The spike in network traffic is starting to flatten with subscribers settling into their work from home (WFH) routines. Comcast's residential broadband traffic increases were starting to plateau in most of its markets, including in cities such as San Francisco and Seattle that were among the first to implement stay-at-home measures.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will use the $100 million provided for the ReConnect Program in the CARES Act to invest in qualified 100 percent grant projects that did not receive funding in the program’s first round of ReConnect Program investments. Round one applicants who did not receive funding because there was broadband access in the proposed service area may submit an application during the second round to receive this priority as long as their proposed service area meets the requirements of the ReConnect Round 2 Funding Opportunity Announcement.

As of April 13, 2020, school closures in the U. S. have impacted at least 124,000 public and private schools and affected at least 55.1 million students. Yet, millions of U.S. households either do not have access to broadband networks or can't afford service. Students in these homes are cut off from educational opportunities that schools are now offering online only. The question is: How can we continue to educate these students in the coming weeks and months? In an April 10 presentation to the Federal Communications Commission, an organization called Funds For Learning offered a plan.

A chief critic of the tech industry's attempts to track coronavirus patients went to work and held meetings with employees after his doctor directed him to take a test for COVID-19 that subsequently came back positive. Marc Rotenberg, the president and executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, acknowledged in a memo to his staff and his board that he should have quarantined and alerted his staff that he was taking a coronavirus test on March 9, instead of continuing to work alongside them for two days.

Our years-long failure to ensure universal access to essential internet service means that millions of kids aren’t getting the same educational opportunity as their peers. Congress and the Trump administration can fix this in their next emergency response to the deadly pandemic — and they must.

The Federal Communications Commission approved six funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Health care providers in some of the hardest hit areas like New York will use this $3.23 million in funding to provide telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the recently-enacted CARES Act, Congress appropriated $200 million for the FCC to support health care providers’ use of telehealth services during this national emergency.

As Congress starts planning its next coronavirus relief package, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has a wide-ranging, four-part plan that takes into account everything from support for rural hospital and medical professionals to relief for farmers, increased rural broadband, and support for local governments. One issue Democrats have long wanted to address as part of a larger infrastructure package is the lack of high-speed broadband internet in many rural areas. Sen Klobuchar argues that’s especially important now, as families must shelter in place and do work and school from home.

In Phoenix (AZ), the digital divide is stark, despite a massive effort to get families connected to the Internet. So Chad Gestson, the superintendent of the high school district, and his team created an initiative called Every Student, Every Day: They pledged to call every student — there are about 28,000 of them — every day. "We certainly haven't abandoned the importance of the Internet and laptops and devices and online learning," Gestson explains. "We continue to push that. But we serve a large population of youth who don't have devices or connectivity in the house.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announces additional charges for the Disaster Response and Recovery Working Group (Working Group) of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC). Specifically, the Working Group will assist the BDAC in documenting the various strategies and solutions that stakeholders are developing and implementing in real time to address the deployment-related challenges presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Many communities have thrown up their hands because there are no LTE hotspots to be found on the market (the supply delay is many months at this point) and because network construction seems like it could take years. It’s important to know that you have options to deploy new facilities – options that can be exercised in days or weeks, not years. Earlier, we shared some ideas for using fiber, mmWave, and Wi-Fi to get services to the unserved.