Internet/Broadband

The ACP has Been a Success, but Closing the Digital Divide Requires Future ACP Funding

On June 14, 2023, the White House kicked off a “week of action” devoted to raising awareness and enrollment for the Affordable Connectivity Program (“ACP”). Nationally, only 18.7 million of the eligible 52 million households (35.8%) are enrolled in the program. This is a truly outstanding achievement for a program that is only a year and a half old. Though there are countless examples of how beneficial the ACP is for communities nationwide, there is a danger the ACP may not last much longer.

NTIA needs more time to craft Buy America rules for BEAD

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) beat its June 30 deadline to announce the amounts it will award each state through its $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, but now the clock is ticking as states and broadband service providers await another milestone.

Verizon Executive Details Pennsylvania Funding Win, Company Also Gets Virginia Money

Verizon won broadband funding from two Pennsylvania counties recently. Verizon Vice President of Business Operations for Wireline Networks Doug Sullivan offered details about the wins, which are for areas where the company has begun deploying its Fios fiber broadband service. The Pennsylvania awards were for Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Washington County (ME) will help launch National Digital Navigators Corps

Susan Corbett, the founder of Maine’s National Digital Equity Center (NDEC), lives in one of America’s most remote rural regions. The population density is under 10 people per square mile. She knows first-hand how fast her community can tumble without a safety net. When the pandemic’s shelter-in-place order went into effect in 2020, Corbett and her team witnessed the severe isolation and loneliness of many elderly people in her community. The Digital Equity Center responded quickly.

'Quietly left behind': Escaping a go-nowhere job in rural Washington County starts with speedy internet

Computer Reach, which employs 24 full and part-time employees and has an annual budget of $580,000, provides refurbished laptops and computer literacy training to people most in need. Richard King Mellon Foundation, PNC Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, EQT Foundation, and Pittsburgh Foundation are among Computer Reach’s supporters. The need for laptops in poor areas far outstrips the availability of computers: social service agencies identified some 2,500 candidates for Computer Reach’s computers and digital help, but the nonprof

#BlackLivesMatter Turns 10

In July 2013, activists first used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to spark conversation about racism, violence and the criminal justice system following George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Ten years later, Black Lives Matter stands as a model of a new generation of social movements intrinsically linked to social media.

Montana's Digital Opportunity Plan

The Montana Broadband Office's Digital Opportunity Plan will guide the state’s efforts to narrow the digital divide and provide all Montanans with affordable high-speed broadband, adequate access to devices, and the digital skills necessary to access the internet and its many services. The state's plan serves as a guide to Montana's work toward universal broadband.

US Department of Commerce Celebrates Fiber Manufacturing Expansions in Tennessee

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information April McClain-Delaney traveled to Jackson (TN) with Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu to celebrate new fiber optic cable production in the US made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative, a key component of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) requires the use of Made-in-America materials and products for federally funded infrastructure projects, including high-speed

Biden-Harris Administration Announces $8.39 Million in Internet for All Grants to Tribal Lands

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)awarded grants totaling $8,394,947.57 to 17 Tribes as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program

Remarks by Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves at the Virginia BEAD Event

There are about 8.5 million locations in America that lack access to quality service. In Virginia, there are more than 360,000 locations that are unserved or underserved. Each of those locations represents a generations-old farm that can’t harvest using modern tools, a fledgling small business stuck in an analog era, a working class family cut off from vital telehealth care, or a young student missing out on lifechanging opportunities that the digital world can provide. But as of this week, that all changes.

Remarks of April McClain-Delaney: Building America’s Internet Infrastructure in America

[The National Telecommunications and Information Administration] just announced the amounts each state and territory will receive from the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. That includes $813 million for Tennessee to build future-proof networks to connect everyone in the state. Our task is simple, but it’s monumental: we are going to bridge the digital divide. For good. But we cannot reach that goal without industry stepping up.

