Great posting. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I do wonder whether the private sector will step up with required matches in higher-cost areas. I also wonder whether inflation, labor, and supply chain issues will further push up costs. From your post, it generally sounds like good news for unserved communities and to a large extent underserved communities. I do wonder how much will be left over for broadband adoption programs, which is often a harder nut to crack. Also, just curious, what happened to Puerto Rico?
Thanks for commenting. The private capital matches is definitely one of the critical questions. In RDOF private capital was willing to put up 90% for fiber builds in a bunch of cases. I think states would be wise to try to find some of that competitiveness between providers in this program.
Re PR: my latest read between statute and NOFO is that PR gets its own $100M but is not included as a % of total unserved. Could be wrong about that.
Thanks for the quick response. On the private capital point, my chief concern is that raising 25% or 30% of $6,000 per household is very different from raising 25% or 30% of $16,000 per household. I can see the private sector doing the former, but I have a hard time seeing private investors doing the latter. Investors are going to be much more cautious than they were during the RDOF craze. We've all learned a lot from that experience.
Great posting. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I do wonder whether the private sector will step up with required matches in higher-cost areas. I also wonder whether inflation, labor, and supply chain issues will further push up costs. From your post, it generally sounds like good news for unserved communities and to a large extent underserved communities. I do wonder how much will be left over for broadband adoption programs, which is often a harder nut to crack. Also, just curious, what happened to Puerto Rico?
Thanks for commenting. The private capital matches is definitely one of the critical questions. In RDOF private capital was willing to put up 90% for fiber builds in a bunch of cases. I think states would be wise to try to find some of that competitiveness between providers in this program.
Re PR: my latest read between statute and NOFO is that PR gets its own $100M but is not included as a % of total unserved. Could be wrong about that.
Thanks for the quick response. On the private capital point, my chief concern is that raising 25% or 30% of $6,000 per household is very different from raising 25% or 30% of $16,000 per household. I can see the private sector doing the former, but I have a hard time seeing private investors doing the latter. Investors are going to be much more cautious than they were during the RDOF craze. We've all learned a lot from that experience.