Agenda

Read the rules for broadband deployment programs such as the Capital Projects Fund (CPF) or Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and you’ll see a requirement for service providers receiving funding to participate in the low-income Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society welcomes fellowship applications to support a new generation of broadband scholars, practitioners, and advocates working on broadband access, adoption, application and equity. We are interested in supporting research and the development of best practices and tools to advance our field’s work. For the 2023-24 cycle, we invite proposals particularly focused on:

Maryland just scored over $267 million in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding. Kenrick Gordon, Director of Maryland’s Office of Statewide Broadband, is optimistic the amount will help fuel deployments, but he thinks it’ll take a couple of years before the money is available for broadband providers. Gordon said Maryland is currently working on its initial BEAD proposal and once it’s submitted, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has to review and approve it.

Discussions about funding for social programs are too often framed along predictable partisan lines. However, the reality on the ground is frequently more complex, and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is no exception.

Attention-grabbing warnings of artificial intelligence's existential threats have eclipsed what many experts and researchers say is a much more imminent risk: A near-certain rise in misinformation. The struggle to separate fact from fiction online didn't start with the rise of generative AI — but the red-hot new technology promises to make misinformation more abundant and more compelling. By some estimates, AI-generated content 

How can we make the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding go as far as possible? The answer is that state grant plans need to be laser focused on how to generate competition and keep costs as low as possible. If we can do that, we stretch the BEAD dollars as far as possible. If we don’t, we run out of money. It’s really quite easy to construct this framework. We only need two pieces of data: the number of unserved and underserved locations, and what we pay to reach them.

In an era of tighter antitrust scrutiny of Big Tech in the United States, in Europe and elsewhere, what questions does Meta’s effort to extend its social media reach raise about the industry’s ability to expand into new areas — even when players build new services themselves, rather than buy a smaller foe? Size matters, but it’s just one factor. Regulators will want to know how Meta is gaining market share. Data concerns loom large.  Being big doesn’t run afoul of antitrust law. “The key is network effects.”  “There’s a narrative out there that anything a tech company does is bad.”