As modern Americans, we count among our blessings that most of us have been able to keep going during this pandemic – working, educating our kids, consulting with our doctors – thanks to broadband Internet. That is, high-speed Internet.

The city of San Antonio will leverage traffic lights in its plan to connect 20,000 students’ homes to their schools’ wireless networks. “In order to get into a neighborhood, you have to go where the infrastructure is,” said Craig Hopkins, the city’s chief information officer. The city will build LTE wireless broadband connections off an existing fiber-optic cable network that runs for 1,000 miles above and below ground and links libraries, police stations, public safety radio systems — and remotely operated traffic signals.

In 2019, Network Communications International Corporation petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to forbear from its obligation to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF) with respect to inmate calling services it provides in jails and prisons. More recently, another inmate calling services provider, Securus Technologies, LLC (Securus), sought a waiver from contributions obligations for all inmate calling services providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the critical role that the USF plays in bringing connectivity to rural and low-income Americans, schools, libraries,

Fast internet is finally set to arrive in several of the most rural parts of Mississippi. The Mississippi Public Utilities Staff awarded $66 million in grants for areas that have few or no high-speed internet options. The bulk of the federal grant money went to rural electric cooperatives, which now will also serve as the primary internet providers in their regions. Rural Mississippians can thank the coronavirus pandemic for the sudden infusion of federal CARES Act funds that should — by the end of this year — create thousands more high-speed internet connections.

Millions of American students won't be heading back to the classroom this fall, at least not full time. From Los Angeles to New York, remote learning will continue into the fall. That leaves a staggering number of students at risk of falling behind or dropping out. Up to 30% of schoolchildren — as many as 16 million American kids — lack internet access or laptops for online learning. The digital divide has been with us for decades, and we're not going to solve it by August.

Altice USA reported that total unique residential customer relationships grew +1.8% year over year during its second quarter 2020. That number drops to growth of 1.4% when adjusted to exclude customers greater than 90 days delinquent due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Altice reported its best-ever residential broadband net additions of 70,400 in Q2 2020 compared to 13,000 in Q2 2019.

The Federal Communications Commission extended the Rural Tribal Priority Window for 2.5 GHz spectrum applications by 30 days in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This window opened on Feb 3, 2020, and to date, over 200 Tribal entities have submitted applications. As a result of July 31’s action, other eligible Tribal entities can continue to apply for licenses for currently unassigned 2.5 GHz spectrum over their rural Tribal lands until 6:00 pm EDT on Sept 2, 2020.

As federal COVID-19 relief is set to expire, Senate Republicans finally unveiled their "starting point" for negotiations between the Senate, the House, and the Administration. Two weeks ago, we wondered if extending broadband's reach and connecting more Americans would be part of the mix. Now we have the answer. At a time when working and learning from home are so important to keeping people healthy, Senate Republicans propose doing nothing to get more of us connected online.

There is considerable speculation about how the pandemic will change the way we live. In particular our office is fielding a lot of questions about working from home and whether households may increasingly choose to live in the suburbs or rural areas as a result. Our office has pulled together and updated some of our previous research on working from home and broadband access here in Oregon. Some findings:

Video subscriber losses doubled and broadband customer increases reached record levels at Comcast in the second quarter, the first full quarter affected by COVID-19. Comcast lost 477,000 video customers in the period, more than double the 224,000 it lost in the prior year. At the same time, broadband had its best second quarter in 13 years, with subscribers rising by 323,000 in the period, compared to an increase of 209,000 in the same period in 2019.