Reporting

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has faced consistent pressure to nominate someone at the Federal Communications Commission to either fill out the five-person agency or become the permanent chair. But despite that push from advocacy groups and more than 100,000 people online, they have watched as President Biden has nominated people to other federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), leaving the FCC without the ability to tackle issues tha

Charter Communications employees who have been on strike since 2017 are building an Internet service provider in New York City called "People's Choice." "People's Choice Communications is an employee-owned social enterprise launched by members of IBEW Local #3 to bridge the digital divide and help our neighbors get connected to the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic," the ISP's website says. "We are the workers who built a large part of New York City's Internet infrastructure in the first place.

The fastest-growing mobile-phone carriers in the US aren’t phone companies. More than five million Americans now pay for mobile-phone service through their cable-TV providers, enticed by low prices and the ability to easily adjust their phone plans, a flexibility that proved particularly useful during the pandemic.

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel revealed just how soon she hopes to set up the $7 billion subsidy program aimed at helping students get internet connections at home. Congress slated this money for the FCC as part of the pandemic relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law in march. The FCC is still “mid-course in developing” the program for doling out these subsidies, which could help put Wi-Fi hotspots and modems in the hands of students stuck at home, said Chairman Rosenworcel.

As local areas and states keep slugging away at the digital divide, time and money may separate the winners from the losers in the broadband infrastructure game. One potential way to save time and money is through a “dig-once” approach, which refers to the idea of minimizing the number and scale of excavations when installing telecommunications infrastructure in highway rights-of-way. If a dig-once policy can make so much sense, why isn’t everyone doing it? 

The newly enacted New York state budget requires nearly all internet providers to sell broadband service for $15 a month to low-income customers who qualify for food stamps, Medicaid or similar benefits. Internet providers have 60 days to start offering minimum internet speeds of 25 megabits per second for $15 a month to qualifying customers. They have the option to provide 100 Mbps service for $20. The mandated service is similar to what state regulators already require from two of the state’s largest providers, Spectrum and Optimum.

The Comprehensive Broadband Connectivity Act, originally co-sponsored in the New York state Assembly by Mike Norris (R-Lockport), tasks the state Public Service Commission to study the availability, reliability and cost of broadband services. The Public Service Commission is tasked with: identifying barriers to the delivery of internet at a census block level, which is the smallest geographical census unit; problem solving for underserved areas with available technology; and identifying providers' noncompliance with franchise agreements where local governments have complained to the commiss

President Joe Biden continued to push the notion that connecting Americans to broadband internet should be classified as infrastructure ahead of a meeting with members of Congress to negotiate the administration’s recent infrastructure and jobs plan. “I’m prepared to negotiate as to the extent of my infrastructure project as well as how we pay for it in a serious conversation about to do that,” President Biden said.

A group of leaders with direct lines to the Biden administration—including Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, former Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), and former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings—is launching a commission that will assemble a “blueprint” for a comprehensive tech policy agenda under President Biden, with a focus on soliciting input from people inside as well as outside DC. There’s still a ton we don’t know about where the Biden administration will come down on issues at the heart of the tech industry, like privacy and Section 230 reform.

The COVID crisis has highlighted both the severity of the so-called "homework gap" and the shortcomings of early remedies like mobile hotspots and even low-cost home broadband plans. Now, more than a year into the pandemic, schools and cities across the country are increasingly testing novel ways to get students connected, not just for the duration of the pandemic, but for the long term.