The biggest Internet service providers will dominate a $42.45 billion broadband grant program unless the Biden administration changes a rule requiring grant recipients to obtain a letter of credit from a bank, according to a joint statement from consumer advocacy groups, local government officials, and advocates for small ISPs.
The letter sent today to US government officials argues that “by establishing capital barriers too steep for all but the best-funded ISPs, the LOC [letter-of-credit requirement] shuts out the vast majority of entities the program claims to prioritize: small and community-centered ISPs, minority and women-owned ISPs, nonprofits, and municipalities.”
The rule is part of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that’s being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The biggest Internet service providers will dominate a $42.45 billion broadband grant program unless the Biden administration changes a rule requiring grant recipients to obtain a letter of credit from a bank, according to a joint statement from consumer advocacy groups, local government officials, and advocates for small ISPs.
The rule is part of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that’s being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
One signer is Gigi Sohn, the longtime consumer advocate who was nominated by President Biden to the Federal Communications Commission.
After the US Senate refused to confirm her nomination, Sohn became executive director of the nonprofit American Association for Public Broadband that lobbies for municipal networks.
The letter was signed by advocates from various other broadband-focused groups, including Public Knowledge; Connect Humanity; the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition; the Institute for Local Self-Reliance; Free Press; Next Century Cities; the Multicultural Media, Telecom, and Internet Council; the Coalition for Local Internet Choice; and Consumer Reports.
ISPs that signed the letter include Astound Broadband (owner of Grande, RCN, and Wave) and several smaller providers.
The original article contains 748 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
well, I was optimistic but now we might still have the monopolies using the grants to line their pockets off the consumers by using our govt money.
Exactly what will happen and they won’t use to the grant money towards what it meant for.
It big grift and Biden gave it to them. Remember he is a centrist who caters to the rich.
I mean he’s always been considered a moderate. The voting system encouraged him through since we can’t get voting reforms to pass. What I wouldn’t give for ranked elimination style voting or something… I’m so tired of being continually screwed by the system and it encouraging the gerrymandering that happened in my state despite our own laws against it
Remember we paid for every home in America to have fiber optic internet in the 90s. They took the money, ran, and faced no consequences.
Having been in the broadband delivery business at all levels, I sadly report that small ISPs can’t compete in this marketplace to begin with. Reason being they don’t have the investments needed for last mile delivery. If they had the money needed to install landlines, or buy frequency leases, or fly a global satellite network then they wouldn’t be a small ISP. The best that they can do is develop resell relationships.
The only ISPs that can compete are ones using existing power line infrastructure, so utility companies and cooperatives.
Part of the reason they can’t compete is cause of all the bullshit roadblocks the existing players put in their way. This was made readily apparent anywhere Google fiber tried to rollout and all of the crap they had to deal with to just roll out fiber.
It’s not that they don’t have the money to install the infrastructure, it’s that they don’t have enough money to fight all the legal battles just to do their jobs.
Not the existing players, your government. Telephone companies gained right of way from your state because everybody wanted a telephone. Cable companies made a deal with your municipality for right of way by paying for it with a non-compete clauses. Power companies did the same thing. Why would they put millions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the ground for anything less? Your state and local government, and by extension you, sold it to them.
Biden has been worse than a do nothing President. He’s a corporate shill.
Neo-liberals are conservatives. They are smarter and have more tact, but they are conservatives.
If we want progress, we need progressives.
If progressives can come up with messaging that wins elections, great. So far the messaging appeals to a fraction of the voting public, and has zero working strategy for how to effectively deal with the right coopting, twisting and ridiculing the progressive agenda. Inequality is growing faster than ever for people of all skin colors, and yet progressives have essentially stopped giving a fuck about labor and switched over to race. I’m not saying that racism isn’t a problem in this country, I’m saying that the research shows that you get a SHIT TON more support if you don’t tie the messaging of a social policy to a particular race. I’m worried that in the (perhaps distant) future, progressives challenging racism, examining race as a social construct, etc. will have the perverse effect of reifying and reinforcing race and othering.
I sure did hear a lot of neo-lib politicians in my area saying that same thing when there was a push for Medicare For All. “It’s confusing and nobody knows what it means” is what some centrist dem congress people kept saying where I’m from. A few years on, now that the steam has been tapped and those same politicians are putting “healthcare for all” in their literature. The co-option against progressive policy is coming from inside the party and old railway Joe (not a progressive) outlawed a strike for… the railway workers.
Also, not seeing this abandoning of labor to focus on race you speak of. People flooding the streets over police murdering POC isn’t a political maneuver. Could you lay out where your seeing this focus on race and not labor from progressives?
Everything you just said is bullshit. The reason progressives don’t do well is corporate media does not want them to.
Stop watching msnbc fox cnn npr and many others and it becomes completely obvious.
That is total BS. Biden has more specifically than any president I have encountered so far and I was quite surprised with it. Besides the inflation reduction act there is the no surprises act is huge for me. The IRS implementing a tax return system which is directly opposed to a large corporate lobbying effort that has been going on for decades. Much like the no surprises came in quietly I noticed it and there has been some others I can’t recall atm but I like what biden has done in his first term.
Biden was against giving rail workers 1 day per year of sick time.
Get your head out of corporate media’s ass.
yeah if I voted based on a candidate having nothing. nothing at all that I disagreed with. well then I would not vote as no candidate could pass muster. And I will always vote even if the options are limited.
Edit: I missed the part where municipalities in certain states are allowed to get LOCs due to state law, so the grant program would exclude ISPs directly owned by the municipality. To me that is a state issue rather than a fed issue, especially as the NTIA says it will waive the requirement on a case-by-case basis
I’m sorry except for the smallest WISPs (which wouldn’t qualify as broadband anyway), how does requiring a letter of credit from a bank represent a barrier? Carrier grade equipment is not cheap, nobody is paying is paying cash for it. So they should have a good relationship with a community bank anyway.
Yeah I also don’t understand how it’s a barrier. Unless I’m thinking of the wrong thing I know some people who had to get a letter of credit when getting some service at their new property in order to not have to pay some equipment deposit. As private individuals (although commercial property with no history of income), it took them a phone call, 2 emails and about 30 minutes to get one.
I really can’t see any small ISP that isn’t some scheme having trouble getting one.
Go out and try to get one as a small ISP then come back and let us know how it went.
Here in Seattle I have two options: Centurylink or Comcast. I would happily purchase a plan from a smaller company, but due to the duopoly we have here, I have no other choice.
Thanks! I’ll check them out. I’ve tried Ziply several times, but my specific location has some unique challenges getting a provider in.
You could cut the cable altogether and just go full mobile. That’s what I do, and I’m happy to see an extra $600 in my bank account at the end of the year.
I use Visible for only $25/month. Unlimited data, great coverage, and they even sent me a free 5G phone when I refused to upgrade.
Couldn’t be happier.
