Naomi Jindra

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez said she was “heartbroken” by the loss of the Wi-Fi Hotspot program, the Affordable Connectivity Program, and other programs recently cut. “These are all methods to reach the unconnected and to provide connectivity to the members of the community that cannot access it on their own, but need it in order to participate in just about everything we do in today’s society,” Commissioner Gomez said. “Whether it’s for students to be able to do their homework, whether it’s for teachers to be able to teach their students, whether it’s for people at home

State broadband representatives expressed frustration about the many recent changes made to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. “This is an infrastructure project, and renting space on satellite is not,” said Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, speaking at the AnchorNets2025 conference hosted by the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. Hallquist said her team has spent long nights fielding repeated questions about Vermont’s BEAD application and facing pressure from the National Telecommunications and Inform

What was billed as the nation’s biggest rural broadband push has instead become a roadblock, said Conexon co-CEO Jonathan Chambers, who argued the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program’s long delays and muddled standards have frozen construction across rural America. Chambers, whose company partnered with electric cooperatives to deploy fiber in rural communities, compared BEAD unfavorably to the Federal Communications Commission’s earlier Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction.