On March 29, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program. Through this program, NTIA is making funding available for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Indian Tribes, Alaska Native entities, and Native Hawaiian organizations to turn their digital equity plans into digital inclusion activities. State Digital Equity Capacity Grants can be used for five purposes:

1. To update or maintain a state's digital equity plan (although no more than 20 percent of the grant can be used for this purpose),
2. To implement a state's digital equity plan,
3. To make subgrants to implement a state's digital equity plan,²
4. To evaluate subgrantees' efforts (although no more than 5 percent of the grant can be used for this purpose), and
5. Administrative costs (although no more than 3 percent of the grant can be used for this purpose).

[more at the link below]

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez and Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL) hosted a roundtable at the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) with Veterans Affairs (VA) social workers and community stakeholders to discuss the positive impact of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on Veterans and their families. “The Affordable Connectivity Program is about making sure everyone, everywhere in this country has access to Internet service that connects them to economic and educational opportunity as well as healthcare services, for example connecting Veterans with VA appointments and follow-up medical visits,” said Commissioner Gomez. “I am here because I want to see this program refunded, and I stand ready to assist Congress with any efforts to fully fund the ACP into the future.” Florida ranks fourth in the nation for ACP enrollees, with 1,707,857 participants. In Florida’s 9th district, 28% of households are enrolled. The Veteran community in Central Florida benefits significantly from the program, which enhances access to crucial services, including telehealth.

A group known as the "coalition of RDOF winners" has weighed in on whether the Federal Communications Commission should grant an amnesty period for providers to relinquish their locations awarded through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in the interest of making those locations available for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program instead. Essentially, the coalition expressed support for the idea but is also pushing for more RDOF funding. The coalition first filed an emergency petition with the FCC in 2023, requesting supplemental funding and additional concessions to address what it called "unprecedented" cost increases associated with RDOF builds. This latest filing from the RDOF coalition comes in response to an FCC request for comment on a proposal to allow winners a short period of time to relinquish their awarded RDOF and Connect America Fund II (CAF II) locations in order to make more locations available for the much larger BEAD program. 

In 2020, we manually checked availability of more than 11,000 addresses using Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Form 477 data as the “source of truth.” Based on the results, we estimated that as many as 42 million Americans did not have the ability to purchase broadband internet at the time. Since then, quite a bit has changed. The FCC has moved away from the outdated and flawed Form 477 reporting mechanism, the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant program has become the primary model for government intervention on the digital divide, and the FCC has provided a new dataset for states to use for allocating the billions of dollars they will receive through this once-in-a-generation program. Our team has been manually checking availability at nearly 65,000 addresses spread across all US states and comparing those findings to the FCC’s new mapping fabric. What we have found is that overreporting continues to be rampant, and exists in every state, across every technology type.

• The FCC claimed that roughly 21 million Americans still had no access to a broadband internet connection meeting the 25 Mbps download / 3 Mbps upload threshold as of the time we generated the data used in this study. Based on our findings, we estimate that an additional million Americans do not have service, totaling 22 million.
• Texas has the most Americans without broadband in total, with 1.8 million lacking access to a 25/3 connection.
• While all technologies are overstated in terms of coverage, DSL and fixed wireless were the worst offenders in the sample set, at 53% and 58%, respectively.

There are growing concerns among some lobbyists that 5G network operators will be able to use network slicing technology to evade the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) proposed net neutrality rules. Some claim that network slicing will establish Internet "fast lanes." "Mobile ISPs and their trade associations are pushing the FCC to let them create new kinds of fast lanes by using a network management technique known as 'network slicing,'" wrote a group of public interest groups—including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Technology Institute at New America, and Public Knowledge—in a new filing with the FCC. "They are asking the FCC to let them treat these new fast lanes as 'specialized services' that are largely exempt from net neutrality rules." Those public interest groups aren't the only ones sounding the alarm. "The commission should not allow network slicing to be used to evade any Open Internet rules it adopts," wrote the NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, a trade group representing the nation's cable companies. 

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Georgia’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. Using $1,429,210.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Georgia created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Minnesota’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. Using $881,905.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Connecticut created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Connecticut’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. Using $736,567.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Connecticut created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state. 

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Arkansas’ Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. Using $843,673.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Arkansas created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state.