Internet/Broadband

For so many people living in rural or low-income city neighborhoods, access to high-speed fiber-fed broadband would be a game-changer. Jobs are going remote, school is taught at a distance, and broadband is opening the door to telemedicine, reducing the need for trips to the doctor, but many people across the country still have no access to these options.

The city of Indio (CA) is planning to build its own fiber-based broadband network. In late October of 2021, the city launched its Fiber Master Plan project, with a goal of ascertaining whether the quality of life and real-world functionality of residents and businesses would be improved if the city could help provide them with high-quality, affordable and consistent broadband access. Kevin Snyder, Indio’s director of community development, is awaiting the results of a survey of Indio’s residents and businesses. “I would say that there are probably two major objectives,” Snyder said.

Animated by hostility toward corporations and a belief that broadband should be a public utility, populists seek to overthrow the current system and replace it with one in which government provides broadband or tightly regulates it. Their campaign strategy is to convince policymakers and the public that US broadband is a failure so they can build support for policies to weaken corporate providers and strengthen non-corporate alternatives, including government-run networks.

Fiber-optic cable, which carries 95 percent of the world’s international internet traffic, links up pretty much all of the world’s data centers, those vast server warehouses where the computing happens that transforms all those 1s and 0s into our experience of the internet. Where those fiber-optic connections link up countries across the oceans, they consist almost entirely of cables running underwater—some 1.3 million kilometers (or more than 800,000 miles) of bundled glass threads that make up the actual, physical international internet.

The chief executives of major passenger and cargo airlines said there could be significant flight disruptions when new 5G service goes live in the US, unless implementation of the wireless service within 2 miles of major airport runways is delayed. The outlook had worsened for flight disruptions from the planned rollout of new high-speed wireless services, the airline executives said in a letter to US officials.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order and Further Notice that provides detailed guidance for the Affordable Connectivity Program, a $14.2 billion federal initiative that offers qualifying households discounts on their internet service bills and an opportunity to receive a discount on a computer or tablet from participating providers. The Affordable Connectivity Program will provide eligible households with discounts of up to $30 a month for broadband service, and up to $75 a month if the household is on Tribal lands.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB)—in conjunction with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force (RBATF) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA)—authorizes Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) support for 2,521 winning bids. The FCC reviewed the long-form application information, including the letter(s) of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter(s) from the long-form applicant’s legal counsel.

Since President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 60 days ago, the Biden-Harris Administration has hit the ground running to deliver results:

The Federal Communications Commission alongside the Department of Labor, Department of Education, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the members of a cross-agency working group that will collaborate to identify the current and future needs of the telecommunications industry workforce, including the safety of that workforce.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has appointed the individuals listed here to serve as members of the three working groups of the Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC). The working groups include members of the CEDC, additional working group members, and independent subject matter experts.