Tyler Cooper, editor-in-chief at BroadbandNow, joins the Divide to discuss recent research released by BroadbandNow, following a manual audit of over 100,000 addresses, revealing that the Federal Communications Commission's broadband map is still undercounting the number of people without broadband access in the US by 6.4 million.
Perhaps no one should be surprised that, in the age of streaming, videoconferencing, and multi-player gaming, along with a sprinkle of virtual reality, average and median home broadband usage continues to climb.
New Zealand broadband wholesaler Chorus has won the backing of the infrastructure commission for its network upgrade plan—but it still faces a battle for funding. The commission designated Chorus' rural fiber scheme as one of 17 priority projects in its draft National Infrastructure Plan.
On June 6, 2025, mere hours after Elon Musk started his tweet war with the president, the Commerce Department released its long-awaited revisions to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. This $42 billion broadband-deployment plan was part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Congress passed in November 2021.
The current total of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program-eligible locations is far lower than when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration first calculated BEAD funding allocations back in June 2023. While exact eligible locations lists are still subject to change as state broadband offices scramble to incorporate the “benefit of the bargain round," the number of eligible locations is lower—and in many cases, significantly so—than when BEAD funds were divvied up. This dramatic decrease in eligible locations will likely manifest in leftover deployment fund
The federal government is pouring $42.5 billion into funding broadband infrastructure across the country so that all Americans can get online. But five months after we should have broken ground on the new broadband networks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hit reset on the entire program. The new rules he released won't bring us any closer to closing the digital divide—in fact, they'll undo years of progress toward that goal.
In the waning days of the first Trump administration, new language went into effect in an obscure regulation covering federal grants.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Olivia Trusty was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission by President Donald J. Trump. She was confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2025. Prior to joining the Commission, Commissioner Trusty served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services under the leadership of Sen Roger Wicker (R-MS). She previously served as a Policy Director on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a Legislative Assistant in the Office of Sen Wicker.
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