April 2019

President Trump, Speaker Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Schumer agree on goal of crafting $2 trillion infrastructure plan, talk rural broadband

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that they had reached an agreement with President Donald Trump to try to craft a $2 trillion plan aimed at overhauling the nation’s ailing roads, bridges, waterways and other infrastructure, including broadband. Sen Schumer said that the bulk of the meeting focused on what kind of investments should be made. Besides spending on roads and bridges, there was agreement that money should be aimed at extending broadband in rural areas and inner cities, as well as improving power grids, Sen Schumer said.

57 Rural WISPs File Letter in Support of EBS Filing Windows

Nearly five dozen rural, wireless internet service providers (WISPs) signed letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission to "express [their] enthusiastic support for the Commission to make available new Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licenses to educators via priority licensing windows." The small ISPs also "strongly oppose auctions of EBS spectrum before educators have had an opportunity to obtain new EBS licenses."  In an April 25 letter to the FCC, six rural operators argued for a requirment that EBS spectrum licensees and their partners have a local presence and adhere to

NDIA launches new, dedicated website for the Digital Equity Act of 2019

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is launching a new, dedicated website for the Digital Equity Act of 2019. The new site features:

Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before the CBRS Alliance

While there was a great need for more spectrum for advanced wireless systems, finding unencumbered frequencies has always been a long-standing battle. Thankfully, then came along the innovation of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) framework and requisite technology. [March's] announcement that you are working on 5G CBRS specifications, called CBRS Alliance Release 3, proved a lot of people wrong.

President Trump and Democrats Agree to Pursue $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

Democratic congressional leaders emerged from a meeting at the White House and announced that President Donald Trump had agreed to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to upgrade the nation’s highways, railroads, bridges and broadband.