The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced that, following its investigation, a major Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provider has voluntarily repaid $49.4 million that it improperly claimed between June 2021 and July 2022. The provider disclosed its improper claims and repaid the monies after OIG sent the provider a warning letter and requested that the provider explain its claims data which indicated noncompliance with program usage requirements. Ninety percent (or $44.5 million) of the improper claims disclosed by the provider were related to low-income households that were not using the service as required by FCC program rules. In total, the provider repaid approximately one-third of the program disbursements it received for providing ACP service between June 2021 and July 2022. Further, as a result of this recovery and additional work, the FCC OIG issued an accompanying advisory to describe its concern that program data indicates dozens of other ACP providers are likely not complying with FCC usage and related de-enrollments rules. OIG encourages all ACP providers to examine their usage monitoring procedures, fully disclose any deficiencies to the FCC and our office and promptly repay any improperly claimed funds. Otherwise, OIG will target suspected offenders for investigation and appropriate legal sanctions, including criminal prosecution.

The goal of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Digital Equity Plan is to establish a roadmap that ensures everyone, regardless of their background or community, has access to the necessary technological resources to fully engage in our society, democracy, and economy. The Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet’s (ELC) Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has made the state's draft plan available to the public for feedback until October 15, 2023. Detailed in the draft plan are Kentucky's plans to realize its vision of digital equity.

Charter Communications won close to $16 million in funding to cover some of the costs of making broadband available in seven North Carolina counties. The funding was part of a total of $22 million awarded through the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program. The awards were made by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT). According to the agency, the funding awarded in this round will connect 6,012 households and 164 businesses. Funding recipients must provide service at speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, scalable to 100/100 Mbps. Projects must be completed by Dec. 31, 2026. Seven other companies won CAB funding in this round, but no other company won funding for more than one county. In Haywood County, Charter won $1.25 million in funding, which it will supplement with additional funding of nearly $500,000. In Robeson County, the company won $4 million and will contribute $2.1 million.

Preventing and mitigating any adverse health effects from use of online platforms on minors, while preserving benefits such platforms have on minors’ health and well-being, are critical priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration. On behalf of the Department of Commerce and in conjunction with the other members of the United States government’s Task Force on Kids Online Health & Safety, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) seeks broad input and feedback from stakeholders on current and emerging risks of health (including mental health), safety, and privacy harms to minors arising from use of online platforms. This request also seeks information about potential health, safety and privacy benefits stemming from minors’ use of online platforms. Finally, we seek input on current and future industry efforts to mitigate harms and promote the health, safety and well-being of minors who access these online platforms. The data gathered through this process will be used to inform the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to advance the health, safety, and privacy of minors.

Asked about net neutrality, Verizon Business CEO Kyle Malady said the Federal Communications Commission has flipped back and forth on the issue over the years. In his view net neutrality wasn’t needed before it was instituted, it wasn’t missed after it was revoked, and it still isn’t needed. When asked if net neutrality would have any impact on the prospects for "network slicing"—when carriers hope to make money selling end-to-end slices of their mobile networks to enterprises for specific use cases—Malady said net neutrality rules mainly apply to the internet, and Verizon’s mobile voice and short message services (SMS) would not be governed by net neutrality. And he doesn’t think network slicing would fall under any new net neutrality regulations. Additionally, the whole topic of network slicing is not that urgent for Verizon at this time, anyway, because network slicing requires a standalone (SA) 5G network, and Verizon doesn't have a full 5G SA network yet.