Iowa and Missouri Representatives Speak to Legislative Importance of Broadband

Aug 25, 2023

Representatives asked industry leaders to communicate their deployment concerns.

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ORLANDO, August 24, 2023 – House Representatives for Missouri and Iowa told Fiber Connect attendees Wednesday that their primary role as legislators is to get government out of the way of providers seeking to connect unserved and underserved addresses across the nation.

Ray Sorenson, R-Iowa, told conference attendees how important it is that government officials and industry leaders work together to figure out how best to connect all address in the United States. He works with people in Iowa’s state broadband office to help it “get done right,” he said.

He praised the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program for being customizable by states that know their individual needs better than the federal government. “We have to get out of the way and make sure that this rolls out smoothly,” said Sorenson, referring to legislators and federal policies.

Sorenson added that he is “technology agnostic,” meaning that he does not care what technology connects people to high-speed internet. We need to make sure we focus on those people that are not connected at all. He said that 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and upload speeds do not matter if the consumer has 0 by 0 Mbps.

The next generation of farming equipment requires broadband connectivity, Sorensen continued, claiming that it is the nation’s future and urging providers to get ahead of the coming demand. It has been a revelation to talk to people who live in the suburbs and urban cores who all agree that broadband connectivity is something that needs to happen, he said.

Louis Riggs, R-Missouri, added that legislators are likeminded across party lines about getting the necessary investments into BEAD projects. “We have one chance to get this right,” he said. He asked industry leaders to communicate with legislators about the problems they are facing in deployment.

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Other programs can fund BEAD matching requirements.

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ORLANDO, August 30, 2023 – Representatives for various federal broadband funding programs urged providers to not overlook other funding opportunities available for broadband infrastructure programs amidst excitement for the largest-to-date investment in broadband through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program at a Fiber Connect conference Wednesday.

Other federal funding programs can help fill in funding gaps that exist through the $42.5 billion BEAD program, they agreed. These programs are currently funding and will fund many programs across the United States that will meet the same goal as BEAD: connect every unserved and underserved address to high-speed internet.

Savid Johnson of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development added that some funding programs, such as the Community Development Block Grant program, allows entities to use the money to meet the minimum match requirement through BEAD. Many experts have expressed concerns that the high match requirement will prohibit some providers from participating in the program.

There is an “enormous amount of funding” in other programs, said Lakeisha Moise of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. She added that the USDA has specific niche working with telecom companies and can help address unique challenges in the industry.

Alternative broadband infrastructure programs include the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund which provides $10 billion to a COVID-19 pandemic relief fund that includes broadband infrastructure, the USDA’s ReConnect program that funds grants and loans for rural broadband projects, the White House’s Tribal Connectivity Program for tribal connection, and HUD’s CDBG program.

They cautioned providers to be aware of different requirements across different programs. Nicolette Gerald of the Treasury warned that the Capital Projects Fund requires that providers supply 100 Mbps download and upload speeds, rather than the 100/20 Mbps that BEAD requires.

Outlines subgrant processes and application scoring criteria.

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WASHINGTON, August 25, 2023 – Virginia became the first state to release volume two of its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program for public comment last week, followed closely by Louisiana on Friday.

The two states seem to be in a contest for “first in the nation” status in implementation of the signature program $42.5 billion program for broadband infrastructure under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Louisiana was the first state to publicly release its five-year and digital equity plans in May and which released it initial proposal volume two on Friday. Many states are looking to Virginia and Louisiana to pave the way forward in designing BEAD program subgrants and answer questions on how to allocate broadband serviceable locations and how to score applications.

Dr. Tamarah Holmes, Virginia’s state broadband officer, has said that the state is on an accelerated timeline for deployment of EBAD funds. It was the first to release the first volume of its initial proposal, due within 180 days of receiving allocation announcements in late June.

Initial proposal volume one outlines how the state will run their state challenge process, which builds on the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband map. Volume two details the state’s subgrant program. Once approved, states will have access to at least 20 percent of allocated funds.

Virginia’s initial proposal, volume two, outlined the state’s vision for closing the digital divide, addressing adoption issues and enhancing economic growth and job creation. It hopes to complete construction of BEAD funded projects by 2027 and 2028 and increase adoption of the federal broadband subsidy program American Connectivity Program and invest all BEAD money by the end of 2024.

The state’s selection process for BEAD will begin accepting pre-applications form applicants over a 60-day period. Pre-applications must include high level information about the applicant and a statement of qualification for building broadband to unserved and underserved areas of the state.

After the pre application submission deadline, Virginia will publish defined application areas to conflict project areas so that no two applicants are proposing to serve the same locations. Applicants will be required to propose to serve all locations in an application area when submitting applications, “the Office of Broadband will not entertain proposals which do not seek to provide broadband access to all locations within a defined application area.”

