Universal Broadband

Virginia will be receiving nearly $1.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding—one of the higher amounts allotted in the program. Virginia’s goal is to ensure universal service, and as Dr.

The House of Representatives will be led by Rep Mike Johnson, who represents Louisiana’s 4th district. A previous Chair of the Republican Study Committee and a Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, Johnson has also served on the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees. What could this mean for the Congressional broadband agenda? Speaker Johnson is largely in line with his Republican colleagues on most broadband issues.

Buried deep within the stunning array of broadband subsidy provisions contained in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 lies Section 60506—labeled “Digital Discrimination”—which requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules to prevent “digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin,” while taking into account the issues of “technical and economic feasibility.”1 Although Section 60506 perhaps represents a sign of our political times,2 there simply is no credible evidence of a racial disparity in

A recently released survey of fixed-broadband providers demonstrates their workforce expectations as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program gains momentum across states. Representatives of 46 broadband providers—including electric cooperatives and fixed-wireless, telephone, and cable companies—completed the survey. These providers typically served between 5,000 and 50,000 customers.

The Iowa Department of Management received 91 applications for round #8 of the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program which is designed to reduce or eliminate areas of the State of Iowa that are unserved or undeserved by broadband service. Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) #008 made $148,960,000 available for broadband expansion in Iowa. Funds for this grant round have been allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) Capital Projects Fund ("CPF") to provide a substantial infusion of resources to help turn the tide on the pandemic, address its economic fallout, and lay the f

The Federal Communications Commission authorized 368 rate-of-return companies in 44 states that elected offers of Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced A-CAM) support to receive model-based support. The authorizations specify support to the electing companies for a 15-year period beginning January 1, 2024, in exchange for these companies committing to deploy broadband service of at least 100/20 Megabits per second (Mbps) service to over 700,000 unserved locations across the United States, and maintain or improve existing 100/20 Mbps service to approximately 2 million loc

Congress is discussing a number of different scenarios to continue funding the Affordable Connectivity Program once the remaining funds are depleted, which is projected to happen in the first half of 2024. Several of the scenarios being considered involve changes to the current eligibility criteria. Here we examine the potential impact of lowering the household income eligibility threshold, currently set at 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL).

With the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 providing sufficient funding to deploy broadband to nearly every household in the nation, the Digital Discrimination provisions contained in Section 60506 of the statute are a curiosity. Nonetheless, Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission to write rules implementing the statutory provision. The FCC recently released draft final rules implementing Section 60506 in anticipation of its November 2023 Open Meeting which adopt a somewhat standard disparate impact analysis.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI) announced $203 million has been awarded in the first round of the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant program to connect over 70,000 unserved Michigan homes and businesses to high-speed internet. In total, the ROBIN, program will provide $238 million in federal funding to support the deployment of high-speed internet to more than 90,000 unserved locations throughout the st

Charter Communications told the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) that the company will decline a $6.9 million rural broadband award announced in April.