Analysis

The Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Association of Business, and the Longview Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over the Commission’s recent rulemaking that gives itself sweeping authority over the broadband marketplace.

By now, everybody has written about the pending end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The White House asked Congress to fund the ACP for a year for over $6 billion, and almost everyone I know is betting against a miracle from Congress. But even if the ACP gets funded somehow, how sustainable is the ACP if Congress has to act every year to renew it? There have been calls for moving the ACP under the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund (USF).

Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are often the first point of contact for underserved populations seeking access to care.

Based on conversations I've had with some of my peers, I have to ask: will fixed wireless access (FWA) peak soon? Every person I've asked has dismissed FWA wireless as a temporary technology with no real long-term legs. My peers say that FWA is already oversubscribed, cell towers aren't designed to handle all-day broadband connections, and that the service is just not good enough. Interestingly, the numbers seem to be telling a different story: T-Mobile and Verizon predict they will collectively reach 15 million FWA customers.

Cartesian and ACA Connects released the 4th version of their estimate for how far the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) money will go, finding that we can reach “at least 71 percent of eligible locations” with fiber with the estimated $61 billion is available (BEAD + provider matching) to reach the remaining 10.1 million unserved and underserved locations.

It’s unfortunate that this couldn’t have happened sooner, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently released a public notice seeking input on the challenge process for the Broadband Data Collection that the commission undertakes twice yearly. Broadband providers are required to report on broadband availability, and the data ultimately is used to update the National Broadband Map.

In separate conversations with the leaders of two internet service providers, both mentioned that the wind down of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is at the top of their things-that-keep-me-up-at-night list. Despite the stereotypical caricature of CEOs, these leaders were sincerely concerned and grappling with how to tell customers. This got me thinking about the true cost and fall out from the termination of the ACP.

The Arizona Commerce Authority's draft Digital Equity Plan, released in January 2024, represents the culmination of a year-long, statewide collaborative effort, marked by attentive listening to the voices and feedback of communities across the state.

Illinois is home to over 12.7 million individuals in approximately 4.9 million families who speak over 20 languages. These families live in 102 counties that range from the dense urban areas found in Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties to the rural areas in Pope and Stark counties; from Illinois’ manufacturing centers like the Quad Cities, Rockford, and Greater Peoria regions to the farmlands of Gallatin, White, and Sangamon counties. Common to all of these communities and geographies is the way they stay connected to each other and to the broader global community; how they access healthcare, e

I work with a lot of internet service providers that own rural fiber. Some owners have been successful in providing fiber to the cell sites located near their networks.  A few sell directly to a cellular carrier, but most of these connections are sold to an intermediate carrier that bundles together cellular connections across a large geographic area. This has been good business, but now I’m hearing about requests from cellular companies or intermediate carriers to increase bandwidth at cell sites.