On March 28, lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and US Senate reintroduced bipartian legislation to expand broadband access to rural communities. The Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act would strengthen funding mechanisms for the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF), which promotes universal access to broadband and other telecommunications services. Currently, the USF is primarily funded through landline fees, disproportionately impacting seniors, who are more likely to use landlines than other Americans. The Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act was introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R.1812) by Reps Joe Neguse (D-CA), Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), and Angie Craig (D-MN), and was introduced in the Senate (S.975) by Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Thune (R-SD), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).

Despite Minnesota being known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” it’s not short of geographical constraints when it comes to building broadband. Bree Maki, director of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development, said the state has some key deployment challenges, including weather and workforce constraints. Weather is particularly a hurdle for building fiber in the ground, as Minnesota has a limited construction season, similar to states like Alaska. Along with construction limitations, Minnesota must cope with getting its hands on “all the fiber and the supplies that go into getting access to everybody as well as the workforce it takes to in order to do the actual deployment,” Maki added. To boost the broadband workforce, she said her office strives to raise awareness of some of the more technical roles required. But one way Minnesota has “avoided mass workforce issues” is with a deliberate grant management process. “We try to break them up a couple of times a year to allow for the workforce constraints not to be as big of an issue,” she said. “Instead of doing, let’s say, one massive grant round where everybody is competing to get the contractors needed. Having these incremental grant rounds helps make the workforce a little bit more manageable throughout the season.” Minnesota’s main state funding resource is the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program, established in 2014. Thus far, the program has doled out $230 million to connect over 90,000 Minnesotans, said Maki. 

A new broadband network for Colrain, Charlemont, Heath, Leyden, and Rowe (MA) that prevents major outages and improves the resiliency of internet access will be completed by June 30, 2023. The system creates three backhauls and a 10-gigabyte circuit connection shared between the towns: one in Rowe, one in Charlemont, and one in Leyden. The project also increases redundancy to prevent internet outages caused by downed utility poles, fires, or other natural disasters. Jack Golden, broadband manager in Leyden, described the broadband as a water pipe and the backhaul as the water that runs through those pipes. Colrain received a $400,000 grant from the Community Compact Cabinet Municipal Fiber Grant program in July 2022 to pay for the new redundant broadband network. The grant was the second largest awarded from this program. Currently, all five towns have their own separate broadband networks without redundancy. The new broadband system uses a redundancy network that offers multiple lines for data and information to travel through. If one connection goes down, the network will stay intact.

Users who once believed they were contributing their time and creativity are now being asked to pay up by cash-hungry platforms. Elon Musk tweeted that beginning April 15, 2023, only tweets by verified users will show up in Twitter's default main feed of "For You" recommendations. Verification, formerly a service Twitter offered public figures, is now available only to $8-a-month subscribers. The new strategy "is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over." Musk has tried to shift more of Twitter's business towards charging for subscriptions amid advertising pullback. Other social networks have made changes to their feeds to prioritize paid traffic over organic posts, but Musk's moves are more drastic.