Analysis

Much has been said about the national broadband deployment process being undertaken with the support of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. On September 18, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing to discuss 29 (yes, 29!) bills aimed at streamlining the broadband permitting process to expedite deployment. At the hearing, the subcommittee sought to understand how permitting processes create deployment challenges for internet service providers.

There was an Executive Order in August 2025 from the White House that made some fundamental changes to the way that federal grants work—some positive and some negative. The EO is titled Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking. The Order instructs the Office of Management and Budget to overhaul the Uniform Grant Guidelines and other related documents related to all federal grants.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency now requires disaster survivors to register for federal aid using an e-mail address—a change from previous policy that made an e-mail address optional. While the move is intended to modernize and streamline the process of applying for disaster aid, it risks blocking vulnerable populations from accessing critical federal assistance in the wake of disasters. How does the move put disaster victims at risk, and what can communities—and FEMA—do to ensure folks can still get the assistance they need? 

More and more states are releasing their draft final proposals for how to spend their Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program funds. Following the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's June 6 announcement that restructured the BEAD Program, all 50 states and U.S. territories are reevaluating their BEAD plans and publicly releasing them for another look.

The Universal Service Fund, operated by the Federal Communications Commission in conjunction with the Universal Service Administrative Company, has grown old, expensive, and ineffective. It is past time for Congress to shrink, modernize, and retool it to address today’s broadband ecosystem. While the Supreme Court recently upheld the legal legitimacy of USF’s funding mechanism, the need to reform the program persists.

We now know the next Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment fight, and it might be the biggest one yet. On September 5, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration issued a press release talking about the progress of the Benefit of the Bargain round for States to award BEAD funding. The press release announced that 36 of 56 States and Territories have made tentative BEAD awards and have submitted their final proposals to NTIA.

This week, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society released "Achieving Affordability: State Strategies for Getting Everyone Online," an examination of how states are working to make high-speed internet more affordable for their residents. With the release, Benton Research Director Dr. Caroline Stratton hosted a discussion on how broadband affordability, availability, and adoption relate to each other and present current and future opportunities to improve universal access.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ordered, in August 2024, that all broadband providers in the country open their networks to competitors on a wholesale open-access network. The original unbundling order applied to broadband provided on both cable TV and fiber networks. The original ordered that open-access be implemented by February 2025. Similar to what happens in the U.S., various aspects of the rule were appealed at the CRTC.

Gigapower, the open-access fiber network joint venture launched by AT&T and BlackRock in May 2023, is experiencing significant challenges in its phase I deployment. Gigapower’s prime contractor in several states, Tilson Technology Management, blamed Gigapower for driving it into bankruptcy, a development that is just the most extreme of numerous problems stemming from Gigapower’s business model. The Communications Workers of America, which represents tens of thousands of frontline technicians at AT&T, has closely tracked the Gigapower build-out in various markets.

President Trump is hyper-focused on winning the AI race, and rightly so. The champion will be a country that ushers in an era of unmatched productivity and economic growth and leads global advances in national security. For the Trump Administration, winning on AI is “a national security imperative.” And it’s a bipartisan goal.