9 Dec 2020

The FCC’s RDOF Award Announcement – Good News, but Only One Step toward Closing the Digital Divide

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Some quick reaction to Monday’s FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Auction Award Announcement:

It’s good news of course! – Over $346 million allocated to seventeen providers that proposed to bring gigabit level service to almost 200,000 (199,211) locations through-out Missouri.  On average – that means the Federal government is offering to contribute about $1,740 per location over the award period.  

Overall the auction award was not as large as what was authorized (around $20 billion) — $9.23 billion was awarded nationwide.  So more funds are expected be awarded in the future, hopefully using a revised system to identify unserved areas within census tracts that are now partially served.  Only census tracts that had no adequate broadband service were eligible to participate in this round of awards – a fact that all agree is a significant shortcoming of the award program that needs to be corrected. 

A bit of additional fine print: 

Companies receiving awards are required to submit much more detailed information to the FCC throughout next year before their award is final.  That information includes engineering data, deployment plans and a financial data, and failure to submit it by the deadlines can result in forfeiture of the award.  

Once the award is final, the winning bidders will receive their grant over a ten-year period in equal annual installments.  In other words the average award of $1,740 for each Missouri location, entitles the winning bidder to a $174 annual subsidy paid over ten years for each location.  This likely means that companies will need to find separate financing sources to fund costs of constructing the broadband infrastructure that ultimately will be repaid from annual award installments. 

Companies that received awards are provided a significant period of time to complete actually provide the promised service.  The first 40% of locations must be served after three years, and final build out need not be completed for six years (2027). 

Finally, while the awards were based on locations in census tracts, the winning bidders were not required, and did not agree to serve all residents in living in the census tract. 

Does this mean that the RDOF Award is not “good news” for residents in rural Missouri? 

Of course not! 

But it would be a mistake to think that the award is more than a single step in bridging the digital divide. To close the digital divide, government and community stakeholders will need to continue to work creatively with internet service providers. 

In that regard, it’s also important to keep in mind that bringing internet infrastructure to a location, is not the same thing as actually providing service to residents and businesses at that location.   As important as the RDOF program likely will be to closing the digital divide, it does not directly address the issues of affordability and digital literacy, and we know that both must be solved before underserved populations can actually reap the benefits of the new digital technologies that use broadband. 

View the RDOF map here

8 Dec 2020

Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction to Expand Broadband to over 10 Million Rural Americans

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More than $346 million was earmarked to expand Missouri’s rural broadband infrastructure, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Monday.

The funds come from the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a $20 billion effort to bring broadband services to rural homes and small businesses.

More than 199,000 unserved Missouri homes and businesses are set to receive access to the internet at speeds averaging 25 megabytes per second (MBPS) through the fund, according to the commission.

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22 Oct 2020

Trump Administration Invests $91.5 Million in High-Speed Broadband in Rural Missouri

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The Trump Administration announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $91.5 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Missouri. This investment is part of the $550 million Congress allocated to the second round of the ReConnect Program.

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21 Sep 2020

Department of Agriculture Rules and Regulations – USDA Program to Provide Grant/Loan Funding for up to 10% of the Cost of Broadband for Rural Farms and Businesses

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The Rural Utilities Service, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, and Rural Housing Service, agencies that comprise the Rural Development Mission Area within the United States Department of Agriculture, are issuing this final rule to establish the authority authorized by Section 6210 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which will assist rural families and small businesses in gaining access to broadband service by permitting recipients of a loan, grant, or loan guarantee from RD to use up to 10 percent of the amount provided to construct broadband infrastructure in areas not served by minimum acceptable level of broadband service.

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9 Sep 2020

Emergency Broadband Investment Program

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The State of Missouri is providing up to $2 million in grants to reimburse providers that have expanded, or plan to connect, high-speed internet (25 Megabits per second / 3 Megabits per second or greater) to new subscribing residentsin unserved or underserved areas in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) will administer and facilitate the reimbursement program for broadband providers that expand service in order to directly benefit qualified households, including those households: 1) that meet one of the categories identified as a vulnerable population, 2) with a Missouri resident on telework status, and 3) with a student resident (pre-school through higher education). The Emergency Broadband Investment Program will be technology-neutral and open to all broadband providers in good standing with the State of Missouri and meeting program guidelines. The program was developed using the federal law, guidance, and frequently asked questions from section 601(a) of the federal Social Security Act, as added by section 5001 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

Applications will be reviewed immediately upon submission by DED using the following criteria and point values. DED will also assess the regional diversity of the grant requests. These evaluation criteria reflect information provided in thegrant application. To ensure that an application receives the best score possible, it should include comprehensive responses and all requested attachments. Applications may also be subject to a challenge process to ensure that CARES Act resources are deployed only as necessary and not for areas already adequately serviced.

DED reserves the right to revise these program guidelines to conform to CARES Act guidance issued during the grant period or as it otherwise deems prudent in its sole discretion.

More information can be found here: https://ded.mo.gov/content/emergency-broadband-investment-program

4 Sep 2020

Promoting Broadband Deployment and Adoption

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Even if broadband is available and affordable, individuals and families can’t connect without equipment and digital literacy.
● Twenty-one percent of non-broadband users cite the cost of a computer as one of the reasons they
do not have broadband at home.
● Many American workers lack digital skills they need to successfully navigate digital devices.
● The Digital Equity Act would provide funding to states to implement digital equity plans, and to
other stakeholders to support digital equity projects.

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20 Jul 2020

Disconnected: Seven Lessons on Fixing the Digital Divide

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Communities across the country are in an economic race. To compete, they need employers and qualified workers, both of which require a robust information- and knowledge-sharing infrastructure. While some communities are ahead of the pack, others are falling far behind.
Broadband is a critical component in this economic race, allowing businesses large and small to reach customers, farmers to deploy resource-saving technologies, and workers to learn critical job skills.

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20 Jul 2020

Electric Cooperatives Bring High-Speed Communications to Underserved Areas

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This report is an updated and revised edition of NRECA’s 2019 report, “Electric Cooperatives Bring High-Speed Communications to Underserved Areas.” The original report summarized findings from NRECA’s 2018 series of twelve case studies of electric cooperatives that have entered the broadband communications business. This new version of the report summarizes the original 2018 case studies, with updated information,plus another eight case studies completed by NRECA in 2019.

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