Explicit fiber to the prem FTTP telecom infrastructure standard absent in infrastructure measure. But it contains language favoring it.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed out of the Senate this week falls short of the Biden administration’s “build back better” pledge by failing to establish an explicit fiber to the premises FTTP advanced telecommunications infrastructure standard to replace outmoded 20th century copper telephone lines.

Instead, the bill establishes a throughput-based service level standard inconsistent with the administration’s goal of building “future proof” telecom infrastructure. It’s a much-needed objective. The past four decades have shown that throughput-based standards tend to become quickly outdated as end user bandwidth demand inexorably grows. Only fiber infrastructure has the headroom to accommodate that demand well into the future.

However, language in the legislation indirectly favors fiber. It requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration prioritize infrastructure funded by $42 billion of grants to states to “ensure that the network built by the project can easily scale speeds over time to meet the evolving connectivity needs of households and businesses.” Not a direct fiber infrastructure specification. But a good operational definition that could influence the NTIA to promulgate rules on funding eligibility and awards that favor a de facto fiber standard.

Additionally, the measure defines a “reliable” service standard that fits well with fiber. It’s “service that meets performance criteria for service availability, adaptability to changing end-user requirements, length of serviceable life, or other criteria, other than upload and download speeds, as determined by the NTIA in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. (Emphasis added) It would also require the NTIA to develop and incorporate best practices “for ensuring reliability and resilience” of the infrastructure funded by the measure.