Internet/Broadband

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI) announced $203 million has been awarded in the first round of the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant program to connect over 70,000 unserved Michigan homes and businesses to high-speed internet. In total, the ROBIN, program will provide $238 million in federal funding to support the deployment of high-speed internet to more than 90,000 unserved locations throughout the st

Cable giants Charter and Comcast reported considerably different broadband results for the third quarter. As financial analysts at MoffettNathanson put it in a research note about Charter’s earnings, “Every unit metric in Charter’s report is strong, and more to the point, much stronger than Comcast’s.

Charter Communications told the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) that the company will decline a $6.9 million rural broadband award announced in April.

I think there are three distinct broadband gaps that together define the broadband availability gap – the rural broadband gap, the urban affordability gap, and what I call the competition gap. Nobody is talking about what I call the competition gap. Most places in the US have only one ISP that can deliver fast broadband of speeds greater than 100/20 Mbps. Why does this matter? It is becoming clear that the majority of people and businesses nationwide want relatively fast broadband.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program—established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—gives priority to projects that will result in broadband internet access service being offered in areas where service wasn't available before. Given that federal funds will provide 75 percent of the costs to deploy these networks, the chances that competing networks will be built at any time in the foreseeable future are very slim.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress requires Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program subgrantees (the entities that will build and maintain the new broadband networks) to offer "at least one low-cost broadband service option for eligible subscribers." Congress tasked the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which oversees the BEAD Program, to define who the eligible subscribers are—and left it to states, territories, and the District of Columbia (known as "Eligible Entities") to define what low-cost broadband service options a

President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more. The Executive Order directs the following actions:

Net neutrality has become the Washington equivalent of a Hollywood franchise: As if the sequel to the sequel weren’t enough, another installment of the debate over rules for the internet’s roads arrived this month. This time, however, there’s a plot twist. What, exactly, net neutrality rules look like matters less than that there are meaningful rules for broadband more generally.

Governor John Carney (D-DE) joined state leaders and representatives of Comcast, Verizon, Mediacom, and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) at the Innovation Technology Exploration Center to celebrate progress on broadband expansion and preview next steps.