Chris Teale

As state and local governments wrestle with the major investments and planning needed to build out broadband internet, permitting for those projects is emerging as a key issue. States are desperate to spend the money they have available from the federal government’s $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, but equally desperate to make sure those projects aren’t bogged down in years of red tape and permitting problems.

Within days of President Donald Trump announcing on social media that he was ending the federal digital equity grant program, it looks to be consigned to history.

Information sharing on cybersecurity and election threats may become a whole lot harder after the Department of Homeland Security ended some federal funding for two partnerships used by thousands of state and local governments. A spokesperson for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed it terminated a $10 million partnership with the Center for Internet Security for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

A bevy of House Republicans lined up at a recent subcommittee hearing to bemoan the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, minutes after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced he would conduct a “rigorous review” of the effort to close the digital divide. While that hearing turned into another Washington food fight, among state officials, BEAD still appears to have plenty of bipartisan support.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to boost efforts by schools and libraries to loan out portable Wi-Fi hotspots, programs that mostly began before the COVID-19 pandemic but accelerated at its height. By a 3-2 vote, commissioners OK’d the use of E-Rate funds to support the initiatives.

As lawmakers debate funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that would change the program in an effort to win more support for it and possibly improve its long-term viability. A group of senators introduced legislation that would revise eligibility criteria, among other things. The compromise is seen as necessary to win over skeptics of the program.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently finished approving digital equity plans for all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington (DC) in what Administrator Alan Davidson called a “milestone moment.” The grants announced in the March 29 notice of funding opportunity can be used to begin implementation of those plans, which identify the barriers in each sta

The last time the Federal Communications Commission raised the standard for broadband, the internet was a much different place. Most people were still commuting to work, relying on their employer’s high-speed internet connection.

If governments are to truly close the digital divide, they must focus on encouraging community broadband adoption and making sure residents have tools to access high-speed internet, not just on installing infrastructure. While there has been a lot of recent talk about the need to better map broadband availability, panelists at Nextgov and GCN’s Emerging Tech Summit warned that there must also be a similar emphasis on ensuring that people can take advantage of internet access, or else some communities will not feel the benefits. And while investing in new broadband networks is a tangible way

Some low-income households in New York City will receive free broadband internet under a plan announced by Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) during his State of the City address. Households with Section 8 vouchers in the Bronx and northern Manhattan boroughs of the city will be part of a pilot program that gives them access to free broadband. Pilot participants will be provided with access through the creation of a wireless mesh network.