On September 30, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Public Notice providing guidance on FCC operations in the event of a partial lapse in funding. The FCC also released a Plan for Orderly Shutdown Due to Lapse of Congressional Appropriations. Many of the Commission’s regular services were unavailable or unsupported due to the lapse in appropriations.
We have several sets of broadband priorities at odds with each other in the country. The federal government is on a big push to move all transactions with the government to digital. The government is also clearly supporting an AI revolution where AI is supposed to revolutionize the way we work and live. According to federal government rhetoric, we are a little bit ahead of the Chinese in terms of AI development, and politicians seem to support the idea of doing whatever is needed to make sure that the U.S. wins the AI race.
Even better than Stella getting her groove back, the Federal Communications Commission got its spectrum auction authority back thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And with it, an obligation to auction at least 800 MHz of spectrum within eight years, with a minimum of 100 MHz (but likely more) of Upper C-band spectrum auctioned by July 4, 2027. Congress provided the blueprint—now it’s up to us (government and industry working together) to get the job done.
The latest AI models powering ChatGPT just learned to be friendlier, improving the experience for people who use chatbots responsibly.
Andrew C. Barrett, Rachelle B. Chong, Ervin S. Duggan, Mark S. Fowler, Dennis R. Patrick, Alfred C. Sikes, Thomas E. Wheeler, Christopher J. Wright, Kathryn C. Brown, Jerald N. Fritz, Peter Pitsch (the petitioners) request that the Federal Communications Commission repeal the news distortion policy in full. In Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, the Supreme Court, applying the First Amendment, reaffirmed that the government has no role in “un-biasing” the media.
A webinar on program evaluation for the non-profit community
Join us on November 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET for a webinar on program evaluation for the non-profit community. Available via the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s YouTube page, the webinar will open a conversation on designing and conducting research to understand the effects and effectiveness of digital inclusion activities. Panelists will reflect on how to fit evaluation into common resource constraints that non-profits face, as well as the opportunities for evaluation across digital inclusion ecosystems.
Broadband news digest for November 13, 2025
The results of digital skills training are of growing interest to policymakers and other stakeholders. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Digital Equity Act (DEA) programs explicitly states that grantees must assess the outcomes of initiatives DEA may fund. That is not the only motivation for understanding the impacts of digital skills programs. States, counties, or local philanthropies that fund such initiatives will want to know their impacts.
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