The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, the State E-rate Coordinators Alliance (SECA), and Funds for Learning (FFL) have developed a proposal for Congress to provide one-time funding so that school students, teachers, and library patrons can obtain broadband at home, end-user devices (such as laptops and tablets), and cybersecurit

Windstream reported its 1Q 2020 financial results, sharing what it calls record-breaking broadband results. Residential broadband is helping the carrier improve its financial results and will be key to its future as the carrier emerges from bankruptcy later in 2020. Windstream added a net 18K broadband subscribers in 1Q 2020, its highest ever quarterly result in new net broadband adds. Importantly, demand for broadband has increased during the pandemic, Windstream reported, with 10K of these net broadband adds occurring in March 2020 alone.

It’s unfortunate that it took a pandemic to reveal that the Internet is a basic human right. Yet in California, home to Silicon Valley, 20 percent of students are not connected in their homes. The solution is clear — build an infrastructure with public-private partnerships to enable systems-level change that addresses the root causes of the issue, creates coordination and empowers various groups across communities. Tech companies, state and local governments, school districts, ISPs, and community organizations all need to invest in a coordinated manner.

The Federal Communications Commission granted GE Healthcare’s request for a waiver to allow the importation, marketing, and operation of certain GE medical devices from new suppliers for use in healthcare facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented strain on our nation’s healthcare system. The action taken by the FCC May 11 will enable GE Healthcare to overcome disruptions in the medical device supply chain as it addresses the surge in demand for critical medical equipment.

Public Knowledge has been tracking the efforts of digital platforms to counter mis- and dis-information about the novel coronavirus pandemic since early March. This tracking has involved careful analysis of hundreds of articles, abstracts, research, and opinion pieces about how platforms are responding to the pandemic.

Reps Doris Matsui (D-CA), Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), along with 34 colleagues, sent a letter to House leadership, urging them to provide funding to support the development and deployment of open and interoperable radio access networks (RANs). RANs serve as the connection between phones or hotspots and a carrier’s core network and the internet. As mobile traffic continues to evolve – continued innovation is a necessity.

The Internet is being tested as never before, exposing serious inequalities in Internet availability and utility. It seems to us vital that these inequalities be remedied, not only in anticipation of the next time the world’s population is forced to “shelter in place” but because these inequalities stifle the innovation and productivity that the Internet makes possible.

The Federal Communications Commission has made efforts to keep Americans connected to the internet during the coronavirus pandemic, but experts say its controversial decision to repeal net neutrality rules has handicapped the agency from doing more. The most high-profile action has been having internet service providers (ISPs) and telephone providers sign a pledge to keep people connected. The FCC’s pledge serves as a good example of what position the agency’s net neutrality repeal has put them in during the coronavirus pandemic, experts say.

The sudden shift to remote learning has exposed cracks in today's digital teaching strategies, as parents and teachers struggle with the challenges of recreating the classroom experience online. Demand for ed tech services has surged, as has interest in training for teachers to work online. To prepare for the fall, school districts should vet and limit which products they use, says Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Many families now rely solely on their home connections to take meetings via video conference or help their children complete the day’s lessons, not to mention leverage telemedicine to safely visit the doctor. But for the poorest among us — those who once had the option to visit the local library or head into the office to get a reliable connection — the bandwidth available to them at home often isn’t enough.