Counties Mobilize for Broadband

Providing internet to every household and small business by 2030 may not take a village, but it will require the efforts of local officials and service providers working together to pave the way for fast and efficient construction, an effort that the National Association of Counties (NACo) says its members have been steadily working on. “About two years ago, we put together NACo’s Broadband Task Force,” said Seamus Dowdall, NACo's Associate Legislative Director for Telecommunications & Technology. The task force generated a report to define how counties could facilitate the deployment o

FCC July 2023 Open Meeting Agenda

Just as the Federal Communications Commission is launching the Learn Without Limits initiative to update E-Rate to better meet the connectivity needs of today and the future, the FCC's July 2023 Open Meeting will feature an opportunity to get a previous E-Rate reform over the finish line. Here are all the items we’ve lined up:

GoNetspeed advocates for pole attachment reform in Massachusetts

GoNetspeed, a fiber provider primarily operating in New England, is encouraging Massachusetts to adopt legislation that would simplify the process for deploying new broadband infrastructure.

States could be the next big source of middle mile funding

The US government just dished out $930 million in support for middle mile broadband projects, but a pair of experts said there’s demand for billions in additional funding. Both noted that states could be the next big source of support as they work out how to divvy up their newly allocated Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) allotments. Zayo was one of the big winners in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) recent award round for the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, scooping up nearly $93 million for three projects.

ECFiber launched in 23 member towns in Vermont

Hartford (VT) residents at long last have a new internet provider in town, ECFiber. It is Vermont’s first Communications Union District, a community-driven telecommunications operation. ECFiber already has 8,000 residential and business customers on over 1,500 miles of network around Vermont’s Upper Valley. The company will continue the build-out this summer by giving new rural customers broadband service to houses in member towns. Officials said they expect over 18,000 customers on the network. However, there is still more work to be done.

Comcast & Spectrum Are Struggling As Americans Stop Signing Up For Internet As Part of Cord Cutting 2.0

People continue to cut ties with cable broadband providers as reports from MoffettNathanson show cable broadband subscriber growth numbers are plummeting year over year.  Broadband cable started 2021 with 6.9 percent growth year over year and continued to fall roughly 1 percent each quarter throughout the year, ending with 3.8 percent growth.

New Street Research: Cable's Q2 broadband tally might buck seasonal trends

The second quarter (Q2) of the year is usually a tough stretch for cable operators.

Telecommunications companies have done a poor job in the 'fair contribution' debate

Europe's telecommunications chiefs love to moan about the data deluge that has swamped their networks, demanding payment – a "fair contribution" or "fair share" – from the Internet giants they hold mainly responsible. Yet none has ever presented any hard data to support the claims. Metrics show many of them fail to cover their capital costs.

Wireless internet service providers concerned about how FCC may define 'reliable broadband'

A recently proposed rule change to the Federal Communication Commission's Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) program has fixed-wireless advocates concerned that the high-cost program could kick out broadband providers delivering service over unlicensed spectrum. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is looking to increase the program's minimum speeds to 100/20 Mbps.

Maine Draft State Broadband Action Plan Focuses On Closing Affordability Gap

Maine became one of the first states to share a draft broadband action plan and companion Digital Equity Plan. The plan highlights the complex challenges faced by Maine residents who lack internet access, including limited opportunities for remote work, education, and healthcare, emphasizing the importance of bridging the digital divide to ensure that all residents can participate in the digital economy.

State broadband officials call grant awards ‘wonderful,’ if less than expected

A day after the Biden administration announced how it will distribute its nearly $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Accessibility, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program, a group of state broadband officials touted the hundreds of millions of dollars they’re set to oversee, but with a note of curiosity as to why their awards weren’t greater. While this infusion of cash is undoubtedly cause for celebration, some

States' BEAD excitement tempered by execution, mapping worries

Now that Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program allocations have been announced, each state has 180 days to submit initial proposals describing how they plan to run their grant programs. Initial proposals can be submitted beginning July 1, 2023. Once the National Telecommunications and Information Administration approves a state’s initial proposal, that state will be able to request access to 20% of its BEAD allotment. But as states pull together plans for the NTIA, there is still apprehension surrounding the extensive broadband buildouts needed across the country.