Oklahoma is aiming to bring high-speed internet to 95% of its residents by 2028 in a major push to close the digital divide, said Oklahoma Broadband Office Executive Director Mike Sanders during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Sanders outlined how the state is using a mix of federal funding, tribal partnerships and strategic planning to expand fiber coverage (see 2505050060). "We'll be north of that" 95% mark, Sanders said, "but it's going to take all the other federal programs and the flexibility for our state to achieve that."
NTIA joined the submarine cable industry in voicing concerns about parts of the FCC's proposed rewrite of its subsea cable rules. In docket 24-523 reply comments this week, NTIA, the subsea cable industry and allies called instead for using the proceeding to streamline existing rules. FCC Commissioners adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006). Initial comments on the NPRM saw pushback from industry (see 2504150002).
HERSHEY, Pennsylvania -- FCC officials speaking Saturday at the FCBA's annual seminar expressed confidence that the agency will regain spectrum auction authority. Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said the commission expects at least one auction, AWS-3, within the next year and is taking steps to ensure it can support that auction, such as preparing necessary IT, he said. Commissioner Nathan Simington said Congress sees midband spectrum as a priority, so a significant auction should be teed up by year-end.
The Trump administration’s tariffs will affect the cost of network equipment used in building BEAD projects, but they aren’t the program's biggest challenge, experts said Wednesday during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar.
The outlook on what happens next on the Digital Equity Act (DEA) is uncertain after President Donald Trump said his administration won’t fund the program. Congress approved DEA in 2021 as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package under former President Joe Biden. In a Truth Social post late Thursday, Trump said he's canceling DEA, which industry officials predicted will lead to inevitable legal challenges and months if not years of uncertainty.
What will come out of the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding is hard to say at this point, since it builds on other FCC efforts to cut regulations, experts said during a webinar Wednesday by the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University. The FCC has logged more than 1,100 comments so far in docket 25-133, with replies due this week (see 2504290054 and 2504290038).
The FCC unanimously approved NPRMs on robocalls, satellite spectrum sharing and updated foreign-ownership rules at its April meeting Monday. The agency also unanimously approved an order on creating a licensing framework for the 37 GHz band (see 2504280032).
Opening up BEAD to greater participation by low earth orbit (LEO) satellites under the auspices of being more technology-neutral "is really a billion-dollar handout" to SpaceX's Starlink, Penn State Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications Christopher Ali wrote Friday. "Subsidizing a technology that offers only 'good enough' connectivity ... risks creating a new digital divide as parts of the country go to satellite while others move to fiber optics," he added. Starlink is "a viable option for some," particularly for certain rural residents. But it shouldn't receive federal funding when its speeds don't meet minimum standards, it has high upfront costs, and it largely operates as a monopoly in the LEO market, Ali wrote.
New BEAD guidance from NTIA is expected in the middle of next month, state sources told us. There have been indications from the Commerce Department and elsewhere that big changes are ahead for BEAD rules (see 2503200003). NTIA didn't comment.
The U.S. reliance on tariffs should have minimal impact on most fiber broadband equipment pricing and deployments, Dell'Oro Group's Jeff Heynen wrote Monday. Key U.S. fiber broadband equipment providers have onshored most of their manufacturing and assembly so they can qualify for BEAD's Build America Buy America provisions, he said. Most commonly deployed components have already been self-certified by vendors and seen big increases in domestic manufacturing.