1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2020

September 2020

Special Authority To Enable Funding of Broadband and Smart Utility Facilities Across Select Rural Development Programs

The Rural Utilities Service, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, and Rural Housing Service, agencies that comprise the Rural Development Mission Area within the United States Department of Agriculture, are issuing this final rule to establish the authority authorized by Section 6210 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which will assist rural families and small businesses in gaining access to broadband service by permitting recipients of a loan, grant, or loan guarantee from RD to use up to 10 percent of the amount provided to construct broadband infrastructure in areas not served by

City of Buffalo seeks to assess broadband access with request for proposal

Mayor Byron Brown’s office wants to address some of the broadband issues in Buffalo, New York, but first it needs to figure out what those issues are. One of those broad issues is basic access. According to the latest American Communities survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, between 20 to 30 percent of city residents don’t have a broadband internet subscription at home. "It’s a significant problem," said Brendan Mehaffy, Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning for the City of Buffalo.

Dispute over broadband grant erupts in Huntington

A dispute has erupted over a $2.5 million POWER grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that would deliver high-speed broadband to Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says Comcast and corporate telecommunications lobbyists are actively trying to stop the city from receiving the grant funding for its “Thundercloud” project. “Unfortunately, we are learning that Comcast, which only provides a fraction of the level of high-speed broadband that they claim to provide, is actively trying to torpedo this project and our grant application,” Mayor Williams said.

Should the FCC oversee open RAN for the sake of national security?

The Federal Communications Commission held a ground-breaking, marathon virtual event Sept 14, hosting numerous stakeholders in the wireless ecosystem to discuss open radio access networks (RANs). The main impetus for the event was to promote open RAN technologies for 5G as an alternative to RAN equipment from the Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. Currently, the choices for telecom equipment are fairly limited to the big vendors Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and Huawei.

Mainers seeking internet upgrade tell stories of poor service to highlight feds’ mistakes

Mainers are sharing their stories of poor internet access as part of an effort to get the Federal Communications Commission to update its map to more accurately reflect the inadequacy of internet service in many areas of the country, particularly rural areas.

European Union's top court supports net neutrality rules

The European Union's highest court has given its support to the bloc's rules that stop internet providers from charging customers for preferential access to their networks. The European Court of Justice issued its first interpretation of the EU's net neutrality rules since they were adopted in 2015. The court backed the principle of an open internet after Hungarian wireless carrier Telenor Magyarorszag had sought an interpretation of the rules.

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.