In November 2021, President Joe Biden (D) signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law. Among many other provisions, the law established the Broadband Equity, Adoption, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the federal government’s most ambitious investment in high-speed, affordable internet to date. Congress established the BEAD Program to address the persistent digital divide in the United States and outlined three associated priorities for use of the funds: building infrastructure, developing broadband action plans, and supporting programs to promote user adoption of new networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) clarified in its June 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity that BEAD spending should prioritize: “[F]iber connectivity directly to the end user;” “Unserved” locations—those without access to 25-megabit-per-second (Mbps) download service and 3-Mbps uploads, commonly expressed as 25/3-Mbps service; and “[P]roposals that improve affordability to ensure that networks built using taxpayer dollars are accessible to all Americans.

The NTIA is responsible for overseeing the distribution of funding to “eligible entities,” which are the 50 US states and all US territories, and it has established five minimum requirements for all BEAD-funded projects. They must:

• Deliver internet service that is not subject to data caps and has reliable speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps and low enough latency—the time it takes for data to travel to its destination and back along the network and which consumers experience as a delay, such as choppiness and buffering—to support real-time applications such as videoconferencing.
• Build and operate networks with average combined outages that do not exceed 48 hours a year (with exceptions for natural disasters).
• Provide broadband service to end users within four years of receipt of funds, carry out public awareness campaigns, and make connections available to any customer within the service area covered by the funding award.
• Develop cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans to ensure that critical infrastructure is protected from threats such as hacking.
• Participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a $30-a-month discount to eligible households ($75 a month for households on Tribal lands), and offer at least one low-cost broadband service option.

As part of his $45 billion Rebuild Illinois investment strategy, Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) launched a statewide initiative, Connect Illinois, in August 2019 to expand broadband access across the entire state. Connect Illinois includes a capital investment from Rebuild Illinois, the creation of a Broadband Advisory Council and Broadband Office, and a new program that will provide all Illinois public K-12 students access to high-speed broadband at no charge. The initiative also includes a $400 million broadband grant program and a $20 million capital program for the Illinois Century Network, a high-speed broadband network serving K-12 and higher education institutions, among others. Governor Pritzker also set the goals that by 2024, Illinois homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions throughout the state should have access to basic service of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload (25/3 Mbps), and that by 2028, all should have access to at least one provider offering 100/20 Mbps service.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will require both cargo and passenger airplanes in the US to install 5G C-band tolerant radio altimeters, or an approved radio frequency (RF) filter, by February 24, 2024. The FAA said that this latest directive is an update to the FAA’s December 2021 requirement that prohibited passenger and cargo planes from operating in the vicinity of 5G C-band wireless transmitters unless they were approved by the FAA. To give the airlines more time to upgrade their altimeters and to allow normal flight operations to continue, Verizon and AT&T responded to the FAA’s December 2021 directive by voluntarily modifying their 5G C-band deployments. Both companies agreed to use lower power transmitters and incorporate buffer zones around airports. The FAA said that airlines are making progress at retrofitting their airplanes to accommodate the 5G C-band transmissions, but added that this longer-term solution makes the retrofits mandatory. In addition, the FAA is requiring airlines to revise their flight manuals to prohibit low-visibility landings after June 30, 2023, unless the retrofits have been completed on that airplane. AT&T and Verizon implemented 5G buffer zones around certain airport runways and also limited their 5G C-band power levels around airports; meaning the directive likely comes as a welcome relief.

The Justice Department reached a key milestone in its settlement agreement with Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, requiring Meta to change its advertisement delivery system to prevent discriminatory advertising in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). As required by the settlement entered on June 27, 2022, resolving a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Meta has now built a new system to address algorithmic discrimination. The parties informed the court that they have reached agreement on the system’s compliance targets. This development ensures that Meta will be subject to court oversight and regular review of its compliance with the settlement through June 27, 2026. Meta developed the Variance Reduction System (VRS) to reduce the variances between the eligible audiences and the actual audiences. The United States has concluded that the new system will substantially reduce the variances between the eligible and actual audiences along sex and estimated race/ethnicity in the delivery of housing advertisements. The VRS will operate on all housing advertisements across Meta platforms, and the agreement requires Meta to meet certain compliance metrics in stages. For example, by Dec. 31, for the vast majority of housing advertisements on Meta platforms, Meta will reduce variances to less than or equal to 10% for 91.7% of those advertisements for sex and less than or equal to 10% for 81.0% of those advertisements for estimated race/ethnicity. For more information on the operation of the VRS, read Meta’s technical paper. The Justice Department and Meta have also selected an independent, third-party reviewer, Guidehouse, to investigate and verify on an ongoing basis whether the VRS is meeting the compliance metrics agreed to by the parties. Under the agreement, Meta must provide Guidehouse and the United States with regular compliance reports and make available any information necessary to verify compliance with the agreed-upon metrics. The court will have ultimate authority to resolve any disputes over the information that Meta must provide. Finally, as also required by the settlement agreement, Meta has ceased delivering housing advertisements using the Special Ad Audience tool (which delivered advertisements to users who “look like” other users), and Meta will not provide any targeting options for housing advertisers that directly describe or relate to FHA-protected characteristics.

JAB Broadband, also known as Rise Broadband, is a fixed wireless provider with a geographical footprint that reaches about 5.4% of the US population. JAB is one of just 11 US broadband providers that   cover 5% or more of the population. Its presence on the list underscores the importance of fixed wireless beyond the metro areas, which are the primary markets for Verizon and T-Mobile. Many of the nation's 2,201 fixed broadband providers are small fixed wireless providers, some serving just a handful of customers. But JAB/Rise has been acting as a consolidator in that market.

More than 20 million businesses have a landline phone as their main business number. Three-quarters of people over the age of 75 rely on a landline phone. And one-third of US households have a landline phone. As providers begin to decommission copper networks, startup Community Phone sees an opportunity to cash in by serving people who would prefer not to make any big changes. The company’s goal, Community Phone CEO and Founder James Graham said, is to “make it as easy as possible to let humans reach other humans.” The offering works over a cellular connection but works with an existing landline phone and doesn’t require internet connectivity. The company has agreements with multiple cellular providers and can provide service even in rural areas where people may think cellular doesn’t work, thanks to the company’s antenna design and because service isn’t mobile.