Elected officials at both the local and federal levels of government are working together to review recent federal revisions that would drastically reduce the availability of reliable internet access for rural Nebraskans.

As was reported earlier this month on NCN, a June change in priority delivered down to the states from a federal agency means that more than half of the areas in Nebraska that had previously been identified as eligible for new, fiber-based, high-speed internet access aren't eligible for that service anymore.

Now, elected officials in Southeast Nebraska and beyond have been in contact with U.S. Senator Deb Fischer to ensure she knows the impacts this federal decision is likely to have on local citizens who are finding that access to reliable internet is becoming an increasingly more essential aspect of daily life.

Mark Schoenrock, chair of the Jefferson County Commissioners and a member of the Nebraska Association of County Officials board, said he spoke with a member of Fischer's staff for nearly an hour last week, discussing the impacts last month's changes at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are likely to have on rural Nebraskans.

"She’s been in contact with all the key players to understand the implications of the changes in those definitions from NTIA, and she is going to be contacting NTIA to see if we can take another look at these changes," Schoenrock said. "We have to have somebody in the federal delegation to be our voice, to have them speak directly with the Department of Commerce, the NTIA. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get anything modified or revised, but we’re making that attempt, because, as you know, it has some pretty far-reaching adjustments to what our original plan was under the BEAD program."

“In today’s modern world, Senator Fischer understands that access to strong, reliable Internet is essential—especially in Nebraska’s rural areas," a spokesperson for Sen. Fischer's office said when asked for comment. "Our office will continue to stay in close contact with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to ensure Nebraska retains as much decision-making authority as possible in the agency’s evaluation of our subgrantee selection.”

On June 6, the NTIA, part of the Department of Commerce, released its BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice, which "completely upended" the Broadband Equity and Access Deployment program, which provided $405 million to help the state of Nebraska implement fiber internet solutions across the state.  

Now, NTIA has adjusted its eligibility criteria, meaning areas with access to the unlicensed fixed wireless coverage will now be considered "served" and not eligible for the BEAD program and potential fiber or other options - in other words, those places will be considered as if they already have access to reliable internet, which is not always the case. 

"We’re all about trying to be fiscally prudent and save money with cuts – there’s probably a lot of places that deserve to be cut – but this is definitely not one of them," Schoenrock said. "Yeah, we’re going to save money up front with that change of definitions to put satellite and wireless on the same par as the fiber-optic cable, but we both know that’s not the same thing. And we’re trying to communicate that message back up to NTIA, and we’ll see where this goes."

Why does potential access to fiber-based internet solutions matter in the first place? What makes those solutions potentially better than wireless or other existing options? To use the industry's term of choice, fiber options are scalable: existing options often can provide the minimum required internet speeds, but fiber options can be upgraded to keep pace with future advances to internet technology.

"Fiber is the best option in terms of scalability, it can really easily meet these future needs. Wireless will have its place, but really what are lot of people are concerned that the BEAD program is going to do is funnel billions to some of these satellite companies and just declare ‘mission accomplished.’ But we’re on the ground, we know that’s not going to be true," said Oliver Borchers-Williams, SENDD's Director of Broadband Development, at a status update with the Jefferson County commissioners in July. 

"[Wireless] technology has its inherent limitations. It’s good for certain places, if you don’t have any other options, but fiber is always going to be your best option if you can," said Brad Eisenhauer, one of Jefferson County's I.T. directors.

Bringing together people from SENDD, NACO, the Nebraska Broadband Office and other members of county government to synergize with Fischer on this subject, Schoenrock said he's confident the senator has heard enough from local officials for her to be able to send a "strong and accurate message" for the NTIA and the Department of Commerce to consider.

"This is very much a ground-level, up the chain effort, so that our federal delegation understands the impacts of this on rural Nebraska and to rural counties," he said. "We’ll see if we get any changes from it or not, but the important thing is we’re putting in the work here to get them to look at it, and our citizens need to know the effort that is going on to get this back as we can."

NCN has reached out to some other players at the local level who have been working to inform Senator Fischer and others at the national level on this issue. This story will be updated as we learn more.