House Democrats unvieled an updated version of the Heroes Act as a way to revitalize stalled talks over another COVID-19 pandemic relief measure. The $2.2 trillion bill would provide:

In early March, just days before cities across the US shut down due to the pandemic, Elon Musk shared the latest details about his plan to build a satellite broadband service called Starlink. Musk described how a constellation of Starlink satellites will “blink” when they enter low-Earth orbit.

Remote learning continues to be out of reach for millions of students who lack a reliable internet connection at home. But that doesn't have to be a permanent reality, and efforts are already underway to ensure that it isn't. Achieving universal broadband access would cost billions of dollars and will likely take time to build the infrastructure and political will to make it happen.

Shemar, a 12-year-old from East Baltimore, is good at math, and Karen Ngosso, his fourth grade math teacher at Abbottston Elementary School, is one reason why.  Remote learning started in earnest on April 6. For Shemar, that meant just four hours per week of live online instruction — an hour for each of the four main subjects once a week, with nothing on Fridays.

Computer shortages have raised nationwide concerns about educational inequities, which are amplified in tribal communities that resisted the Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) desire for in-person instruction in an effort to control rising cases of COVID-19. At least five BIE-operated schools in Arizona and five in other states were not prepared to start online because the bureau’s late disbursement of federal relief funding delayed purchases for needed laptops and internet hot spots in communities where fewer than half of rural households have access to broadband internet. BIE schools lagg

This report looks at the current state of the broadband mergers and acquisitions market including valuations, target companies, market catalysts, risks, and the impact COVID-19 could have on new sources of government funding. Key findings:

The Californian students who could benefit the most from the college- and career-focused approach of Linked Learning are the least likely to have the internet and devices needed to access it from home. Across the state, 1.8 million children live in homes without high-speed internet, and nearly 690,000 have no access to devices. Children of color are much more likely to be cut off from virtual learning: Nearly one-quarter of Black families in California and almost one-third each of California’s Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native families do not have high-speed internet access at home.

Across the country as American schools struggle with whether to reopen or stay virtual, many rural districts are worried their students will fall even further behind than their city peers. This pandemic has shone a glaring light on a lot of inequalities. The federal government estimates that more than a third of rural America has little or no Internet.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai recently announced a couple of changes to the Lifeline program, which supplies phone and broadband services to people without the income to pay for them. Since his appointment in 2017, the former commissioner has worked to reduce costs while phasing out support for voice-only options in favor of high-speed Internet. The changes are simple: Starting Dec. 1, Lifeline’s mobile carriers will have to offer 4.5 GB of data each month, up from 3 GB.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and nearly 40 other senators are pressing the Federal Communications Commission to take action on the learning gap, urging FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to allow broadband connection into students' homes by expanding the E-Rate Program, which helps schools and libraries connect to the internet. "The FCC has the power to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on our most vulnerable families," they wrote.