NDIA Joins Public Knowledge and X Lab to Call on FCC to Measure All Aspects of the Digital Divide

The 1996 Telecommunications Act not only established the Universal Service Fund and its programs, it also required that the Federal Communications Commission regularly provide a report that determines “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” To develop the report, Congress required the FCC to release a Notice of Inquiry to gather information for the public record and inform the Commission’s final determination of whether ‘advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” If the Commission determines that advanced telecommunications capabilities are not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. Congress charges the FCC to, “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.” FCC Chairman Carr’s proposed Notice of Inquiry would reverse course from the 2024 Report and return to measuring “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion” based on broadband deployment data alone. He also proposes abolishing the long-term goal of 1000/500 Mbps, among other things. NDIA joined Public Knowledge and X Lab to urge the Commission to continue reporting on broadband affordability, adoption, availability, and equity, to set a goal to benchmark progress against, and to include additional questions in the NOI to better understand the actual state of broadband access on the ground.