1. Monthly archive
  2. June 2021

June 2021

FCC Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel on EBB and Pell Grants for Students

On May 12, the Federal Communications Commission opened the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program to the public. Since that time, households across the country that are eligible—including those who struggled with job loss during the last year, who have a child in the free and reduced school lunch program, or who received a Pell grant—have benefited from the broadband supported by this program. Local efforts to get out the word about [EBB] benefits are key. And that’s especially true for Pell grant recipients.

FCC Announces Release of Regional Emergency Broadband Benefit Data

Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the Federal Communications Commission will begin releasing more detailed Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) enrollment figures to inform its current awareness efforts and empower its outreach partners with targeted campaigns. Since May 2021, the FCC enrolled over 3 million households into the EBB program and the new data will show enrolled households in three-digit zip code areas.

Congressional leaders urge FCC to perform equity audit

Congressional leaders and advocacy group Media 2070 urged the Federal Communications Commission to examine how policy decisions and programs have disparately harmed Black Americans and other communities of color in a letter to Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on June 28.

FCC Launches Emergency Connectivity Fund

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced schools and libraries can now begin to file applications for the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, the FCC's latest effort to connect Americans. Schools and libraries can apply for financial support to purchase laptops and tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and broadband connections to serve unmet needs for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons.

Without broadband, rural economies miss out on post-pandemic recovery

The conventional wisdom has been that major cities have borne the economic brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic and face the longest odds of a full and quick recovery. While the future of many American cities may truly be challenging, the pandemic’s toll on rural economies may be even more difficult to overcome in the long-term because of insufficient digital infrastructure and broadband access. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly four in ten rural Americans do not have access to high-speed internet, roughly ten times the rate among urban Americans.

​​R​eviewing S​tates' ​S​trategies for ​I​mproving​ Broadband​ ​Access

States differ in how they manage broadband deployment and which agencies or offices they task with identifying challenges, charting goals, and encouraging investment. Some states have a centralized office responsible for managing or coordinating broadband efforts. In others, multiple agencies have jurisdiction over broadband. More than half of states have established dedicated funds to support deployment of high-speed internet, and many have developed goals, plans, and maps for expansion of access.

Governors Lead on Expanding Access to Affordable Broadband for Telehealth

Governors have championed the importance of increasing affordable broadband access and play a critical role in expanding access to services via telehealth, both in providing emergency connections during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and paving the way for enhanced and broader service in the years ahead. Many governors have enhanced health care services via telehealth by using a combination of the following strategies:

AT&T gives investors and government very different takes on fiber internet

AT&T says fiber internet is a "superior" technology that is built for today and the future because of its ability to deliver symmetrical upload and download speeds of 1Gbps and higher. AT&T also says that "there is no compelling evidence" to support the deployment of fiber across the US, and that rural people should be satisfied with non-fiber internet access that provides only 10Mbps upload speeds. The difference between those two wildly different statements was the audience.

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