities is widely recognized, but there are also claims of a lack of broadband availability in predominantly Minority and urban communities, sometimes labeled digital redlining or digital discrimination. Motivated by such claims, the bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) includes a specific provision to address digital discrimination and the Federal Communications Commission is currently contemplating formal rules for such.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to come out with the first version of its new broadband map in mid-November.

In 2019, Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) laid out a goal of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload broadband deployed to population centers of 500 or more by 2022. Approaching the end of 2022 and the time Arkansas set to achieve its original broadband goals, the state has received new funds through the US Department of Treasury's Capital Projects Fund to help achieve universal connectivity. The April 2022 Arkansas Broadband Master Plan, compiled by the Broadband Develo