Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Treasury Response: The final rule maintains the interim final rule's requirement that eligible projects be designed to, upon completion, reliably meet or exceed symmetrical 100 Mbps download and upload speeds, with the interim final rule's exception for projects where it is impracticable to build to such speeds due to excessive cost, geography, or topography of the area to be served by the project. Given the build time associated with broadband infrastructure projects, these standards will enable SLFRF funds to fund lasting infrastructure that will be able to accommodate increased network demand once the network is complete,340 while providing flexibility for certain locations to meet lower speed standards where 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds are impracticable. To illustrate the accelerating need for higher upload speeds, by one measure, mean upload speeds as of October 2021 increased to 75.21 Mbps as compared to 62.11 Mbps a year earlier.341 Jurisdictions are increasingly responding to the growing demands of their communities for high speeds; for example, Illinois requires 100 Mbps symmetrical service as the construction standard for their state broadband grant programs. The 100 Mbps symmetrical standard accounts for increased pandemic internet usage and provides adequate upload speeds for individuals and businesses to accommodate interactive applications such as virtual learning and videoconferencing, while also helping ensure that funding is responsibly used to provide a true and lasting benefit for years to come. Treasury continues to encourage recipients to prioritize investments in fiber-optic infrastructure wherever feasible, as such advanced technology enables the next generation of application solutions for all communities and is capable of delivering 34° Using the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Broadband Speed Guide, a household with two telecommuters and two to three remote learners today are estimated to need 100 Mbps download to work simultaneously. See Federal Communications Commission, Broadband Speed Guide, available at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/broadband-speed-guide (last visited October 28, 2021). 341 United States' Mobile and Broadband Internet Speeds—Speedtest Global Index, available at https://www.speedtest.net/global-index/united-states#fixed. 306