Public Notice

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau announce that comments in response to their September 2024 Public Notice are due no later than November 4, 2024, and reply comments are due no later than November 18, 2024. On September 11, 2024, the FCC released a Public Notice inviting supplemental comment to refresh and expand upon the record regarding the annual reporting and certification requirements for providers of incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS).

The Washington State Department of Commerce released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Broadband Equity Assistive Technology program. The Department of Commerce is soliciting proposals from qualified entities to distribute assistive technology and digital literacy skills training to individuals with disabilities. The goal of this project is to promote equal access to technology and digital inclusion to online education, employment, and community life for individuals with disabilities. Proposals are due November 12 by 5pm PST. 

The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules to ensure that people with disabilities can fully participate in video conferencing, including by paving the way for the use of telecommunications relay services (TRS). Building on the FCC’s 2023 Order making clear that video conferencing services must be accessible to people with disabilities under our rules, the FCC voted to enhance the accessibility standards for these online tools.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released Version 4.0 of the Competitive Grant Program Frequently Asked Questions and Answers. The FAQs provide an overview of the program in general. It also clarifies the differences between the three programs created by the Digital Equity Act: 

1. The State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program
2. The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program
3. The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) announced that certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups (CBG) are now eligible for other funding programs.

In 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Census Bureau began an experimental project to study the feasibility of—and ultimately to produce—estimates of Internet adoption for small, sub-state areas during a single year to address this knowledge gap and better serve the policymaking process. Using techniques that have been successfully employed in other data products, Census Bureau experts are combining existing data from key household surveys with auxiliary data that are known to correlate with Internet adoption rates.

The Federal Communications Commission has initiated the next annual assessment concerning the “availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans.” The FCC begins its latest inquiry under section 706 mindful that access to broadband is not a luxury, but a necessity. By this Notice of Inquiry, the FCC has initiated its latest statutorily mandated annual review, soliciting comment and data to inform its section 706 analysis.

Each year, the Federal Communications Commission must adopt a schedule of regulatory fees to be collected by the end of September. For fiscal year (FY) 2024, the FCC is required to collect $390,192,000 in regulatory fees, pursuant to section 9 of the Communications Act of 1934 and the Commission’s FY 2024 Further Consolidation Appropriations Act. In this Report and Order, the FCC adopts the regulatory fee schedule to assess and collect $390,192,000 in congressionally required regulatory fees for FY 2024.

The Federal Communications Commission grants Resound Networks a limited waiver of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligation to serve areas in Oklahoma and Arizona overlapped by the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma's and Cocopah Tribe of Arizona's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Round 1 awards.

The Federal Communications Commission Form 484 application filing window for the Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program will open on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 8 a.m. E.T., and close on Friday, November 1,