Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have made moves in recent weeks to address how the federal government is spending broadband funds... in different ways. Starting with the Democrats, two high-ranking senators penned a letter to Commerce leaders last week to express concern and request answers about stalled funding from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. The TBCP, a nearly $3 billion grant program, was created with $980 million from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and $2 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to help close the digital divide for communities on tribal land. Another area where broadband leaders have been seeking clarification is on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program's "non-deployment" funds. As per the 2021 infrastructure law that created BEAD, any BEAD funds allocated to a state not used for infrastructure deployment purposes can be used to help accelerate deployments and connect people to the Internet. Now, one Republican senator appears poised to help the NTIA in its perceived mission to take those funds back from the states. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has drafted legislation that seeks to "amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require remaining funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program to be used for deficit reduction."

The results of digital skills training are of growing interest to policymakers and other stakeholders. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Digital Equity Act (DEA) programs explicitly states that grantees must assess the outcomes of initiatives DEA may fund. That is not the only motivation for understanding the impacts of digital skills programs. States, counties, or local philanthropies that fund such initiatives will want to know their impacts. The goal of this article is to explore what we know about the return on investment of digital opportunity programs—programs that provide computing devices and digital skills training to those with limited experience in using digital tools and the internet. It does so by highlighting one effort to assess this work in New York—specifically the work of Connect Westchester. Using data from Connect Westchester’s assessment of its services, the article then uses secondary research that characterizes the monetary impacts on people of changes to their lives. The discussion shows that there is a positive return on digital opportunity investments that are evident in potential income boosts for clients of up to five percent of their income over time. This finding is necessarily tentative, but by walking through it, there are lessons for the design of digital skills assessment in the future.

Low-earth orbit satellite is shaping up as a prominent player in the terrestrial broadband market, including the realm of government connectivity, said Don Parente, MetTel VP of Public Sector Sales. MetTel, one of a handful of authorized Starlink resellers for government customers, recently deployed LEO satellite alongside SD-WAN and zero trust for the U.S. General Service Administration as part of an Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract. “If we were talking about Starlink five years ago, we would probably be talking about a bunch of RV owners putting it on the roof of their campers,” Parente told Fierce. “Today we are seeing agencies use Starlink as their primary access network.” In GSA’s case, it has a global footprint of 800 sites, some of which are in “really remote locations,” he said. As agencies like USDA relocate from DC and expand their footprints, perhaps more will follow suit and pick up Starlink.

There is no question that this has turned into one of the oddest years for broadband during my career. We’ve seen Digital Equity grants killed. We’re seeing the spending for BEAD being cut in half. And maybe oddest of all, we’re seeing States make sizeable Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant awards to Kuiper, although the company isn’t close to having its first broadband customer. For the last month, I’ve been perplexed by the magnitude of the BEAD awards being made to Kuiper. As of this writing, Kuiper has tentative BEAD awards for 324,000 locations, second only to Starlink at 427,000. These are tentative awards, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is still reviewing and may reject some of the tentative awards to fiber, which would likely increase the awards to satellite. I saw a recent quote from a State broadband manager, when asked why he made an award to Kuiper, said it was because they bid the lowest cost per passing. That seems like a cynical response, and it makes me wonder if State Broadband Managers have thrown up their hands and are just following NTIA’s rules without questions.

As cyberattacks continue to hammer networks and critical infrastructure across the globe—threatening economic stability and global trust—it has never been more important for both the public and private sectors to work together on resilient security solutions. The Cybersecurity Coalition and the Cyber Threat Alliance recently hosted the ninth annual CyberNext DC conference to discuss key policy developments across the cybersecurity industry. The event brought together industry leaders, policymakers, think tanks, and other stakeholders, featuring a diverse set of keynote speakers and panel discussions. Ari Schwartz, Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Coalition, delivered opening remarks, where he expressed concern about Congress’s failure to reauthorize the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which expired at the end of September 2025. 

As today’s parents navigate the challenges of raising a child, many are turning to online spaces where fellow parents share their experiences. One such space is the r/Parenting community on Reddit. It is the largest community for parents on the site, with more than 8 million members as of November 2025. To better understand the discussions about parenting that take place online, we examined six months of user submissions and comments on the r/Parenting subreddit. We also conducted a survey of U.S. parents with a child age 12 or younger to ask about their experiences with online parenting communities. Some key findings:

• Posts on r/Parenting frequently mention kids’ technology use and the division of parental duties.
• Parents often turn to these online communities in times of distress.
• Commenters are there to help.
• Moms are especially likely to look online for advice from other parents.

On November 4, the biggest televised event of the evening was unavailable to millions of viewers. As the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys kicked off Monday Night Football, over nine million Americans subscribed to Google's YouTube TV were met with a notification of a programming dispute instead of the game. This wasn't a technical glitch. It was a tactical, well-executed move in competitive strategy. For the consumer paying $82.99 a month, the experience was ruined. For close industry observers, this was another example of Disney's decades-long plan to dismantle the distributor business model and seize control of its replacement. This blackout is not a result of a negotiation failure. It is a deliberate, precisely timed churn event orchestrated by Disney. The timing is the entire story. The contract expired and channels vanished on October 30. This was just one day after Disney closed its acquisition of a 70 percent controlling stake in Fubo, which it is merging with its existing Hulu + Live TV service. That transaction, which closed on October 29, instantly created a new virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (vMVPD) behemoth with nearly 6 million subscribers, making Disney the undisputed #2 virtual distributor in the country. This blackout, therefore, is the first major shot fired in a vMVPD-versus-vMVPD war.

The Commerce Department is sometimes referred to as the broom closet of the federal bureaucracy because of the vast—and unrelated—functions that it oversees. That portfolio includes both promoting economic growth through creating jobs and monitoring trade, and overseeing the Census Bureau and the National Weather Service. But according to several U.S. and foreign officials, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick assumed the role with a significant deficit in his grasp of trade, how to negotiate with foreign partners, and how to execute the president’s agenda. “He doesn’t understand tone, diplomacy, or even what he told the same country a few weeks prior,” one administration official, who has sat in several meetings with Lutnick, told us. “Many countries have come and said they don’t know how to engage Secretary Lutnick, since he seems unsure of his position week to week.”