Federal plan to provide internet access to more rural areas might include satellite service, which has fans and critics

A new bill would allow satellite internet in rural
areas. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite bipartisan congressional support for all Americans to have access to speedy internet, discussions on how to get the job done have fallen along party lines, with many Republicans bemoaning the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program as too slow and overly attached to using fiber technology. "New legislation looks to address those complaints," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "The legislation would amend the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and loosen several requirements."

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, "introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment for BEAD Act, known as the SPEED for BEAD Act," Teale explains. The bill "would clarify that any technology, including satellite internet, can be used to help close the digital divide, and would eliminate what Hudson called 'burdensome' regulations."

While several trade groups "expressed their support for the bill. . . . not [everyone is] convinced that changing BEAD at this stage is the right course of action," Teale reports. "With every state and territory having had their deployment plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and several states ready to distribute grant funding and deploy infrastructure, some warned that a change now could delay the program further."

Others insist that spending federal dollars on satellite internet will enrich satellite owners while providing only sub-standard internet access. When Evan Feinman, who had directed BEAD for the past three years, quit, he sent "a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband," reports John Hendel of Politico.

Feinman’s "lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform BEAD," Hendel writes. Feinman warned, "'Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.'"

California's superblooms can be seen from space

Wildflowers between highways (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via Los Angeles Times)

Image from Washington Post collection of satellite photos from
Planet Labs PBC notes one species of wildflowers; the purple
flowers are Great Valley phacella (Phacella ciliata). 

In a galaxy, not far away, comes something epic: superblooms! Nature's flower power has come to California and the world via space photos, reports Terry Castleman of the Los Angeles Times. "New satellite photos from Maxar show hillsides across the state adorned with flowers . . . The variety of colors is astonishing."

The last superbloom was in 2019. It takes a unique series of conditions, beginning with dormant seeds tucked away in the soil, report Allyson Chiu and Naema Ahmed of The Washington Post: "Naomi Fraga, director of conservation programs at the California Botanic Garden, told the Post that . . . the flowers are waiting for 'just the right conditions' to start their life cycle. California's impressive floral showing is most likely connected to the massive amounts of precipitation that drenched much of the state in recent months."

Fraga told the Post, "They're winter annuals; they respond to winter rain. . . . When the seed bank in the soil experiences this sort of range of temperatures and precipitation across time, then that can stimulate several different species to germinate." Chiu and Ahmed explain, "Before the heavy rains and snowfall that pummeled the state . . . California had experienced three of its driest years on record. The drought could have reduced the number of invasive grass seed on the landscape and helped improve the chances for native plants to capitalize on the heavy rains and thrive."

"Superbloom" is not a scientific term, but is "a wonderful natural phenomenon where many annual wildflowers all bloom simultaneously," Fraga said. "You have a great diversity, an abundance of many different wildflower species, all flowering, creating bright patches of color on the landscape where they become the dominant feature. . . . [the blooms] are an ephemeral phenomenon." 

"If people aren't mindful when they visit these flower patches, experts say, there will probably be consequences," the Post reports. Walking through blooms could trample the flowers before they produce seeds. High foot traffic could also compact the soil, making it more difficult for flowers to grow in that area." If you're in California to experience the super bloom, there's a solution to "not squishing flowers" and possibly snuffing out their ability to seed and reproduce. Go by zipline, suggests Jeanette Marantos of the Times: "At $90 to $160 a person — depending on the length of the ride — the experience is more expensive than parking your car and wading through flowers, but it's also much kinder to these fragile native plants." Fraga pointed out to the Post, "It's not just for our enjoyment or the display. It's life happening. . . . For that life cycle to continue, we need to know that this flower isn't the end goal. The end goal is the seed."

Starlink's satellite-based service can't reach enough people to close the rural broadband gap much, consultant says

Elon Musk's Starlink may seem like a promising solution to rural broadband woes—after all, a satellite requires no "last mile" cable installation—but its technical limitations mean it's unlikely to be a universal solution, telecommunications consultant Tim Fararr writes for Fierce Wireless.

One of the biggest challenges: Starlink relies on an unobstructed signal to reach households, but the satellites are positioned so low in the sky that trees, mountains, or even other buildings are far more likely to block the signal for at least part of the day, Farrar writes.

That's particularly problematic "because this satellite is not simply in one fixed direction, where trimming of a tree or relocation of the antenna to a different spot on the roof may be able to solve the problem," Farrar writes. "Instead the serving satellite will sometimes be to the north, and at other times it may be on the west or east side of a customer’s home. In these circumstances there may be no unobstructed site for the antenna on the customer’s property."

Overall, while Starlink is "an admirable first attempt" to bring rural Americans broadband through satellites, "it cannot and will not become the only option for satellite broadband in the U.S. or around the world, because in many areas at least some potential customers will be unable to access Starlink, due to capacity limitations and/or the difficulty of securing a reliable line-of-sight to the constellation," Farrar writes.

Federal Reserve: Electric co-ops, wireless systems and partnerships most promising ways to better rural broadband

Broadband access is transformative, but rural areas still lag because they're more costly to serve. It's worth it, though, according to a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

"The economic case for rural broadband infrastructure, though, is compelling despite its cost: Broadband access and adoption in rural areas is linked to increased job and population growth, higher rates of new business formation and home values, and lower unemployment rates," Alexander Marré reports. "Unlike with many other types of infrastructure, the long-run benefits of broadband access could grow exponentially, given the potential for innovation and productivity gains it provides."

Electric cooperatives, fixed satellite and wireless providers, and public-private partnerships are the most promising avenues for building out quality broadband in rural America, according to the report. But each approach has its pitfalls. Some states bar co-ops from providing broadband, and legal issues can make it tricky for co-ops to operate outside their service areass. Satellite and wireless don't require expensive house-to-house fiber installation, but can be slower and more expensive. Public-private partnerships are useful where there is no interested provider, but it can be challenging to build the right partnership with effective, interested parties. 

Connecting all of rural America to broadband will cost at least $85.6 billion, but current federal funding is about $30 billion, Marré reports. The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is the largest source of funding, at $20.4 billion over 10 years. However, the RDOF has been plagued with faulty data maps that can waste money. The FCC also provides $4.9 billion through its Alternative Connect America Fund. The second-largest source of departmental funding is through the Agriculture Department's eConnectivity Pilot Program, or ReConnect Program, which provides loans, grants, and loan/grant combos to broadband service providers. ReConnect has distributed more than $1.3 billion; all told, USDA funds about $2.3 billion for broadband buildout through ReConnect and other Rural Utilities Service programs. Other major sources of funding include state spending (less than $2 billion in 2018-2019) and the CARES Act, which allocated about $600 million to broadband funding projects.

The report notes that the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the necessity of broadband for all, and recommends increasing federal subsidies to help close the rural gap.