Newly installed Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Alan Davidson, was cool, calm and collected as he answered lawmakers’ multiple questions yesterday about the much-anticipated distribution of broadband infrastructure deployment grants. NTIA is the point agency for the fund distribution, working with states, localities, Tribes and other groups, as instructed in the Infrastructure Law.
During a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing yesterday, several lawmakers expressed concern about connecting every American. Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said the law’s $65 billion investment is also “critical” to ensuring America can compete on the world stage, pointing to the “enormous investment” China has made in laying fiber, “putting it on track to connect more than a billion people to broadband.”
Several lawmakers, including Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), noted that the last major investment in broadband was 2009, when Congress passed the American Recovery and Investment Act. “NTIA received $4.7 billion, much of which was wasted on overbuilding and failed projects. We cannot afford to let this happen again,” she said.
Through the Infrastructure Law, Congress tasked NTIA with distributing the majority–nearly $43 billion–for broadband deployment. Pallone, McMorris Rodgers and several other lawmakers said the funding must be truly targeted to unserved areas and asked Davidson how he intends to accomplish that.
Davidson said his first priority is closing the digital divide. The law dictates NTIA must use the FCC’s updated coverage maps to determine where the neediest areas are, he explained. He said the FCC has indicated the maps should be done by this summer; then states will develop their distribution plans in coordination with NTIA.
NTIA is hiring a team of program officers to help states and communities write their grant plans. “There will be a person here for each state,” he pledged. NTIA is also hiring people to work with tribes and ensure digital equity, he added.
Each state will present its plan to NTIA, likely this fall, of how it plans to distribute the funding. Davidson recognizes states will have different rules for grant access. Lawmakers pressed to ensure those rules are technology neutral, and not fiber-only.
Affordability is a key component to connecting everyone too. “In our view, this is more than making sure there’s a wire going past somebody’s home. It doesn’t help if that can’t afford to get online or if they don’t have a device,” Davidson testified. He pointed to a digital equity grant program that NTIA has begun reaching out to communities about “to make sure our programs are operating in lockstep.”
Based on the 500+ comments NTIA has received so far with suggestions for its grant distribution, Davidson said many commenters want NTIA’s help in speeding up permitting. “Pole attachment is a big issue, and I’m sure we’ll be addressing it.”
Members of Congress also expressed their dismay at the public fight between the FAA, the aviation industry, telecoms and the FCC over 5G operations on C-band, which McMorris Rodgers called “alarming.” She said the FAA was “pressuring certain conditions on licenses, which is not their role,” noting the FCC regulates commercial spectrum. Her concern and that of other lawmakers is that “the FAA circumvented the spectrum process.” She asked Davidson how NTIA will handle those kinds of situations going forward.
Davidson pointed to the new Spectrum Coordination Initiative signed with the FCC, Inside Towers reported, to better coordinate their actions. “We need a real evidence-based approach to where there might be interference problems,” he said. NTIA engineers will work with FCC engineers and those of other federal agencies. “We can’t let these kinds of problems happen again,” he said.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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