ACA: 100 Mbps Symmetrical Buildout Could Cost $179B

ACA Connects said it would cost the federal government $106 billion-$179 billion to fully fund buildout of “future-proof” broadband networks in all unserved areas lacking 100 Mbps symmetrical. That’s above President Joe Biden’s $100 billion request in his initial infrastructure spending proposal (see 2103310064), a pair of Democratic broadband funding bills and a scuttled $65 billion proposal from Senate Republicans. ACA said $61 billion-$118 billion would allow full buildouts in areas lacking 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. Also Thursday, AT&T CEO John Stankey told the Economic Club of Washington (see 2106100046) he doesn’t “think it’s optimally the best thing for the American taxpayer to think about putting fiber to every farmhouse in the United States when in fact, we can do it a variety of different ways with a variety of different technologies.”