Agenda

Dozens of states appear to be set to cap how much broadband providers can charge low-income households.

States are racing to finish their Initial Proposals for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's $40+ billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. One of the things they need to be thinking about is how to design their programs so that they have viable applicants for all their eligible locations, not just most of them. This requires a radical shift in mindset from past grantmaking activities, when the state’s task was to award grants to improve service in discrete areas.

The White House is racing to overcome internal differences and hash out a new policy over how the US and other governments should view the rapid rise of global data flows that are fueling everything from artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing. In a series of sessions due to begin on December 13, 2023, President Joe Biden’s national security and economic teams will meet with companies, labor and human rights advocates, and other experts on the digital economy as part of a review launched last month, according to people directly involved.

On December 5, 2023, the City of St. Louis, TechSTL, and the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) hosted the #Connect STL Digital Inclusion Summit. The event kicked off the #ConnectSTL Digital Equity & Inclusion Coalition, which seeks to encourage collaboration and cooperation with technology-driven businesses and community stakeholders interested in helping to bridge the digital divide in St. Louis. Filament lead workshops for the #ConnectSTL Coalition focusing on collaboration and outlining current projects and plans for moving forward with Digital Equity work.

Under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, providers are required to offer a low-cost option to subscribers who are eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). However, the exact definition of what will qualify as “low-cost” is up to state and territory broadband offices to decide.

The prison communication industry is dominated by two companies—Securus and ViaPath. Together, they serve the vast majority of jails and prisons. Bundling of services is standard practice: devices, communication services, payment services, and even ownership of the inmate networks.

There is a plan to almost eliminate latency. It’s a new internet standard called L4S that was finalized and published in January, and it could put a serious dent in the amount of time we spend waiting around for webpages or streams to load and cut down on glitches in video calls.

A conflict between state and federal laws may delay the first distribution of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds to the states. Sixteen states bar or restrict municipally owned broadband—and nearly all of those states appear unwilling to amend their laws as they finalize plans for how they will use their share of BEAD funds.

Arizona and Missouri are going to use a cost model as part of their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program grant review process. Consultants have built complex models that are supposed to predict the cost of building broadband anywhere in the country. The models have to be loaded with specific inputs for any given location, and the models are then supposed to calculate what it will cost to build a broadband network. These two states are using the cost models in the worst possible way because they are using the costs suggested by the cost models to help pick grant winners.