Broadband Adoption Dominant Issue for Recovery, BDAC Told
The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee's Disaster Response and Recovery Working Group reported Wednesday on progress on a pandemic report assigned by the FCC. One theme is that access to broadband overrides all other issues raised by COVID-19, officials said during the group’s quarterly meeting, held virtually. A final report should be ready for BDAC’s next meeting in October, said Red Grasso, WG chair who represents the North Carolina Department of Information Technology. “We’ve been pretty aggressive.”
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In June, the WG collected best practices and contacted industry “as we looked at what is going on, how is the response going with COVID,” Grasso said. One lesson is that if access to broadband were universal, “some of the response to COVID could be easier,” he said. “Some of the things we are hearing about -- the homework gap being more prevalent, about remote learning, even about permitting issues and municipal employees working remotely” depend on access, he said.
BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles, CEO of Aristotle, said it may be impossible to separate work the committee is doing on access from its COVID-19 report. “You have areas where they have some level of broadband, and maybe it is not what we want them to have, but at least they have access to the internet,” she said: “You have other areas where literally there is no access … which makes it impossible for them to do any kind of distance learning.”
Some communities have no Wi-Fi hot spots or a McDonald's with Wi-Fi, Bowles said. “COVID issues are overlaid on top of the baseline problem we’ve got, but it’s exacerbated for those communities where literally nothing is available.”
Some states are reporting that broadband funds in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act (see 2003230066) are being used to pay for budget shortfalls, said Kelly McGriff, Uniti deputy general counsel. Providers are being asked or required to show “that the cost of the project will be expected to increase capacity to a significant extent for distance learning, telemedicine and telework during the public health emergency.” The Treasury Department indicated expenditures not specifically pandemic-related may have to be repaid, he said.
McGriff hopes that if Congress approves another pandemic bill, rules are less restrictive. “Our desire is to build out that middle mile to provide a lot of fiber to some unserved and underserved communities, especially via towers,” he said: “That would be a very fast way, a very verifiable way to show that we are providing an impact to communities almost immediately, especially laying the groundwork for 5G.”
The Cares Act money has to be spent by Dec. 31, which is “an issue with respect to how useful is that going to be if the networks can't be built in that time,” Bowles said.
“It's a really hard question,” said Dileep Srihari, Telecommunications Industry Association senior policy counsel. People now appreciate “the importance of broadband for everyone at a much deeper level” and Congress is looking at allocating as much as $80 billion, “which would completely or substantially solve the universal access problem,” he said.
“COVID-19 has brought into clear focus the need for broadband,” said David Young, with Lincoln, Nebraska, representing the National League of Cities. “How do we differentiate between COVID-19 broadband needs and regular broadband needs?” he asked. “A few of us feel there is no difference.”
Availability and adoption are different issues and need to be kept separate, said Chris Nurse, AT&T assistant vice president-state legislative and regulatory affairs. Other factors keep adoption lower in some areas, he said: “Low education tends to correlate with low income. Rural incomes tend to be less than urban incomes. Rural populations tend to be older.”
“More than ever, we are ready to confront the COVID-19 challenges,” said Jonathan Adelstein, president of the Wireless Infrastructure Association and WG co-chair. “We are going to win the race to 5G, and we are not going to let this slow us down,” he said. “We might have to work a little harder, but we are doing that in partnership with governments.” Adelstein noted local governments face challenges from the pandemic: “We all understand the urgency.”
BDAC also heard reports from its Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities and Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities working groups, which are also preparing reports for the fall. Bowles said the next meeting is Oct. 7-8.