June 2025

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Dr. Revati Prasad welcomed Dr. Caroline Stratton to be Benton's new Research Director. Dr. Stratton will direct the Benton Institute's research efforts to support a broadband-for-all agenda to demonstrate the benefits of broadband adoption and the costs of disconnection for individuals and communities. Dr. Stratton holds a Ph.D. in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Nuclear & Radiological Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Imagine being told that your state government has the funds to give your family an affordable high-speed Internet connection—not just this year, but every year for the next two centuries. Now, imagine that same government decides instead to run a fiber optic cable to a single house at the end of a long rural road. This is not a thought experiment. It’s the real tradeoff now playing out across the country under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

In a Federal Communications Commission filing, NextWave said T-Mobile is "disobeying the rule of law" and that its statements are "insurrectionist." NextWave argued that T-Mobile's position on network interference is "a wild assertion that would undermine the FCC's licensing regime and render 2.5GHz and other spectrum licenses worthless." At issue is the 2.5GHz midband spectrum that sits at the heart of T-Mobile's 5G network.