The West Virginia Public Service Commission headquarters in downtown Charleston. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)
CHARLESTON The West Virginia Public Service Commission could approve Frontier Communication’s bankruptcy reorganization plan next month, though Frontier plans to use its winning bid of federal rural broadband dollars to sweeten the deal, raising concerns.
Last Friday, the PSC made available the joint stipulation and settlement agreement between Frontier, PSC staff, and PSC Consumer Advocate Division, and the Communication Workers of America union. If approved by the full commission on Tuesday, Jan. 19, West Virginia would be the 11th state to accept Frontier’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.
sadams@newsandsentinel.com
Last week, I pointed out an angle of attack the Democrats could use in 2022 against Republican lawmakers and 2020 candidates who stood on the steps of the Capitol and pledged $1 billion for broadband expansion.
Again, they got to that $1 billion number by including the up to $766 million the state could have pulled down in the first phase of the Federal Communication Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction, the $50 million the state originally set aside from the C.A.R.E.S. Act for broadband expansion, and $150 million spread out over three years allocated by the Legislature itself.
When CenturyLink (recently rebranded as Lumen) was asked whether it will use any of the funds to develop broadband in DeSoto County, Lumen’s East Public Relations Manager Danielle Spears responded via email.
“As a disciplined company, we only pursued Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligations where we could deliver great broadband service economically,” Spears wrote. “We look forward to using fiber to deliver gigabit service to many currently unserved households across America via RDOF. We continue to focus on delivering the services our customers want across our world-class network.”
Spears went on to write that the company will not receive any of the funds until 2022, and she shared a map created by Cooperative Network Services that indicates the locations in Florida where CenturyLink plans to develop rural broadband. She said that the FCC’s auction rule against prohibited communications remains in effect, so Lumen was unable comment further.
Mobile News
December 21, 2020
With the government downgrading its full-fibre rollout pledge, it’s time to look at wireless as a viable connectivity alternative for rural areas, says Cambium Networks’
Nigel King
In his 2020 spending review last month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak reduced the government’s investment in rural broadband from £5 billion to £1.2 billion and also watered down the Conservatives’ election pledge to deliver fibre broadband to every home in the country by 2025 to a lower target of 85 per cent.
Our government has long been focused on delivering full-fibre broadband. But it appears that the challenges of making this dream a reality have become too much. Rather than focus all of its efforts on fibre, it should instead seek alternative ways to deliver broadband to rural areas and look to other countries who have overcome the same issue for solutions and learn from their approaches.
Broadband Funding, Policies May Change in a Biden White House
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to make a difference when it comes to federal broadband initiatives, experts say. The two remaining Senate races in Georgia also hold importance for federal Internet programs. Now President-elect Joe Biden during the Oct. 22, 2020 presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Shutterstock/Devi Bones
The administration of President-elect Joe Biden will likely have a significant influence on federal broadband funding and conversations surrounding Federal Communications Commission (FCC) programs, according to multiple policy experts in the space.
Will Rinehart, senior research fellow at Utah State University’s Center for Growth and Opportunity, said Biden and Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s secretary of transportation nominee, want to make a “big splash” with infrastructure. Both politicians have zeroed in on broadband as an a