Full applications are due 90 days prior the publishing of application areas, which the state office will review and announce. It will also publish a timeline of the process on the office website.

Scoring for BEAD applications will be 45 percent the most cost-efficient proposal, evaluated by the total funding requested to provide broadband access to a defined application area. 20 percent of the score will be based on affordability, referring the applicant’s commitment to provide the most affordable total price to customer for 1 Gigabit symmetrical speed. If the service package is at or below $100 per month, the applicant will receive full credit for this section.

Fair labor practices will take up 10 percent of project scoring. Applicants must demonstrate plans to comply with federal labor and employment laws or produce a record of compliance to these laws. Speed to deployment consists of 5 percent of the score in which providers are scored based on the timeline they produce. The remaining 20 percent is given to local and tribal coordination efforts.

“It is firmly expected that funding available under the BEAD program will address all unserved, underserved and community anchor institutions that lack broadband access,” read Virginia’s plan.

Louisiana’s initial proposal volume two draft outlined that its goal is to provide reliable internet to all residents with a “sense of urgency.” Accordingly, the state will be looking for funded projects to be constructed and executed in the next five years.

The state differs from Virginia in the way it plans to execute its subgrant process and score project applications. Although it will organize the eligible locations in the state into a set of predefined areas, prospective subgrantees will have “wide flexibility” to define their proposed project areas, Louisiana proposes. Proposals can be submitted in the form of groups of project areas as defined by the state.

Higher cost locations will be paired with more desirable eligible locations within each designated area to ensure that providers are equally as competitive for these hard-to-reach areas.

ConnectLA will release pre-qualification requirements to interested prospective subgrantees as well as a list of proposed predefined areas, after which subgrantees can provide required financial, operational, managerial and technical qualifications. Prospective subgrantees will be notified after this window whether they have been deemed qualified to participate in the program. They will then submit round one applications.

Applications will be analyzed to identify any overlap between applications. Any project that brings fiber to the home that does not overlap with any other application will be awarded at the funding level requested, read the proposal. Round two applications will then commence.

Louisiana proposes to rate applications on a point system. Out of a score of 200 possible points, projects will be awarded based on the percentage of maximum available funds requested for a total project area and the percentage of improvement over reference service pricing. It will rank out of 100 possible points a holistic score on fair labor practices based on compliance record.

Additionally, it plans to allocate points to an applicant for enforceable deployment plans faster than 48 months, including economically challenged areas, committing to designated areas that lack resiliency infrastructure, affirmative support from tribal and local stakeholders. It will provide 50 points for fiber to the home projects.

Scoring varies significantly from Virginia’s plan. But both prioritize meeting unserved needs, fair labor practices and affordability. Initial proposals are open for a 30-day comment period.

Feedback could help Tribes improve future funding applications and expand broadband infrastructure.

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WASHINGTON, August 25, 2023 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration should offer feedback to Native American tribes who receive less grant money than they apply for, according to a government watchdog report.

The November 2021 Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act (passed by Congress in December 2020) provided $3 billion to fund tribal broadband infrastructure through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.

Tribal broadband access lags behind the rest of the country. Program funds are used to subsidize monthly internet costs, conduct studies and plan for future projects, and to upgrade and expand infrastructure.

After receiving more than $5 billion in grant requests, the NTIA disbursed almost $2 billion to over 190 tribes in the first round of Tribal broadband funding, which ended in July. Some tribes did not receive the full amount they applied for, but instead were given a small fraction in what the agency calls “equitable distribution grants.”

In a report by the watchdog’s infrastructure director, Andrew Von Ah, the Government Accountability Office says these tribes were never told why they received significantly less funds than they applied for.

The availability of second round of Tribal funding, announced in July, is expected to allocate nearly $1 billion. Applications are open until January 2024.

The grant application process is lengthy and is a strain on tribal resources. This is especially true for smaller tribes, who “might have a part-time IT person if they’re lucky… They don’t have technical resources,” said Lisa Hanlon, CEO of the telecom company Teltech Group and Cherokee Nation citizen, at a conference earlier this year.

With a second of funding also announced in July, constructive feedback “could help these applicants improve their applications and increase confidence in the impartiality of the program’s award process,” the GAO wrote.

Of the 191 first-round grants, 30 percent were equitable distribution grants. Yet these grants accounted for just 2 percent of the total funding awarded, the report said.

The NTIA told GAO that it does not intend to provide feedback to equitable distribution grant recipients because, as they received some funding, they are not technically unsuccessful under the law.

The agency is also understaffed, it wrote in a response to the report, and would better be able to serve equitable distribution grant recipients by assisting them with the smaller projects they are able to fund.

“This effort would effectively provide the same benefit as receiving constructive feedback,” the NTIA wrote.

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