The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awards North Carolina with its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. North Carolina is receiving $6,415,614.32 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable, high-speed Internet throughout the state.  North Carolina will receive $5 million in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grants to fund:

• Increasing capacity of the state broadband office;
• Identification of unserved and underserved locations;
• Improving existing programs of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology;
• Engagements with public and stakeholder input throughout the development of the state's five-year plan;
• Supplementing county government capacity focused on broadband infrastructure and digital equity planning and program delivery.

North Carolina will receive $1,415,614.32 in Digital Equity Act grants to fund:

• Development of a Statewide Digital Equity Plan;
• Creation of a Core Planning Team where at least one member will also serve on the BEAD planning team;
• Deployment of surveys and hosting of listening sessions to understand the barriers faced towards Internet adoption;
• Subgrants to organizations across the state that serve underserved or underrepresented populations.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awards Delaware its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. Delaware is receiving $5,511,209.05 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jbs Act to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet throughout the state. Delaware will receive $4,995,113 in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grants to fund various activities including:

• Identification of unserved and underserved locations;
• Planning and capacity building of Delaware's Department of Technology & Information for broadband deployment;
• Development of a workforce strategy with key partners to recruit and train residents for employment in infrastructure projects;
• Surveys of unserved, underserved, and underrepresented communities to better understand barriers to high-speed Internet adoption

Delaware will receive $516,096.05 in Digital Equity Act grants to fund various activities including:

• Creation of a Delaware Digital Equity plan;
• Engagement with stakeholder communities;
• Subawards to support stakeholder capacity development in three counties.

The Federal Communications Commission announced details for two pilot program opportunities to promote the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) nationwide. The pilot program outreach grants seek to enlist trusted community messengers to develop innovative outreach strategies to reach historically unserved and underserved communities, including those serving recipients of federal housing assistance and communities interested in launching digital navigator programs. The FCC is issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for up to $5 million for the Your Home, Your Internet Pilot Program (YHYI) Outreach Grants and up to $5 million for the ACP Navigator Pilot Program (NPP) Outreach Grants. Eligible applicants must submit applications by January 9, 2023, 9:00 p.m. EST. This NOFO will only apply to pilot participants seeking grant funds, those participants who will self-fund the pilot will not be required to adhere to the NOFO requirements.

• The Your Home, Your Internet Pilot Program (YHYI) Outreach Grants provide funding to eligible state, local, and Tribal housing agencies or non-profit organizations, community-based organizations, and tenant association partners to federal, state, local, or Tribal housing agencies for outreach activities to increase awareness and encourage participation in the Affordable Connectivity Program for households receiving federal housing assistance. The one-year pilot program will allow the FCC to test the best methods for helping consumers receiving qualifying federal housing assistance available through Department of Housing and Urban Development programs and administered at the federal, Tribal, regional, and local level to learn about and enroll in the ACP. YHYI funding will only be provided to entities that are selected to participate in the Your Home, Your Internet Pilot Program.
• The ACP Navigator Pilot Program (NPP) Outreach Grants is a one-year pilot program that provides funding to support outreach activities by trusted, neutral third-party entities, such as schools and school districts or other local or state government entities, with access to the National Verifier for purposes of assisting consumers with applying for the ACP. NPP funding will only be provided to entities that are selected to participate in the ACP Navigator Pilot Program.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the first version of its new broadband map, marking a major step toward the distribution of $42.5 billion in funding for network expansions across the country. The maps are set to be used by the government to calculate which states will get the most money from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, with more funding going to those areas with the most unserved locations. But while $42.5 billion seems like a boatload of cash (and, objectively, it is), I’m not convinced it’ll be enough to close the country’s broadband gap. Back in April of 2022, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) chief Alan Davidson set an ambitious target for the BEAD program: ensure 100% of the population has access to broadband offering speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. But officials will have their hands full. The FCC map shows 11.2% of locations in the country lack access to wired or licensed fixed wireless access service offering speeds that meet the aforementioned 100/20 Mbps benchmark. That might not seem like much of a gap to bridge, but it’s likely that many of the locations that are unserved remain so because they’re hard to serve – either physically or financially. For context, many of the large operators in the US which have undertaken massive fiber expansions have cited costs per passing ranging from $500 to $1,400. One broadband project in Alaska funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect program came with a $203,700 cost per passing. Others in Texas and Michigan had price tags of $77,000 and $63,000 per passing, respectively. Simple math shows $42.5 billion divided by $12,000 means the NTIA has money to reach 3.5 million locations. At $200,000 per passing, the number of locations it can cover falls all the way to 212,500. While this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, since more than one person can live at a single location, it provides some sense of the scale of the problem.

