Minnesota is seeking to end its digital divide with incoming support from NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation and state government officials at a partially virtual workshop Wednesday. More money and state legislation will probably be required to finish the job, said local government and workers’ union officials on a panel.

The FCC identified tentative selectees in 34 groups of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational FM construction permits from the November 2021 NCE window, said a unanimously approved order Tuesday. The selectees include Gentry Communications Network’s application for Sulphur Springs, Arkansas; Remanente Broadcasting Network’s application for Boron, California; and Teleamerica Communications West Palm Beach’s application for Key West, Florida. The bureau made the choices using a ranking and point system based on which applicant would cover the largest area and population, and favors tribal groups and applicants with fewer other radio authorizations, the PN said. Petitions to deny the applications of the selectees are due 30 days after the order. The order had been listed on the FCC's January open meeting agenda as an adjudicatory item, an FCC spokesperson told us.

NTIA needs better performance goals and measures for its tribal broadband connectivity and broadband infrastructure programs or it will struggle to track progress, GAO said Tuesday. It said management of them has been generally in line with recommended practices for grant awarding, though slow, and goals and measures for the programs don't include all primary functions, nor are they fully quantifiable. NTIA also needs to improve its fraud risk management, GAO said. Several Commerce offices have roles in fraud risk management, but none was designated as lead and NTIA didn't do a fraud risk assessment, the report said. Among GAO's 15 recommendations are designating a dedicated entity to lead fraud risk management activities for the programs, and defining broadband affordability and reliability so the programs' performance goals are quantifiable and measurable. NTIA didn't comment.

Smith Bagley asked the FCC for a three-month extension of the waivers of its Lifeline recertification and reverification for customers in tribal areas. The waivers otherwise expire Jan. 31, said a Tuesday filing in docket 11-42. "Historic inequalities caused Tribal communities to shudder more than the rest of the country during COVID-19 pandemic, and conditions in the communities have yet to recover as new public health challenges arise," the carrier said: "The day-to-day difficulties associated with contacting and obtaining responsive documents from remote Tribal customers have not improved."

Completing NTIA’s work on more than $48 billion in connectivity spending through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will take years and require “a huge amount of work,” but it’s not the agency’s only focus, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson told CES Saturday. Other speakers said wireless projects must be able to fully compete with fiber for the program to be most successful.

The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified that participation in the affordable connectivity program's Your Home, Your Internet pilot program by nongovernmental entities "must be in partnership with a federal government entity or a state, local, or tribal housing entity" in response to an inquiry from the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future. Organizations with existing partnerships with government agencies are eligible to participate, the bureau said in a letter posted Friday in docket 21-450, although the government entity must certify and submit the applications. The bureau also declined to extend the application deadline, citing the FCC's "goal of initiating our pilot programs and grant-funded outreach efforts as soon as possible."

The National Tribal Telecommunications Association backed a petition for rulemaking filed by the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition that would address the middle-mile transport expenses in "ultra-high" cost areas of Alaska, in comments posted Friday in docket RM-11938. The proposed Alaska middle-mile expense support plan would assist carriers participating in the Alaska Plan, Alternative Connect America Model and the Connect America Fund Phase II programs. NTTA asked the FCC to consider expanding eligibility beyond those covered in the petition, noting that middle-mile costs aren't supported "in any way by federal or state universal service programs" for many providers and are "essentially treated as 'non regulated' costs to be borne by the unregulated internet service provider."

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a request by Pine Cellular for a one-year extension to meet the tribal lands bidding credit (TLBC) construction requirement to deploy service to Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma communities in eastern Oklahoma using one of its 600 MHz licenses bought in the TV incentive auction. Pine Cellular got a bidding credit of $2 million and was initially required to construct and operate a system capable of serving 75% of the Choctaw Nation communities within the relevant service area by Jan. 9, 2021. The Wednesday order extends the deadline until Jan. 9, 2024. “We find that strict application of the TLBC construction requirement, which would result in either Pine Cellular’s repayment of its TLBC or automatic termination of its license, is not warranted,” the bureau said: “Neither the repayment of the TLBC nor the automatic termination of the license would facilitate the provision of wireless broadband service to the Choctaw Nation communities, and thus would not serve the public interest or the underlying purpose of the TLBC rule.”

NTIA awarded more than $36 million in additional tribal broadband connectivity program support Monday to two tribal entities, said a news release. The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe of Minnesota received about $18.8 million to connect 4,399 unserved Native American households and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands received about $17.3 million for broadband use and adoption planning, engineering, feasibility and sustainability studies.

NTIA awarded more than $40.3 million in additional tribal broadband connectivity program support Wednesday to nine tribal entities. The Ak-Chin Indian Community in Arizona, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians in California, Fort Independence Indian Reservation in California, Indian Township Tribal Government in Maine, Pueblo of Picuris in New Mexico, Santa Clara Pueblo of New Mexico, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon received funding for broadband deployment and digital skills training, said a news release.