Federal Agency

I have been asked my opinion several times about Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) amnesty—letting RDOF winners walk away from their obligations without big penalties. There is no easy answer to the question. It’s certainly a timely topic, since we are seeing internet service providers (ISPs) walk away from RDOF. There are several good arguments to be made that favor some kind of amnesty.

Big internet service providers (ISPs) have been using the same arguments against being regulated for the last decade. These arguments were used to justify killing Title II regulation under the Ajit Pai FCC and have been resurrected today to try to get Congress to override the FCC’s decision to reimpose broadband regulation. From my perspective, their arguments have gotten stale and out of touch with the way the market really operates. The big ISP trade associations have been telling the public for years that broadband prices have been falling in ‘real terms’.

On May 16, 2024, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appeared before the House of Representatives Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee to review the Federal Communications Commission’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request. The Chairwoman highlighted some of the FCC's critical work, including the National Broadband Map and efforts to stop robocalls. She also emphasized the need for the FCC's spectrum auction authority to be reinstated, and spoke about the impending end of the Affordable Connectivity Program.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the June Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 6, 2024: 

On May 15, 2024, the House of Representatives passed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024 (H.R. 4510). Tucked in the 100-page bill is a call for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth to develop and submit to Congress a national strategy to close the digital divide. Here is a quick look at what Congress is asking for.

Some $100 billion in U.S. broadband investment will be spent in rural areas before the end of the decade to close the digital divide. Yet industry leaders warn that a middle mile gap will remain if we aren’t careful.

Digital equity cannot be fully realized without the participation of educational institutions, including K-12 public schools, community colleges, historically black and other minority serving colleges and universities, and extension programs. Many state digital equity plans embrace education and potential collaborations with educational institutions. All states acknowledge that digital equity is critical to education.

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides $42.45 billion in grant funding to states via the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). IIJA also underscores that any state receiving these funds may not exclude local governments from applying to use these funds to build their own broadband networks.

The Affordability Connectivity Program, a federal program that helped lower-income households pay their Internet bills and connect to the Internet, fully expires at the end of May, but Rep Kathy Manning (D-NC) is calling for it to continue. Rep Manning enlisted Guilford County and Rockingham County schools superintendents and State Senator Michael Garrett (D-27), to help make the case. Rockingham County Superintendent John Stover said the school district invested effort and dollars, alongside other partners, toward expanding infrastructure for families to access the Internet in the county.

As the Federal Communications Commission reinstates Title II regulation, the definition of broadband defines what is and isn’t directly regulated. In the Order that reinstated Title II regulation, the FCC notes that it continues “to define 'broadband Internet access service' as a mass-market retail service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation of the communications service, but excluding dial-up Internet access service.” It