In Texas, many communities have leveraged creative financing methods for assessing and installing broadband in their communities. If effectively deployed, incoming federal and state broadband funding will create opportunities to bridge longstanding access gaps in low-income and rural communities. The report provides key recommendations for federal, state, local, nonprofit, and community leaders. For federal leaders, the report recommends the following:

• Build flexibility into programs to enable local leaders to tailor solutions to residents’ needs. Further, clear guidance about what is and is not allowed helps communities ensure that their broadband plans do not compromise other funding opportunities.
• Develop comprehensive solutions that promote opportunities for residents to take part in federal programs. Funding directed toward broadband projects should also include outreach funding community outreach and collaborations with trusted community messengers.
• Prepare and support local efforts to hold grantees accountable for serving their communities as promised in the applicant’s federal grant applications.

For state leaders, the report recommends:

• Expand local autonomy over broadband. Local leaders have built-in accountability and earned community trust. Franchise agreements are one area where local autonomy has been limited over the last two decades. Restoring that authority would benefit Texas residents who look to their local leaders for answers to questions about why broadband is not reaching their neighborhoods.
• Coordinate with local leaders on state and regional planning. Collaboration is needed long before programs launch. Ongoing workgroups also ensure that network infrastructure is frequently maintained and upgraded.
• Support community-led broadband programs to compound funding impacts, meeting residents where they are already familiar with accessing services.

For local leaders, the report recommends:

• Conduct listening sessions to capture feedback directly from residents. Also, record local broadband availability and adoption needs to highlight gaps in state and federal datasets.
• Develop partnerships with regional and state leaders to coordinate efforts to identify resources, develop knowledge efficiencies, and create sustainable and expandable broadband initiatives.

For nonprofit leaders, the report recommends: 

• Explore mission overlap areas to develop intersectional broadband initiatives.
• Identify barriers to broadband adoption. Oftentimes, they reveal opportunities to fill local needs in partnership with community-based organizations.

For community leaders, the report recommends:

• Get involved in local broadband projects in your community. Volunteer-driven programs expand capacity and invite systemic change from residents.
• Encourage local, nonprofit, and other community leaders to prioritize high-quality broadband for all residents and bring the pressing need for ubiquitous connectivity to the forefront of policy discussions

This report provides an overview of existing historic inequities among low-income Black, Latinx, and Native American kindergarten through twelfth grade (“K-12”) students which have carried over to digital classroom settings, and have been exacerbated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The detrimental effects that the digital divide has on low-income students of color are detailed in the analysis. Additionally, this study emphasizes the importance of advocacy and cultural competency when addressing broadband gaps among marginalized students, explaining how community-based initiatives can serve as models for implementation. The report concludes with recommendations for ensuring academic success for K-12 low-income students of color as the country becomes more reliant on technology.  "Cultural competency" means focusing on, and respecting, the individual cultures of minority students to prevent the erasure of said cultures in the classroom. Key takeaways:

• Access to the Internet and digital devices is a civil right because they are proven to be necessary for baseline educational opportunities. If students do not have Internet access in a digital society, they cannot have equal educational access.
• History indicates that barriers to accessing an adequate education for students of color are structural issues rooted in race and class. These foundational barriers must be addressed to understand the multi-dimensional ways digital inequities falter education.
• Community-based initiatives centering on advocacy and cultural competency are critical for providing K-12 low-income students of color with access to the Internet, digital devices, and digital literacy.
• More research needs to be conducted on digital inequities among K-12, employing a critical lens to identify gaps in broadband, access, and adoption.

When AT&T’s bold megadeal to buy Time Warner was announced in October 2016, combining AT&T’s broadband and wireless networks with Time Warner content, many analysts and investors cheered. They loved the promise of cutting out the cable middleman and delivering entertainment directly to people’s TVs, laptops, and phones. With Hillary Clinton seemingly poised to be the next president, the regulatory landscape looked favorable. While the AT&T executives acknowledged that they knew next to nothing about Hollywood, they had proven entertainment executives running Time Warner’s divisions. They thought they could bring AT&T’s vast storehouse of consumer data — even artificial intelligence — to the notoriously uncertain task of greenlighting movies and TV shows. Less than four years after the merger, AT&T abandoned its grand initiative. It spun off its Warner Media assets and ceded management control to Discovery. The new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, took on $43 billion of AT&T’s debt, and AT&T shareholders kept 71 percent of the company, a stake worth less than $20 billion. That amounts to a loss of about $47 billion for AT&T shareholders, based on AT&T’s $109 billion valuation of the deal at the time it was announced.