UPDATE The Senate Commerce Committee passed onto the full senate the PLAN for Broadband Act (S. 2238) on Wednesday. It includes $7 billion in funding to revive the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and more than $3 billion to fully fund the Commission’s Rip & Replace program. Rip & Replace is meant to reimburse small carriers that remove and replace untrusted gear made by Huawei and ZTE from their networks.
Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) President Tim Donovan applauded the action. “For affected Rip and Replace carriers, the situation is dire. Without needed funding, affected carriers, including those serving Tribal lands, will be forced to remove covered equipment and not replace it in large portions of their networks, eliminating hundreds of thousands of square miles of service available today for their subscribers, as well as service for anyone who roams on their networks.” CCA urged both Chambers of Congress to pass the measure.
Concerning the funding to restore the ACP, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Director of Policy Engagement Drew Garner said: “Since June, hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost internet service because Congress failed to provide additional funding for the ACP. From recent Benton research we know that millions more are likely to lose or downgrade service, resulting in billions of dollars in lost consumer financial benefits and service delivery efficiencies for health care providers.”
Garner continued, “Today, the Senate took a huge step to rectify this. We applaud Sen. Welch (D-VT) and his colleagues on the Senate Commerce Committee for sending an ACP funding bill to the Senate floor.” Benton urged the full Senate to pass the bill.
The bipartisan PLAN ACT would require the Biden administration “to develop a national strategy to close the digital divide and a plan to implement that strategy,” according to co-sponsors Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM). The House passed its version of the bill, sponsored by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Annie Kuster (D-NH) in May.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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