Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia will receive a combined $582.8 million for broadband projects connecting more than 200,000 homes and businesses, as part of the first tranche of money from the Treasury Department-administered $10 billion American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, Treasury said Tuesday. The department approved $219.8 million in broadband money for Virginia, $176.7 million for Louisiana, $136.3 million for West Virginia and $50 million for New Hampshire. The COVID-19 pandemic “turned so many aspects of life online from work to school and laid bare the urgency of closing the digital divide for all Americans -- especially those living in rural, Tribal, and low-income communities,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “Treasury’s broadband funding represents a significant step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented investment to increase access to high-speed internet and reduce broadband bills for every American household and business.” The White House highlighted the Treasury money as part of a combined $25 billion in broadband funding included in ARPA. ACA Connects, Incompas and New America’s Open Technology Institute hailed Treasury’s approval of the money.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appears likely to put less spectrum in play for 5G and unlicensed use during her tenure than did her predecessor Ajit Pai, but she seems determined to address the process for reallocating bands, industry officials said. Rosenworcel shifted much of her attention to changes to process, and that will likely be a theme for the next few years.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appears likely to put less spectrum in play for 5G and unlicensed use during her tenure than did her predecessor Ajit Pai, but she seems determined to address the process for reallocating bands, industry officials said. Rosenworcel shifted much of her attention to changes to process, and that will likely be a theme for the next few years.
Supporters of a proposal to reallocate the 12 GHz band for 5G think the proposal will likely move forward in coming months, buoyed by responses by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr to members of Congress last week, as a follow-up to the recent House hearing. Meanwhile, Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen offered a candid assessment of the future of DBS spectrum in a presentation to analysts.
Supporters of a proposal to reallocate the 12 GHz band for 5G think the proposal will likely move forward in coming months, buoyed by responses by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr to members of Congress last week, as a follow-up to the recent House hearing. Meanwhile, Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen offered a candid assessment of the future of DBS spectrum in a presentation to analysts.
A draft FCC order that would impose certain requirements on gateway providers would help efforts to curb illegal robocalls originating abroad and is likely to be unanimously adopted during commissioners' Thursday meeting, industry executives told us (see 2204280059). Some providers sought clarifying language in the draft, saying it would streamline efforts and further disrupt bad actors. Several said a requirement for a Stir/Shaken C-level attestation would be too costly.
NTIA released notices of funding opportunity Friday for applicants interested in its broadband, equity, access and deployment, middle-mile grant, and state digital equity planning grant programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The agency cited “end-to-end fiber-optic architecture” as priority broadband projects and encouraged states to give the greatest consideration to subgrantees committed to providing 1 Gbps services at an affordable rate as part of the BEAD program.
The Biden administration’s Monday announcement (see 2205060046) that 20 ISPs committed to offer low-income households broadband plans with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps at no more than $30 per month got a mixed reception among communications policy stakeholders. All of the participating ISPs -- which include Altice, AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, Mediacom and Verizon -- were already part of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program that subsidizes qualifying households’ broadband up to $30 per month. The White House said the participating ISPs cover more than 80% of the U.S. population.
E-rate groups and industry broadly rejected the FCC’s proposal to establish a centralized online bidding portal for the E-rate program, as expected (see 2112070053). Groups asked the agency to abandon the NPRM, saying the record doesn’t reflect a need for such a change to E-rate, in comments posted Thursday in docket 21-455.
Incompas asked FCC Wireline Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff to "consider a minor change" to the proposed definition of a gateway provider in the FCC's NPRM aimed at curbing illegal robocalls, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-59 (see 2112130046). The group proposed defining gateway providers as "the first intermediate provider in the call path of a foreign-originated call that receives traffic at its U.S.-based facilities before transmitting the call directly to another intermediate provider or a terminating voice service provider in the U.S." Require gateway providers to comply with requirements that other intermediate providers follow instead of "obligations the commission has not assigned to other classes of voice service providers," Incompas said. It also asked the FCC to "preserve providers' call blocking flexibility" to prevent over or under blocking.