The Federal Communications Commission committed nearly $5.2 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. The funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 14,000 students nationwide, including students in California, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. The funding commitment will support approximately 23 schools and school districts. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, and summer online learning programs to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education.

I would wager that most of the supposed Affordable Connectivity Program fraud is coming from cellular carriers. My suggestion is that we stop using ACP to subsidize cellular service. The underlying concept of ACP is to get better broadband to folks, and I don’t care how you try to justify it—cell phone data is not a substitute for home broadband. Many people claim that they only use their cellphone as a broadband connection, but if they are more than a casual broadband user, they are probably getting most of their broadband through WiFi connections on somebody else’s broadband connection. ACP should be used to subsidize home broadband. 

Virginia became the second state in the nation to begin its Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program challenge process, kicking off the process one week after approval of its plan by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Virginia’s challenge process is being carried out through a partnership with Virginia Tech Center for Geospatial Information Technology—to provide the challenge process portal—and Ready, which is supporting Virginia’s challenge effort with its public map and speed test portal. Virginia has identified 134,221 unserved and 27,806 underserved locations that are eligible for BEAD funding. Virginia adopted the NTIA’s model challenge process, a template the agency put together for states to expedite the proposal approval process. The process is slated to last 90 days, ending in Virginia on January 30, 2024. The state will be accepting challenges for the first 30 days, until November 30, followed by rebuttal and adjudication phases of the same length.

In “Digital and Equity and Justice in Maryland: Challenges and Opportunities” recently published by Economic Action Maryland, I present findings from a qualitative study that sought to answer the following research question: What is the landscape of issues related to universal broadband access, digital equity, and related community standards in Baltimore City and across the state of Maryland? My hope was that the findings would be useful for residents, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in advancing broadband access and digital equity across Maryland. The findings in the report are drawn from the analysis of qualitative data gathered during five focus group sessions with a total of 61 participants in Baltimore City and across the state. In addition, interviews were conducted with 24 experts in Maryland and across the nation to gain their insights for the research. Based on this analysis of the conversations with the 85 total participants in this project between January and June 2023, the following key findings emerged as significant digital equity challenges and opportunities for Maryland.

[Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is the Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. He is also a Research Fellow with the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University and Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Community Informatics.]

Ting Internet, a division of Tucows, has been selected to provide fiber internet service to Memphis residents, businesses, and institutions in partnership with Blue Suede Networks. Ting and Blue Suede Networks created a partnership with financially sustainable goals for both parties. The expansion into Memphis enables Ting to bring its expertise to a largely under-served fiber market. Ting expects service to be available to the first wave of Memphians by Q3 2024. Memphians will be able to subscribe to Ting’s 2-gigabit symmetrical internet plan for $89 per month, and qualifying low-income residents will be offered the same service at no cost once ACP is applied. Ting is proud to provide the fastest ACP offering in the country, rooted in Ting’s belief that all Americans should have access to the best internet possible. Working with Blue Suede Networks and the City of Memphis, Ting plans to establish a digital equity program that encourages broadband adoption, connects residents to affordable devices, and offers digital skills training. Blue Suede Networks is a Memphis-based Fiber-To-The-Premises network developer that aspires to serve every Memphis resident, business, and institution with a high-speed fiber broadband network. The company’s fiber network will pass at least 85% of Memphis premises including 85% of the City’s low-income premises.  Blue Suede Networks is partnering with The City of Memphis, Ting, United Way of the Mid-South, The Works, Tech 901 and ER2 to maximize eligible low-income households in federal broadband benefits; create access to tablets and laptops; deliver computer and digital literacy training; and offer specialized technical support.

Lumen Technologies reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. The company reported a loss of $78 million on $578 million of net income. The company is laying off four percent of its employees. Lumen also struck a deal with a group of creditors holding more than $7 billion of company debt that will extend debt securities and commit $1.2 billion of financing through new long-term debt. Lumen also dialed back the pace of the ongoing fiber buildout at its Mass Markets unit. The new plan is to build fiber to another 500,000 locations in 2024, matching what it expects to complete in 2023. That's down from an earlier plan to bump the buildout pace to 800,000 locations annually. That whole project ties into an original plan to build fiber to an additional 5 million to 7 million locations in the coming years and expand Lumen's overall fiber footprint. Lumen added 141,000 fiber "enablements" in Q3 2023, extending its total to 3.5 million locations. The company added 19,000 fiber subscribers in Q3, below the +27,000 expected by MoffettNathanson. Paired with a loss of -92,000 non-fiber subscriptions, Lumen shed 73,000 broadband customers in the quarter.