Tuesday, June 27th 2023
US Government Announces $42 Billion Fund for Universal Access to High-Speed Broadband
The US government yesterday revealed its $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding program that will aim to deliver reliable, affordable high-speed internet to everyone in the nation by 2030—including all fifty states and US territories. Evidently parts of the country are lacking in terms of online access infrastructure—the briefing room statement outlines some of these issues: "High-speed internet is no longer a luxury - it is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school, access health care, and to stay connected with family and friends. Yet, more than 8.5 million households and small businesses are in areas where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable internet options."
The initiative is said to be "the largest internet funding announcement in history," and the White House is readying packages valued from $27 million to $3.3 billion—White House said that it'll award sums of (starting at) $27 million going up to a maximum $3.3 billion, based on the required level of upgrades for a given state/territory. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communication and Information Alan Davidson stated: "This is a watershed moment for millions of people across America who lack access to a high-speed Internet connection. Access to Internet service is necessary for work, education, healthcare, and more...States can now plan their Internet access grant programs with confidence and engage with communities to ensure this money is spent where it is most needed."
The BEAD funding will be used to deploy or upgrade broadband networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service. Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funding can be used to pursue eligible access-, adoption-, and equity-related uses.
States, D.C., and territories ("Eligible Entities") will receive their formal notice of allocation on June 30, 2023. Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Eligible Entities have 180 days from the date of that formal notice to submit their Initial Proposals describing how they propose to run their grant programs. Eligible Entities can begin submitting their Initial Proposals starting July 1, 2023. Once NTIA approves an Initial Proposal, which will occur on a rolling basis, Eligible Entities will be permitted to request access to at least 20 percent of their allocated funds.
Details related to the allocation for the states, D.C., and territories are available on InternetForAll.Gov.
Sources:
Reuters, Whitehouse Statement
The initiative is said to be "the largest internet funding announcement in history," and the White House is readying packages valued from $27 million to $3.3 billion—White House said that it'll award sums of (starting at) $27 million going up to a maximum $3.3 billion, based on the required level of upgrades for a given state/territory. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communication and Information Alan Davidson stated: "This is a watershed moment for millions of people across America who lack access to a high-speed Internet connection. Access to Internet service is necessary for work, education, healthcare, and more...States can now plan their Internet access grant programs with confidence and engage with communities to ensure this money is spent where it is most needed."
States, D.C., and territories ("Eligible Entities") will receive their formal notice of allocation on June 30, 2023. Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Eligible Entities have 180 days from the date of that formal notice to submit their Initial Proposals describing how they propose to run their grant programs. Eligible Entities can begin submitting their Initial Proposals starting July 1, 2023. Once NTIA approves an Initial Proposal, which will occur on a rolling basis, Eligible Entities will be permitted to request access to at least 20 percent of their allocated funds.
Details related to the allocation for the states, D.C., and territories are available on InternetForAll.Gov.
22 Comments on US Government Announces $42 Billion Fund for Universal Access to High-Speed Broadband
no imo the majority of the 8.x million cited to not have access will continue not too.
The "too expensive to service" is also pretty rubbish. There are a number of co-ops around my area that are deploying FTTH in low populated areas and are being profitable doing it. Yes it isn't a lot of money, but they are still in the black and paying their loans and bonds. The issue with big companies like Comcast and AT&T is that they focus on short term gains. They won't do anything unless they have a 3yr ROI. Pretty common in large companies to ignore doing something if the ROI is any longer than that. What they will likely do is collect the money that they can, let it collect interest for as long as possible and at last minute deploy to meet the minimum requirements. Will likely be the highest populated areas to meet the minimum requirements.
I'd expect their to still be gaps. Still have at least at least 5 or 6 million that don't have any service at all (outside Starlink and maybe even cellular).
And even if the internet were fast, it still wouldn't matter because in my neighborhood it goes out for a few seconds to a few minutes, almost every day, usually choosing the most inconvenient time to do so. Again, I'm not out in the boonies. I am surrounded by freeways on all 4 sides. I am firmly in the middle of this city, but I have an internet connection like I'm stuck in 2003.
Between American ISPs and banks (possibly the most evil companies on earth), I don't know if I'd be able to say I hate banks more. I really, really hate ISPs. I can't wait for Starlink and Verizon/AT&T home 5g to absolutely demolish these corrupt, greedy, lying crooks. And they have been, but it's been a frustratingly slow experience. The only major change I've noticed is that my pathetic rate plan (250 down, 10 up) used to be something like $90 a month and has since dropped to $60, which coincided exactly with Verizon announcing that home 5g was available in my area. Glad to see them in fear, but it's still not enough.
The only thing that is good here where i live is that Century Link(Lumen now) and Comcast compete all the time. I have FTTH with Century Link 1gig up and down for $75 no caps.
They do these bills all the time, but nothing ever comes form them, except some c-suites getting new yachts. There is just 0 oversight to ensure these companies actually do their jobs.There's several Co-OPs around me too, doing the same thing. Issue is, they never manage to get into the cities, only the surrounding farm areas. The small towns are left hung out to dry due to exclusivity deals with cable companies.I was so happy when ATT rolled out fiber in my city this year. Came as a total surprise.
My first indication? My cable bill went from $170 to $100, and I got a notice about free equipment upgrades.
Competition is a wonderful thing.
By the way, you say you're stuck in 2003 but I'm quite sure than most people in the world were still on 56k not 1 gigabits. If I remember correctly I had 1mbits in the early 2000s, that was fastest consumer speed available here.
At least in my area, we have a whopping two providers that aren't WWAN or satellite. One of then is DSL that probably can't even do 100Mb/s, and the other is a horribly unreliable cable service that almost never reaches their advertised speeds.
My family currently pays just under $100 a month for "500/50", which is more like 420/37, and a 1.2TB data cap if I'm not mistaken.
Apparently they also do fiber, but conveniently they stopped running fiber about a block away from my house, so who knows when or if we'll get it.
I almost ready to bet that this will also get politicized, just like everything else in the States now is.
www.digi.ro/servicii/internet
DAZN: NFL, All European Cups, MLB
FUBO: Premier league
BEIN: La Liga, Legue 1
PRIME: Thursday Night Football
Sports needs a certain speed to be enjoyed while streaming.
I actually work for a Tel co and we are trying to lay Fibre across Canada but it is not cheap and Governments should help with projects that are for the benefit of everyone, Politically if the current Administration can remain in Power the reality of this will be more realized.
Romania: $14 858
USA: $70 200
3rd world government: take from the people.
Amazing how 1st world essential is 3rd world luxury.
That $42b is almost how much our African governments steal from their people annually. :laugh: