Analysis

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Office of Digital Opportunity is defining what it means to be digitally prepared. Recognizing that digital access alone is not enough, NCDIT released its North Carolina Digital Skills Standards, a statewide framework that identifies the essential knowledge and abilities residents need to engage in civic, economic, and social life.

Despite its aim of universal service – or as close to universal service as possible – it appears unavoidable that some locations will remain unserved after BEAD. Whether BEAD is deemed successful or not will hinge on the number of these locations. If there are 1 million unserved–or even 100,000–post-BEAD, then BEAD will not have achieved the mission that everyone understood it to have: pushing broadband to as many people as possible and finally achieving universal or near-universal availability.

Since June 6, when the Trump NTIA released its BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice (RPN), states have been racing to update their maps of eligible locations, conduct a new “Benefit of the Bargain” (BOTB) round, negotiate with prospective subgrantees, release

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has confirmed that the state proposals for funding under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program are projected to save more than 

The case of Ligado Networks, LLC v. United States should be of interest to wireless internet service providers. Ligado Networks filed a suit that alleges that the U.S. government unlawfully took its licensed spectrum—which the company was granted by the FCC in 2020—without due compensation in favor of use by the Department of Defense. The spectrum involved in the suit is L-band spectrum, which sits next to spectrum actively used by DoD for GPS.

The digital world just became less optional. As of September 30, 2025, the federal government has stopped issuing paper checks for benefits like Social Security. Payments are now deposited directly into bank accounts or onto prepaid debit cards—methods that require not only access to financial services but also the ability to navigate online systems. This is just the latest in a series of policy changes that assume universal internet access. From healthcare enrollment to unemployment benefits, tax filing to student loan repayment, more essential services are now available only online.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the Broadbnad Equity, Access, and Deployment grant program got off track. Even before the current giant swing in rules by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the program had a lot of problems. One of my observations about the BEAD grant program is that internet service providers were not an integral part of developing the grant rules. ISPs were largely ignored from the start and were only brought into the BEAD process after the rules were largely set in concrete.

Last month, digital divide researchers convened at two major events: the Digital Access Research Forum and the Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (better known as TPRC).

Despite the federal government shutdown, states across the country are making strides on their own broadband and digital equity initiatives. Four states in particular caught our eye this week. Many of these initiatives were designed to work in tandem with federal investments, especially those created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or to fill gaps created by the sunsetting of crucial programs, like the ACP.

The Center for Democracy & Technology’s Hand in Hand: Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks to Students examines the frequency and variety of artificial intelligence use in educational settings in the 2024-25 school year. CDT finds that teachers and students are using AI tools more than ever before.