Jake Neenan

The Commerce Department is hoping to make broadband coverage maps as accurate as possible before a new round of funding aimed at locations that previously fell through the cracks. Assistant Commerce Secretary Arielle Roth, head of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said that at the agency’s last convening of state broadband directors, officials were adamant about “the importance of getting this right.”

Lawmakers are making progress on draft legislation to update an $8 billion-per-year telecommunications subsidy. A bipartisan working group with members from both chambers of Congress has been working for years to update the Universal Service Fund, which is supported by fees on a shrinking pool of voice revenue. 

States have yet to receive lists of locations that will be eligible for an additional round of broadband grant funding. “We may not see it until sometime in November, perhaps,” said Glen Howie, head of Arkansas’ broadband office. “I think they’re waiting on the June data to take another look at their lists and see what that looks like.”

SpaceX is still pushing federal regulators to slash a broadband subsidy that supports rural internet service providers the company is increasingly competing with for subscribers. Three SpaceX attorneys and satellite policy chief Joseph Bissonnette recently met with staff from the Federal Communications Commission to press their case. 

Corning is staggering shipments of fiber for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment projects to match deployment schedules. It’s an effort to ensure supply that could be used by another award winner isn’t collecting dust in a warehouse, said Bob Whitman, Corning’s vice president of market development, who spoke at Mountain Connect in Denver (CO). 

Judges probed the role of the $8 billion-per-year Universal Service Fund and its administrator. Conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research is challenging the Federal Communications Commission program again, after a defeat at the Supreme Court in 2025. USF supports building and maintaining rural broadband networks, plus voice and internet discounts for low-income households, schools, and healthcare centers.

Astound Broadband walked away from about $165 million in federal broadband funding in Texas. The company said it did so because only part of its application was approved. An Astound spokesperson said that the company had submitted 33 applications during the state’s Broadband Equity, Access , and Deployment program bidding.

Amazon is planning to deploy a new direct-to-device satellite constellation using Globalstar’s spectrum, it told the Federal Communications Commission. The company didn’t say how many units it would launch or what timeline it was aiming for, but said it had already developed special antenna systems designed for Globalstar’s spectrum holdings in the L-band, S-band, and 1.6/2.5 GigaHertz spectrum holdings. 

Nebraska is reopening bidding for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program after some tentative grant winners refused to sign contracts with the state. The Nebraska Broadband Office said it would publish a new map outlining the 1,735 remaining eligible locations in the coming weeks. NBO said its new round would aim to “promote competition between internet providers with a focus on quality and end-user experience.” The state confirmed the seven ISPs that have signed their agreements; they include:

Some Ohio locations awarded to satellite internet service providers as part of a $42.45 billion grant program are obstructed by tree cover, a recent analysis found. Tom Reid, head of Reid Consulting, analyzed about 30,000 of the locations in Ohio that are set to receive service from SpaceX through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, and found as many as 70 percent were covered by tree canopy that would prevent the minimum 110-degree field of view the company’s dishes require. Depending on the coverage—satellite imagery showed 5 percent of the locations were completely cove