After Federal Changes, Wisconsin Plans Again for Broadband Expansion

Laptop. (CC0 Public Domain)

Two and half years of work were in the books. Preliminary awards were made. Then last month, the federal government announced changes to a $42 billion Biden-era broadband expansion program.

“It’s been a very busy month,” said state Broadband and Digital Equity Director Alyssa Kenney, who administers the program in Wisconsin for the Public Service Commission.

Signed into law in 2021, the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, also known as BEAD, sent about $1 billion to Wisconsin. It aimed to connect every American household and business to high-speed internet using fiber-optic cables.

In Wisconsin, that means connecting about the last 8.9 percent of the state’s homes and businesses, according to a state document. Unconnected locations are concentrated in northern, central and southwest Wisconsin.

Kenney’s office divided the state into units of under-served households and fielded bids from internet companies for each one. It made hundreds of preliminary awards.

On June 6, the government ordered states to revoke those awards and redo the application process under new rules it said would connect households more quickly and cost-effectively.

Now, states must be neutral between bids for fiber-optic, wireless or satellite internet.

“Removing the preference for a single technology will bring the full force of the competitive marketplace to bear and allow American taxpayers to obtain the greatest return on their investment,” the government’s press release said.

States must choose “the combination of project proposals with the lowest overall cost.” Since projects can be interconnected, Kenney said, that doesn’t necessarily mean choosing the cheapest project in every location.

Several labor, local input and low-income affordability requirements for bids were also eliminated.

To factor in local input, projects that were endorsed by their local governments got a scoring bump. Kenney called its elimination the “biggest loss” under the new rules.

“We really find that when local government and people on the ground get involved, projects are stronger,” she said.

The federal announcement gave states 90 days to redo the process and select winning proposals.

“We were kind of asked to do two years of work in 90 days,” Kenney said.

But she said her office managed. She expressed optimism about the program’s future and said she expects most providers will re-apply.

“I think we’ll have more applications, and hopefully that’ll get the state the bargain the federal government is hoping [for],” she said.

“This will still bring great broadband to lots of residents in Wisconsin who need it,” Kenney said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick previewed possible changes to the program in March. Like many federal programs, Congress funded and created BEAD, with the executive branch later specifying its rules. New changes target those rules, not the initial law.

County officials, internet companies weigh in on fiber vs. wireless

At least two local officials believe the program’s addition of satellite and wireless internet — which is often cheaper than fiber-optic — could hamper its goals in their counties.

Jen Schmitz works on farms and staffs a flood recovery nonprofit. She also chairs the Monroe County Board of Supervisor’s Broadband Special Committee.

She said cell towers and satellite internet have had a spotty track record in certain parts of Monroe County, including at her house.

“It’s in the ridges and valleys, it’s in a very narrow part of the valley. And especially when the trees have leaves on them, the cellular service gets very, very patchy,” she said.

Further north, in Oneida County, BEAD was meant to pay for the final hookups in a $28 million fiber-optic internet project launched in 2023, said Tony Pharo, who directs the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation.

Now, he thinks local geography will make digging cables the more costly option under BEAD.

“We have all these lakes, we have swamps and we have a lot of rocks,” he said.

But he said wireless could be a problem in his county — home to Minocqua and Rhinelander — where towers for a small year-round population could get overloaded by throngs of summer tourists.

Kenney said she understands concerns about wireless and satellite internet. But she said, if done right, modern wireless technology can be as reliable as fiber-optic.

Some Wisconsin providers still use older wireless equipment, she said. But others, she said, are investing in signals that can get through leafy trees and buildings.

But she echoed Pharo, pointing out that large traffic increases, like from a business moving to town, can strain wireless towers.

For Wisconsin internet company Bug Tussel, the revocation of preliminary awards — which Bug Tussel had more than a dozen of — made the company “scratch our head a little bit,” said Executive Director of Public Affairs Scott Feldt.

But he said it’s also an opportunity for the company, which does fiber-optic and wireless.

“We now have to go back and take a look at how we want to strategize applying under the new rules,” he said.

“There may be additional opportunities that we could do from a fixed wireless presence,” he continued.

The main consideration for his company, he said, is weighing new opportunities against their financial and staffing capacity.

“We don’t want our eyes to be bigger than our stomachs, like you see with kids at a buffet,” he said.

According to Kenney, the Public Service Commission is reopening applications to providers this week.

Listen to the WPR report

After federal changes, Wisconsin readies for second broadband expansion go-round was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.