Digital Divide

The House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2023 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill on June 23, 2022. The bill provides over $4.2 billion for rural development programs and invests over $560 million for the expansion of broadband service, including $450 million for the ReConnect Program. The full bill summary can be found here.

The Southern Vermont Communications Union District (CUD) says its partnership with Consolidated Communications — and investments by that company, and federal and state government — will make the goal of finally making universal high-speed internet access possible. The Southern Vermont CUD, one of several statewide, is a municipal government entity representing 14 towns in Bennington County. In 2021, it partnered with Consolidated Communications in a plan to extend high-speed broadband to unserved and underserved communities, leveraging state and federal funds.

The Federal Communications Commission is still considering using broadband labels that are supposed to explain broadband to customers. This sounds like a really good idea, but I wonder if it’s really going to be effective. Some of the items included on the FCC sample label are great. The most important fact is the price. It has become virtually impossible to find broadband prices for many internet service providers (ISPs). Many ISPs, including the largest ones, only show special pricing online that applies to new customers.

A basic human right — the ability to fully participate in modern life via affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service — remains out of reach for many. The Biden administration recently announced it had reached agreements with 20 leading internet providers, covering more than 80 percent of Americans, to provide households eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) high-speed internet plans for no more than $30 a month. But are those that can receive the benefit getting what they need to enroll?

The University of Missouri (UM) System's Digitally Connected Community Guide is a collection of tools and resources that communities can use to become digitally connected. Communities that are digitally connected have access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet service and use internet-based technologies and applications to improve the health, education, and economic opportunities for everyone in the community. The Guide uses a five-step plan, informed by an online workshop, to bring high-speed internet to unserved Missouri communities.

Governors are taking steps to advance workforce innovation, broadband access and digital skills in America’s workforce.

On the eve of this week’s rail strikes, it was reported that industry bosses are planning to phase out paper train tickets and shut almost 1,000 station ticket offices in England. The government says nothing has been decided. But the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has made no secret of his desire to see savings delivered in this way; some stations, Mr Shapps likes to point out, sell only a handful of tickets each week and the vast majority of transactions have moved online.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has begun accepting applications to the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program and has issued 88 pages of guidance for network operators requesting funding. The program, which was created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), has a budget of $1 billion. The applications portal is ready to accept applications just over a month after NTIA issued a notice of funding opportunity detailing rules for the program.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it has awarded nine grants as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. These grants, totaling more than $7.7 million, are being awarded in six states – Alaska, California, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington. These grants will fund projects that promote high-speed internet use and adoption that will enable communities to access and fully utilize resources that will connect them to education, healthcare, employment and more.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has banded with industry and consumer advocates to press the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reject a challenge to fees on telecom services that pay for multiple Federal Communications Commission subsidy programs. In a flurry of filings, members from both sides of the aisle joined trade groups including USTelecom to argue that the FCC's reliance on the Universal Service Fund (USF)–a separately run body that oversees the collection of fees–is not only legal, but "essential" and aligned with congressional goals.