NTIA, Treasury Want NARUC to Engage on Broadband

State utility commissioners should get active in broadband funding talks, said NTIA and U.S. Treasury officials at the partially virtual NARUC conference Monday. Each state is to receive at least $200 million combined through Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund and NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. State commissioners may no longer say broadband is “not my jurisdiction,” said former FCC and South Carolina Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: “I’m sorry, you can’t rest on that anymore.”

With NTIA planning to issue a notice of funding opportunity in May for BEAD under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, state commissions should get involved, including through collaboration with governors and state broadband offices, said NTIA State and Local Coordinator Katherine Bates. Only four states -- Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin -- have broadband offices within the utility commission, but “PUCs play a really important role and coordinating at the state level is super important to NTIA,” she said. “The states’ success is NTIA’s success.”

Bates urged states to share availability data. Once NTIA has the FCC’s new broadband map, possibly this summer, NTIA will “feed it into” its own national broadband availability map, which includes data from 42 participating states and territories, Bates said. States and localities will be able to challenge the FCC’s coming new map, she said. The combination of FCC, NTIA and Treasury data should provide much more granular information than previous maps, she said.

“States' success is also Treasury's success,” said Capital Projects Fund Director Joey Wender. The department received back grant agreements it sent last month to states and territories, he said: “We are now at the phase where states and territories can … immediately draw down” on administrative funds to prepare grant program plans. He said several states have already submitted grant plans -- with more expected to apply soon -- and Treasury is “actively reviewing them.” The deadline is mid-September. For $100 million dedicated to tribes, Treasury approved 10 tribal applications and sent the money last week, he said.

Treasury’s guidance doesn’t include the word “overbuild,” said Wender: It makes clear it wants to encourage buildout in places with less than 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds. NTIA coordinates with USDA, Treasury and the FCC “to ensure that overbuilding is not going to happen, but the speeds that are set through” statute are at “a higher level than some programs have funded in the past,” said Bates.

Stop punting on USF contribution reform, which will be key to maintaining networks long-term, said Clyburn. "This is a foundation that's crumbling. We can no longer afford to ignore it.” Treasury has no official position, said Wender, but he noted having enough money to maintain networks was an issue before more money arrived to build new infrastructure: "The problem predates this, and will only be larger once we're done.”

There's “nothing new” on when the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service could reconvene, State Chair Chris Nelson emailed afterward.

States face institutional and political challenges to converting federal dollars into broadband infrastructure, said New Street Research analyst Blair Levin on a later panel. States don’t have as much experience with broadband or established departments as they do with transportation, he said. And this is a year when many states have gubernatorial elections, said Levin.

Operators are optimistic about the revenue opportunity, but uncertain about exactly who will give them the “marching orders,” and there “may not be the labor in place to do it” in many states at once, said William Blair analyst Jim Breen: And it’s unclear “when the supply chain is going to free up.”

Getting accurate maps will be key, analysts said. The FCC at best will have a new map by this summer, said Levin. "If this was a war situation, we'd have a map within two weeks, but we have not treated it that way."

Supply chain and workforce issues could affect buildout pace, warned a telecom industry panel. States should recognize supply chain issues by making programs flexible and provide waivers where necessary and appropriate, said Lumen Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Randy Clarke. Allow minor changes in equipment from what might have been in a company’s original plan, suggested ExteNet General Counsel Haran Rashes. Companies are competing for experienced workers not only within the broadband space, but with other industries as well, said NCTA Vice President-State Affairs Rick Cimerman.

NARUC Notebook

A collective defense could be more important than funding to protect U.S. cybersecurity, National Cyber Director Chris Inglis told state regulators at the NARUC conference Monday. “Gone are the days when one of us would know enough,” whether it be a state, local or federal entity or a private company, “to actually understand the totality of the threats, where one of us would have enough capacity, capability, authority to deal with that threat,” said Inglis. “We have to actually make it such that if a transgressor in this space wants to beat us, they’ve got to beat all of us.” Invest in cybersecurity from the capital spending phase, advised Inglis. NARUC President Judy Jagdmann noted, “Cybersecurity is top of mind for state regulators.”