People living in Ferry, Jefferson, Kittitas, Okanogan, and Stevens counties will soon see federal spending to improve internet availability and speeds by 2024.  The funding is being provided through a $30 million grant to the Washington State Department of Commerce, as part of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program $1.2 billion allocation to Washington State.

The Washington State Broadband Office Partnership Initiative is a last-mile fiber and last-mile wireless project that focuses on underserved areas to improve broadband access. The proposed five Washington counties were selected as a result of an assessment conducted by the state of Washington in 2019 to bring high-speed internet access to all by 2024 and aims to bring broadband service to 7,196 unserved households.

The project focuses on unserved and underserved locations, with different speed requirements.

• Unserved locations (No access to 25/3 Mbps)
• Underserved locations (No access to 100/20 Mbps)

The original BEAD funding comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), passed in 2021, which requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “take steps to ensure that all people of the United States benefit from equal access to broadband internet access within the service area of a provider of such service.” In the statute, the term “equal access” refers to “equal opportunity to subscribe to an offered service that provides comparable speeds, capacity and latency.

In order to provide the FCC guidance on where the best use of the tax dollars would be, industry leaders and public interest organizations suggested the FCC should establish an Office of Civil Rights to enable the Commission to effectively allocate the funds. In doing so, the Commission may include the Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC), to aid in the policies for digital civil rights and equitable broadband deployments.

The Washington Policy Center (WPC) has long advocated that any public spending on wired and wireless broadband access should be focused first on unserved populations before improving existing broadband access in areas that already have internet connectively.

These principals include,

• Be technology neutral.
• Working with the federal government on broadband mapping.
• Reducing or eliminating state right of way fees and making state infrastructure available to speed up deployment.
• Reducing the cost and application times for 5G deployment.
• Utilizing electric co-ops infrastructure.
• Pass ‘dig once’ and ‘one-touch make ready’ policies.
• Streamline existing grant programs.

Continued spending on wireless infrastructure and incentives for providers is required to expand connectivity to all Washington residents and keep Washington working.

The application of the dollars from the BEAD grant should be focused on that last mile to maximize broadband internet availability for those who have no broadband access at all.

For more information on the BEAD program click here.