By Kelcee Griffis

Law360 (May 18, 2021, 4:47 PM EDT) -- Congress should capitalize on momentum gained during the pandemic to make permanent an emergency program that subsidizes at-home broadband, members of a House Appropriations subcommittee heard Tuesday.

During a Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing, titled "The Need for Universal Broadband: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic," rural broadband executive Lang Zimmerman testified that an overwhelming interest in the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Broadband Benefit proves that Americans have long-term connectivity needs that aren't being met.

"I understand that the website for people to try to sign up for the EBB has crashed because of demand," said Zimmerman, vice president of Arkansas-based telecom provider Yelcot. "There's obviously a demand for it. What we need to do is learn from that."

The Emergency Broadband Benefit, a $3.2 billion program directly funded by Congress that launched last week, will dole out $50 monthly internet subsidies to families hard hit by the pandemic until the funds run out. The FCC did not immediately confirm the website crash.

Joi Chaney, executive director of the National Urban League's Washington bureau, agreed Tuesday that lawmakers should extend the template for an emergency broadband program beyond the pandemic.

"We need some kind of long-term broadband benefit," she said.

If Congress can't implement a stand-alone program that follows the EBB's contours, she suggested that tweaks to the FCC's Lifeline benefit could suffice. The Lifeline program subsidizes roughly $10 monthly voice plans that can also cover mobile internet services for low-income households. Those plans could be adjusted to better support mobile broadband uses such as remote work, distance learning and telehealth, according to Chaney.

As the Biden administration and Congress sort out the contents of a forthcoming infrastructure plan, Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said that a Democratic strategy of funding networks provisioned by local governments raises red flags.

"I'm troubled by recent broadband funding proposals that seem to give preferences to government-owned networks. I think we see in many cases ... government-owned networks have ultimately failed," he said.

In response, Zimmerman agreed that many such government projects have "failed spectacularly." However, he suggested implementing a requirement that any government-directed broadband project must offer 100/100 mbps speeds as a safeguard.

In the long term, the current baseline for modern broadband, defined as 25 megabits per second download and 3 mbps upload, won't be sufficient for supporting high-volume data streams associated with teleworking, gaming and applications like home security systems, according to Zimmerman.

"If you guys could make sure government plans require 100/100 minimum for [project] bids, it will direct more of the money to a fiber-based system that is what we call future-proofed," he said.

Contrary to Stewart's reservations, the Center on Rural Innovation's Matt Dunne suggested that the next tranche of federal broadband money should be predicated on states adopting laws that allow public-private partnerships, including with municipalities and electric cooperatives.

According to internet coverage tracker BroadbandNow, 18 states have restrictions in place that "make establishing community broadband prohibitively difficult." But that tide might be changing: In the first quarter of 2021 alone, five states considered measures to roll back municipal broadband restrictions, according to the tracker.

"It seems crazy that there would be actual state laws preventing the same entities that allowed electricity to come to rural places, to prevent the electricity of our time," Dunne said.

While municipal broadband might not be a workable solution for every community, the National Urban League's Chaney said lawmakers should focus on giving communities as many tools as possible to expand connectivity.

"In some places, it works for there to be municipal governments who are in on creating a system, and in some places it would not work, and it would be a failure. Both can happen," she said. "We want to make sure we don't have any bars to doing any of it. Ultimately, we want what works in order to get people broadband."

--Editing by Bruce Goldman.

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