Reporting

The state of Mississippi is asking AT&T to provide records of the work it promised to do to expand broadband access in the state after the Public Service Commission gave the company almost $300 million, officials said. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has signed an investigative subpoena for records from AT&T related to the company’s claim to have made internet service available to 133,000 locations in the state through the Connect America Fund, a federal program for expanded broadband in rural areas of the US.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has "exacerbated existing disparities" related to high-speed internet access in Texas, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked Gov. Greg Abbott to develop a plan to expand broadband access in the state. “Texas is well overdue for a state broadband plan, and we believe the state needs to begin the process of creating one immediately,” the 88 lawmakers wrote in a letter to Abbott’s office. They said the need can't wait until the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature.

Tractor Supply Co. is working to bring more high-speed internet access to rural areas — a move that promises to encourage more consumers to download its mobile app. The retailer said that it will join the American Connection Project Broadband Coalition (ACPBC) to leverage its resources to help bridge the rural digital divide. Through the Tractor Supply Co.

Verizon agreed to buy TracFone, a provider of wireless prepaid services, in a deal worth up to $7 billion in cash and stock, further consolidating the US cellular market. TracFone, a unit of Mexico’s América Móvil SAB, has about 21 million prepaid customers in the US under its namesake brand as well as StraightTalk and Net10. The company doesn’t run its own physical network in the US and instead rides on other cellphone carriers’ systems for a fee and then resells service under its own brands.

Much of southern West Virginia had already been struggling with a drug epidemic and persistent poverty before the coronavirus pandemic took hold here. Now, as students return to school online, the region is coming up against another longstanding challenge: a lack of broadband internet access. Providing service in sparsely populated areas is typically more costly and less profitable than in suburbs and cities. In Appalachia, the terrain has made it difficult to install and maintain the infrastructure necessary for broadband.

Lack of good broadband access is a strong predictor of childhood poverty. That’s the finding of Broadband Communities’ recent analysis combining county-level broadband data it has collected since 2010 with comprehensive, county-level poverty data compiled by the nonprofit organization Save the Children. We looked at overall poverty rankings, and, with sensitivities heightened because of the current need for distance learning, we also analyzed high school graduation patterns.

As students across the country start school, education experts reckon with the long-term implications of remote learning, vanishing resources, and heightened inequality.

After wildfires consumed an entire town, students and teachers who had planned for remote classes found some comfort in staying connected amid the chaos.

Ensuring all US households have high-speed internet will help provide similar education opportunities to students at different income levels, particularly during the pandemic, Democrats said. “Education justice involves giving everybody the same access to information,” said Rep. Donna Shalala (D-FL).

Joe Biden may or may not have a short list of people he'd nominate to chair the Federal Communications Commission, but the rest of Washington does. Tech lobbyists, tech activists, and current and former FCC officials have all begun speculating about who Biden would choose if he wins.