The “once in a generation” final push to ensure that every last American is served by broadband is underway—including those in the most remote rural areas.
Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, Congress has allocated $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs to the unserved and underserved.
The BEAD program—which covers all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands—was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021. It is the single largest broadband investment in U.S. history.
“This is a watershed moment for the millions of people across the country who lack access to a high-speed Internet connection who will soon have this necessary service to learn, work and play,” Alan Davidson, assistant secretary of commerce for communication and information, said in a recent press release when the BEAD funding was announced. “States can now plan their grant programs with confidence and engage with their communities to ensure they spend this money where it is most needed.”
“Put simply, high-speed internet is a necessity in today’s society,” said Mitch Landrieu, senior advisor to the president and White House infrastructure coordinator. “Just like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act made a historic investment in rural areas bringing electricity to nearly every home in America, President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to leaving no community behind as we connect everyone in America to high-speed Internet.”
The Rural Electrification Act, beginning in 1936, brought electricity to 90% of rural households within 10 years.
The White House announced the state BEAD allocations, along with officials of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Department agency that guides and regulates spectrum use in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. The allocations were made based on the broadband map created by the FCC, Version 2 of which was released in May. The map used a variety of methods including the records of service providers, satellite scanning and broad input from users.
The federal money will be doled out on a schedule, with states receiving 20% of their funding after they submit initial proposals. Sixteen states are getting a billion dollars or more. Kansas received $451,725,998.15, Texas got $3,312,616,455.45, and Oklahoma got $797,435,691.25. Broadband providers will submit bids for contracts in each state.
Rick Cimerman, vice president of external and state affairs at NCTA-The Internet and Television Association, told High Plains Journal the maps were “a heroic effort” that addressed most concerns. The state broadband buildouts will include procedures for anyone desiring a connection to work with the state agency through an online process.
‘Unserved first’
The clear intent of the BEAD program, said Cimerman, is to serve the unserved first and the “underserved” second. Individual states have been given some leeway to decide how to get there.
“The states are in the driver’s seat now,” said Cimerman. But the destination must be the same: universal connectivity, leaving no household out, with unserved households as top priority.
There is a “fiber preference” in the BEAD legislation, meaning that higher-quality fiber-optic lines are preferred, to ensure that capacity will be more than adequate for future needs. The minimum service level is 100 megabits download, 20 mb upload.
Remote and rural households are not economic for private companies to serve, which is why those connections have to be subsidized by government in the first place—just as with rural electrification in the 1930s and 1940s. Cimerman called it the “long driveway problem.”
Many ag tech companies are betting on or waiting for universal broadband connectivity as the necessary condition for many of the ag applications they hope to introduce. Because ag tech is crucial to many agricultural practices favored by environmental interests, they generally support the broadband push into rural America. Medical delivery is another big reason for rural broadband.
Challenges
What could slow down the broadband build-out? Cimerman said states have three main requirements: prioritize the unserved; protect against waste, fraud and abuse; and ensure fair competition among bidders.
The program includes some provisions that could add to its cost as the build-out commences, said Cimerman. BEAD money comes with “buy American” requirements. That’s a standard requirement of many federal infrastructure programs. But in this case, a lot of necessary equipment can only be sourced overseas, including China, at least for now. In the past couple of years, there has been growing awareness of the risks of using Chinese telecommunications components. Last August, Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, designed to move more semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S. The U.S. has recently collaborated with a company in the Netherlands to deny China access to machines that can make the most advanced infrared chips.
Finding qualified workers may be a challenge. The Government Accounting Office reported in December that the broadband build-out, along with 5G infrastructure upgrades, will require up to 23,000 trained workers over a 10-year period—or more if the timespan is shorter.
Cimerman sees two additional challenges that could slow down the broadband built-out while adding to its cost. One is inflation, which has temporarily slowed but is still a threat. Providers bid for fixed-price contracts, which would leave them vulnerable to inflationary spirals.
If “excessive” regulations are added onto the BEAD program, by the feds or the states, they could also slow the program, Cimerman said.
David Murray can be reached at [email protected].
