1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2026

September 2026

FCC Repays $3.08 Billion Treasury Loan Following Auction Success

The Federal Communications Commission announced the return of $3.08 billion to the U.S. Treasury, which was borrowed in March 2025 to support the FCC’s Rip-and-Replace reimbursement program. The Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act established the reimbursement program to help eligible communications providers remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services. The quick repayment of this loan was due in part to a successful AWS-3 Spectrum auction conducted in June 2026.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Welcomes NTIA's Second Chance to Connect BEAD's Unserved Locations

Every unserved home and business deserves a broadband connection, and this notice gives states a new path to find the locations the first round of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program missed. We support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's effort to true up the Federal Communications Commission's maps and ensure funding follows the households and small businesses still waiting for service. Congress recognized that universal connectivity requires investment in both the physical and human infrastructure of broadband.

Co-ops Urge Course Correction in New BEAD Funding Round

The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program’s initial investment is failing rural America. Delayed implementation, shifting guidance, cost constraints, and unrealistic funding assumptions have slowed progress, discouraged participation, and weakened a historic opportunity to bring long-overdue broadband service to rural communities. Directing further investment under the same misguided approach will not deliver universal connectivity to rural America.

A Final Weekly Digest, and a New Chapter

For Headlines readers who got nervous for me this morning, I’m fine, but… After five years, today is my last day working at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. When I was in college, one of my professors told me to subscribe to a newsletter, Benton’s Daily Digest (or “Headlines,” to me and to many). I thought it was crazy that such a comprehensive resource was published each morning, five days a week. Less than a year later, it became my job to put Headlines together every day.

AI creators race to understand their creations

Never in the history of industry or inventions have leading companies created entire divisions to un

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