1. Monthly archive
  2. March 2023

March 2023

FCC Takes Next Steps Towards Just and Reasonable Communications

On January 5, 2023, President Joseph Biden signed into law the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 (Martha Wright-Reed Act) to ensure just and reasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in correctional and detention facilities. The law is the product of efforts by multiple individuals and committed stakeholders over a number of years to comprehensively address the persistent problem of unreasonably high rates and charges incarcerated people and their families pay for communications services.

Weekly Digest

FCC Takes Next Steps Towards Just and Reasonable Communications

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Friday, March 31, 2023

Alaska to see fiber expansion

Alaska Communications says that after a successful pilot of fiber-to-the-home service in 2022, it plans to extend its fiber network to another 14,000 homes over the course of 2023. Alaska Communications’ fiber network already serves some neighborhoods in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Soldotna. The fiber service offers three pricing tiers of symmetrical speeds up to 2.5 Gbps.

Here’s where Comcast is expanding its network in 2023

Comcast is looking to accelerate its network expansion in 2023, aiming to ramp rollouts from the 840,000 new passings it achieved in 2022 to as many as 1 million in 2023. Comcast has expanded into the following states and regions:

Fiber Broadband Association Digs into Microtrenching’s Ability to Close the Digital Equity Gap

A new best practice white paper explores micro-trenching, an advantageous fiber broadband deployment method. The report compares micro-trenching amongst other deployment methods as a valuable option in the fiber broadband construction toolkit and it also details the scrutiny that micro-trenching faces, success stories, and best practices.

FCC funds cover all of Windstream’s costs to remove Huawei gear

Windstream, a privately held company that provides wired broadband, has completed the removal of all Huawei equipment from its network.

Supplement to Defeating the Digital Divide

Our analysis of 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) data shows that the Chicago Connected program helped to more than halve the connectivity gap for Chicago’s school-age children — from roughly 110,000 children in 2018 to roughly 46,000 children by the end of 2021 (19% disconnected in 2018 vs. 8% in 2021). The number of disconnected adults was also reduced in 2021 by 2% (from 15% to 13%) which amounts to a reduction of nearly 30,000 adults in 2021 alone.

© 1994-2024 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.