Greg Guice

In anticipation of the upcoming true-up round of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, Vernonburg Group takes this opportunity to update our “rainy-day fund” cost estimate. In February 2026, we estimated that a rainy-day funding round may require as much as $7.6 billion of additional BEAD funding to connect all remaining unserved and underserved locations.

Vernonburg Groug recently released a blog describing broad and growing bipartisan support for allowing state and territorial broadband offices to use their remaining uncommitted Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds for broadband projects that further the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s (IIJA) direction that Eligible Entities use allocated funds to “facilitate the goals of the BEAD program.” One potential use for these remaini

Most state and territorial broadband offices have completed subgrantee selections for Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program last-mile connectivity projects and submitted their final proposals to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

On June 6, 2025, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Policy Notice which, among other things, froze funding for non-deployment efforts while the NTIA conducts a further review with plans to “issue updated guidance in the future.” NTIA went on to state that it will not reimburse Eligible Entities for “new costs associated with previously approved non-deployment activities incurred after the date of this Policy Notice.” By freezing non-deployment funding, the Policy Notice has created a challenge for Elligible En

Looking back on the bipartisan Infrastructure Act and its early days, the push by many at that time was fiber only and fiber everywhere. And if you are following the recent news that pendulum has swung to people insisting that Starlink is the solution for all remaining unserved and underserved locations.

In August 2020, during the heart of the covid-19 pandemic when many schools were closed, social media and news outlets were awash with a picture of two grade school students sitting outside of a Taco Bell, attempting to do their schoolwork.

Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission to pass rules designed to end digital discrimination. The directive could not be more clear: Enact regulations to “eliminate” existing digital discrimination on the basis of “income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin” and to prevent it from recurring in the future.

Rarely does Congress speak as definitively and clearly as it did with Section 1754: ordering the Federal Communications Commission, within 2 years to enact regulations to “eliminate” existing digital discrimination on the basis of “income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin” and to prevent it from recurring in the future. The FCC should interpret this instruction for what it is: a rebuke of the last 25 years of failed policies and “light touch” regulation under the apparent delusion that for the first time in 90 years “the market” would bring universal service to all

Public Knowledge submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission on May 16, in response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry regarding digital discrimination rules in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. "Digital discrimination is not just unjust towards individuals, but can hold back entire communities and prevent the nation from living up to its potential," states Public Knowledge in its filing. "Thankfully, the Commission now has not merely the legal authority, but an affirmative obligation, to end digital discrimination.

This paper aims to: 1) outline why the Federal Communications Commission is the appropriate authority to resolve commercial spectrum disputes; 2) outline how the interagency process works and the role the National Telecommunications and Information Administration plays in resolving issues with government spectrum incumbents; and 3) demonstrate the importance of coordination by reviewing a few recent examples of government agencies circumventing this interagency process and the problems that has created.