The time has come for Congress to establish a broadband credit—call it America’s Broadband Credit (ABC)—to ensure that people who can’t afford broadband can use broadband. The debate on whether broadband is a luxury or an essential connection to society is over. Broadband is critical, as Americans have now learned as they work, study, consult doctors, socialize, shop—and really lead their lives from home. But for too many, especially the newly unemployed, the cost of broadband service is not affordable.

I called for this convening because I recognize that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are unique institutions and play a powerful role in this country. We must be proactive and create a comprehensive approach to combat existing and potential challenges to broadband access. And this moment serves as an opportunity to do what HBCUs have historically done for our communities—advocate. During my time at the Commission, I have focused my efforts on addressing internet inequality. And I use this term because we can no longer say that this is simply a digital divide.

With the shift to distance learning due to COVID-19, some rural telecommunication providers – including South Dakota’s Golden West Telecommunications and Golden Belt Telephone (GBT) of Kansas — have stepped up to add free Wi-Fi hotspots and even to bring broadband to homes with school-age children at no charge. In bringing broadband directly to some homes, Golden West technicians avoided direct contact with residents by using what CEO Denny Law called a MacGyver approach in a reference to the vintage and current television series about a government agent who uses an engineering approach to

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau, in consultation with the Enforcement Bureau, waives the broad outreach requirements of the FCC's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) recruitment rules in the limited circumstances relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that its decision to grant wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) temporary access to 5.9 GHz spectrum is helping them keep Americans connected during the coronavirus pandemic. In late March, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau began granting temporary access, called Special Temporary Authority (STA), to 5.9 GHz spectrum for WISPs serving largely rural and suburban communities. The STAs allow WISPs to use the lower 45 megahertz of the band to help serve their customers.

Senate Homeland Security Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI) and Assistant Speaker of the Hosue Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) called for increased investments in rural broadband infrastructure to support Coronavirus response efforts in historically underserved communities. In a letter to Congressional leaders, the lawmakers called for the allocation of funding in the next Coronavirus relief package to ensure low-interest financing options are available to historically underserved communities and public-private partnerships to help deploy broadband.

We need to prioritize our communications networks to bring high-quality fiber broadband from coast to coast. Meeting today’s connectivity demands requires investment in sustainable networks — and that means fiber broadband. Fiber broadband is a superior technology that provides much greater bandwidth and speeds for more robust video, internet, and voice services.

Broadband access was a concerning issue in many rural North Missouri communities and elsewhere throughout the country before the pandemic, but now the problem is even more pressing. As Congress continues to respond to this pandemic, bridging this digital divide should be a key focal point. I serve as the Republican leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees the development programs that build these types of economic bridges – in addition to programs that build actual bridges out of steel and concrete. One such program, under the U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission is signaling that broadband deployment is still a work in progress, but it’s progressing at a pace that does not require regulatory intervention to speed it up. It is a conclusion being challenged by critics of the pace of broadband deployment, who argue that old definitions of reasonable deployment should not hold in the new normal of a pandemic. As with everything else in the country and the world, deployment is now seen through the lens of a pandemic, which magnifies the longstanding issues with the quality, or lack thereof, of FCC data collection on

Rather than rendering network neutrality obsolete, the Covid-19 crisis reminds us why it’s such an important principle. The crisis shows that even in dire circumstances, internet companies can provide a neutral network. In Dec 2017, Net neutrality opponents claimed that regulating internet providers like telephone companies had hurt broadband infrastructure investment and that dropping the rules would spur more investment. Other critics warned that broadband providers needed to be able to prioritize certain types of content to prevent internet slowdowns.