1. Monthly archive
  2. August 2021

August 2021

Rural Digital Opportunity Fund waiver requests roll in after FCC warning

The Federal Communications Commission recently urged operators to ensure money awarded to them in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction wouldn’t go toward unnecessary coverage, and they responded – with a wave of waiver requests. As a result, millions in broadband funding could be left on the table. Top RDOF winners including LTD Broadband, Windstream, Frontier Communications and Starry were among those seeking to relinquish winning bids without penalty.

Citizens in Rural NC Feel Left Behind With Digital Divide

While Internet access has increased over time across the board, both Randolph and Alamance (NC) counties are still below the national average when it comes to the percentage of households with Internet access. Most of the areas lacking service are the more rural neighborhoods in the northern and southern ends of each county.

Biden's infrastructure bill could help rural Pennsylvanians desperate for internet

About one in five Pennsylvania households doesn’t have a broadband internet subscription, with many rural counties having low coverage. Now broadband could get a historic investment through the infrastructure bill making its way through Congress.

The benefits and costs of broadband expansion

Brookings provides an overview of the benefits and costs of expanding broadband access and bridging the digital divide. The shift of work and school online highlighted the lack of access to high-speed broadband internet service in some parts of the US and intensified political pressure on the government to make it more widely available.

Cleveland Schools Deploy the Stay Connected Program to Close the Homework Gap

With many school districts continuing to look for ways to help students who don’t have robust internet service at home maximize their learning potential, Charter Communications announced that the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is deploying the Spectrum Enterprise Stay Connected K-12 solution as a multi-year solution.

Big wireless carriers lead FCC's mid-band spectrum auction applications

The Federal Communications Commission released a roster of applicants for participation in the next US mid-band spectrum auction. Auction 110, set to start October 5, is offering up to 4,060 flexible-use licenses with 100-megahertz in the 3.45-3.55 GHz range across the contiguous US. No bidder can win more than 40-megahertz of spectrum. According to the FCC's application list, 26 applications are completed and 16 remain incomplete, for a total of 42 potential bidders.

Federal Trade Commission Refiles Facebook Antitrust Suit

The Federal Trade Commission filed an amended complaint against Facebook in the agency’s ongoing federal antitrust case. The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance. It unlawfully acquired innovative competitors with popular mobile features that succeeded where Facebook’s own offerings fell flat or fell apart.

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