AT&T is urging states to award subsidies of up to 75 percent of construction costs allocated by the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program for combined projects containing both unserved (where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses in the project are not offered throughput of 25/3 Mbps or better) and underserved (where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses are not offered throughput of 100/20 Mbps or better).
In so doing, AT&T is clearly indicating it plans to use any BEAD funding it is awarded to edge out its footprint. Some addresses could be served by VDSL over AT&T’s existing copper cable plant and qualify as underserved under BEAD program rules. As DSL signals degrade with distance, addresses farther out from its central offices and DSLAMs would likely not and be served by first generation ADSL – or no landline connections whatsoever – falling below the 25/3 Mbps cutoff and thus qualify as unserved. Some addresses in the latter category might ostensibly be designated as extremely high cost locations that AT&T would serve with fixed wireless.
A potential problem AT&T faces at least some states in urging BEAD funding for contiguous unserved/underserved projects is BEAD program rules require states to first award funds for projects reaching unserved locations. Underserved projects can only be funded if there are enough funds remaining from a state’s BEAD allocation after all unserved locations have been served.
AT&T is apparently aware. “We know that this won’t be possible in every state," writes Erin Scarborough, president of AT&T’s Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives, in a blog post. As the “next best alternative,” Scarborough urges states to group eligible locations into the smallest geographic unit possible, such as a census block, and allow providers to combine them into project areas. “This would still enable providers to design efficient deployments that maximize the use of existing infrastructure,” Scarborough wrote.
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