Top Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565) backers Sens. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Thursday they plan to press forward with an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding for the ailing FCC broadband program (see 2405010055) despite opposition from Senate leaders. ACP stopgap funding advocates used a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing that day to implore that Congress act while critics raised objections about what they said was a lack of clear information about the program's efficacy.
Vermont should expand mobile wireless coverage, the state’s Public Service department said in the final draft of a proposed 10-year plan released Tuesday. The department plans three public hearings on the draft this month and will present it to the Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee June 21. With an influx of federal money from the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, Capital Projects Fund and American Rescue Plan Act, Vermont “is in the process of facilitating approximately $670.8 million in broadband grants, which will result in every on-grid Vermonter having access to 100/100 megabits per second (Mbps) service by January 2029,” the draft plan said. While fiber broadband is expanding quickly, mobile broadband hasn’t “meaningfully increased in coverage,” though speeds have increased, said the draft: Prioritizing small wireless facilities would be the cheapest way to expand mobile broadband. The draft would suggest a $2 million-$3 million pilot grant program for small-cell deployments. In addition, noting the end of the federal affordable connectivity program, the draft plan recommends “a state-run subsidy program to provide $67 per month to low-income Vermonters for both a wireline and wireless broadband subscription. Also, Vermont should prioritize workforce development, strengthening emergency communications systems and ensuring that BEAD fiber deployments are resilient and redundant,” the draft said.
The California Public Utilities Commission won’t shorten time to respond to consumer advocates’ petition to modify state LifeLine rules in light of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) ending. Comments will be due May 23, CPUC Administrative Law Judge Robyn Purchia ruled Tuesday. The California Broadband & Video Association (CalBroadband) had opposed fast comments on multiple petitions by The Utility Reform Network and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office (see 2404240063, 2404230020 and 2404150062). “We are persuaded by the due process concerns raised by CalBroadband,” said Purchia said in docket R.20-02-008.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday she's talking to a range of lawmakers seeking potential changes to an amended version of her draft Spectrum and National Security Act after the panel pulled Cantwell’s bill and 12 others from a planned Wednesday markup session Tuesday night (see 2404300072). The potential for the spectrum bill to make it into the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act “got precluded weeks ago,” Cantwell told reporters. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935). Lawmakers are still eyeing other vehicles for allocating stopgap money to keep the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program running through the remainder of the year. Those proposals include a bid from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that would attach an amendment to the FAA package appropriating ACP $7 billion (see 2405010055).
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a lead GOP co-sponsor of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), confirmed Wednesday he will push hard for an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep the ailing FCC broadband program running through the end of the fiscal year. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935).
Policymakers, industry officials and broadband experts emphasized the demand for additional rural broadband deployment and affordability programs during an NTCA policy conference Wednesday in Washington. With uncertainty looming around the FCC's affordable connectivity program, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks urged Congress to replenish the program and keep rural communities connected (see 2405010055).
The Senate Commerce Committee will likely advance an amended version of the draft Spectrum and National Security Act during a Wednesday executive session with unanimous support from the panel’s 14 Democratic members, but lobbyists will watch closely how many Republicans don’t openly object to the measure as a means of determining its viability. The spectrum bill, led by Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction mandate through Sept. 30, 2029. The measure proposes using future license sales revenue to repay a proposed loan to the commission to fund the affordable connectivity program in FY 2024 and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2404250061).
California aims to quickly expand broadband access using a large influx of state and federal funding, California Public Utilities Commission officials said at a virtual workshop Monday. "Eliminating the digital divide could not be more urgent than it is right now,” said Commissioner Darcie Houck, who is assigned to the agency’s California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) docket. "Crossing the finish line will take hard work and creativity from government, communities, carriers and all of our stakeholders." Since it was created in 2008, CASF has awarded about $400 million to more than 1,100 projects, including $40 million to 187 projects in 2023 alone, Houck said. When the deadline closed earlier this month for the $750 million Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund (BLLRF) program, the CPUC had received about 400 applications requesting $430 million, she said. The program is meant to fund nonprofits, local and tribal governments' broadband infrastructure deployment. The agency plans to announce BLLRF awards in Q2 and Q3 this year, she said. While there remain “barriers and inequalities” with broadband access in California, CPUC Deputy Director Maria Ellis said she is optimistic the state can soon close the digital “chasm.” However, Ellis noted that price is one key challenge. The federal affordable connectivity program helped reduce costs, but its possible sunset could mean low-income households will again face high bills soon, she said.
The Senate Communications Subcommittee has plans for following up the Commerce Committee’s Wednesday markup of the draft Spectrum and National Security Act (see 2404250061) with a Thursday hearing eyeing the future of federal affordable broadband programs. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., released a revised version of her draft spectrum bill Friday night as a substitute amendment that increases funding it would loan the FCC to keep the affordable broadband program running through the end of FY 2024. The new bill offers $7 billion, up $2 billion from the original proposal. That puts Cantwell’s legislation in line with the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which also proposes $7 billion in stopgap funding. Cantwell’s revised spectrum bill also includes language from the Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act to create an NTIA program to distribute money to historically Black, tribal and minority-serving colleges and universities to develop telecom sector job training (see 2108020061). Cantwell's bill proposes loaning NTIA $200 million for the program. Senate Communications’ Thursday hearing will include testimony from New Street’s Blair Levin and Kathryn de Wit, director-Pew Charitable Trusts broadband access initiative. Also set to testify: Economic Policy Innovation Center CEO Paul Winfree and New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion’s Jennifer Case Nevarez. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
Tuesday marks the last day that eligible households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program will receive full funding, Miriam Montgomery, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, noted during a National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors webinar on Monday. The webinar also included an update on the national broadband map.