Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission
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What’s Next for Broadband Expansion?
What we know about internet use, smartphone ownership and digital divides in the U.S.
Broadband Funding
Digital Equity
State/Local Initiatives
Wireless
Privacy
AI
Government & Communications
Affordability
Stories from Abroad
After years of waiting, states and territories will soon begin breaking ground on projects intended to expand access to high-speed internet nationwide under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. Although the timing and circumstances will vary by state, federal lawmakers should be aware of key markers that will shape how the implementation of BEAD is unfolding:
- States secure federal approval and receive funds
- States and internet service providers prepare for construction
- ISPs build networks and connect homes
- State and federal governments collect data and monitor progress
- States navigate uncertainty surrounding nondeployment funds
Delivering on BEAD’s ambitious promise will take more than strong plans. It will require dedicated coordination among all levels of government and industry, as well as a sustained focus on transparency and accountability.
Brightspeed acquired Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligations and support in nine states on October 3, 2022, as part of the acquisition of Lumen Technologies' incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiaries in twenty states. Brightspeed committed to fulfilling those obligations in connection with the Wireline Competition Bureau’s approval of the transfer of control. In the past three years, Brightspeed has enabled over 2.5 million locations with fiber, which is among the largest deployments in the United States over that time period. Brightspeed has completed or initiated deployment to enough locations to meet the first RDOF milestone, which was to enable 40 percent of the locations in each state by December 31, 2025. Even with this deployment, Brightspeed cannot say at this time that all of the required locations in each state have been deployed, have service availability, and are correctly associated with the required Broadband Serviceable Location FabricID, which is being implemented for the first time in 2026. Brightspeed provides this notice that, based on preliminary year-end data for 2025, it may not have met the RDOF 40 percent interim deployment milestone in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Commnet Wireless submitted a Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II build-out status notification for locations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. Commnet was required to deploy 100 percent of its authorized locations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada by December 31, 2025. Commnet’s initial data, which the company is continuing to review, shows that as of December 31, 2025, Commnet may not have reached the CAF Phase II deployment milestone in Arizona, and has not met the milestone in Colorado, Nevada or New Mexico. Commnet made substantial headway in 2025 and intends to fulfill the build-out by December 31, 2026. Commnet will continue to deploy broadband as expeditiously as possible and will submit its 2025 deployment data by March 2, 2026.
Findings on technology use and digital divides from Pew's 2025 survey include:
- Nine-in-ten U.S. adults use the internet daily, including 41 percent who say they’re online almost constantly.
- About eight-in-ten Americans say they subscribe to broadband at home.
- Over the years, some of the biggest and most consistent divides in home internet access have been by household income. That remains true today.
- Today, 16 percent of adults are “smartphone dependent” for internet use, meaning they have a smartphone but don’t subscribe to home broadband.
Nearly a third of Latino adults without home broadband rely on their smartphones for internet access. New analysis by the Pew Research Center finds that 28 percent of U.S. Latino adults are smartphone dependent, meaning they rely on their handheld device for internet access as opposed to broadband—also known as high-speed internet. Smartphone dependency among Latinos has more than doubled over the last decade. In a digital age when access to the internet has become an essential tool for everyday life, not having broadband access can limit one’s access to online healthcare and education resources, as well as job growth opportunities, according to the Federal Communications Commission. “ We’re at a point where [internet access] is essentially mandatory for life in the United States, if you were going to participate in nearly any aspect of civic life, social life, economic life, political life—connectivity is required,” said Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Research Director Caroline Stratton.
The industry spends a lot of time focusing on potential federal broadband regulation, and bills introduced in Congress get a lot of press. It’s easy to forget that a lot of broadband legislation happens at the State level. The National Conference of State Legislators tracks state legislation across the country and wrote an article summarizing state legislation related to broadband issues. 2025 was a busy year for broadband legislation, and there were over 600 broadband bills introduced in state legislatures, with 139 bills enacted into law. It’s likely that there will also be a lot of new legislation in 2026. States likely will tighten approval times for rights-of-way and permitting on state lands and highways to comply with the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. An area that is seeing a lot of discussion is data centers, and it seems likely that states will pass legislation that establishes rules related to the placement, energy use, and environmental issues related to new data centers. While not directly related to broadband, it seems likely that there will be a lot of new state regulations related to AI.
Reliable broadband statewide enables tangible improvements in every one of Maine’s government functions & development goals. Here are some in action:
- In 2025, the Utility Pole Data & Performance Working Group began convening, following recommendations submitted to the Maine Public Utilities Commission. This group works to overcome barriers to efficient pole attachments.
- As of 2025, there are more than 90 new telehealth locations that have launched across Maine. These telehealth locations offer access to healthcare for people in rural and remote communities.
- In 2025, after years of community planning, the Maine West area infrastructure project—$5,650,000 in partnership with FirstLight to connect 6,685 homes & businesses—came online. Based on this win, these communities are exploring working together to tackle other community needs as a region.
- In 2025, MCA provided testimony in support of LD 1: An Act to Increase Storm Preparedness for Maine’s Communities, Homes and Infrastructure, that created the Home Resiliency Program, which was subsequently signed into law.
- In 2025, MCA submitted recommendations to the Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee for improving tenant access to broadband services in multi-dwelling units, including choice for tenants in their internet provider and support for property owners.
- In 2025, MCA introduced the public-facing Connectivity Headquarters for Analysis, Research and Transparency. CHART is a centralized platform where everyone can see transparent data and information regarding connectivity in Maine.
High-speed internet expansion is coming to fruition in Oklahoma. Two broadband expansion projects administered by the Oklahoma Broadband Office and funded through the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund have officially closed out, bringing new high-speed internet access to residents and businesses in Washita and Greer (OK) counties. The projects, completed by Dobson Fiber, are delivering reliable, fiber-optic internet service to 366 locations in and around Burns Flat and Granite. With the availability of fiber-optic technology, residents will now have access to faster speeds, improved reliability, and enhanced connectivity to support education, healthcare, business development, and everyday needs.
AT&T’s FirstNet public safety network plans to offer satellite connectivity to first responders in the first half of 2026 to fill gaps in nationwide coverage. FirstNet President Scott Agnew said, “You need a layered approach when deploying a public safety network.” AT&T’s mobile network covers nearly 3 million square miles in the U.S. The company also uses a fleet of deployables such as cell-towers-on-wheels, which can be delivered to areas that have been hit by disasters. “Now, this is that satellite layer that's going to go fill out that white space area for public safety,” said Agnew. In fact, in December 2025, some public safety organizations connected to the FirstNet network in West Texas on AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites in orbit. AT&T’s commercial mobile network and the FirstNet public-safety network are tightly integrated, and they’re both working with the satellite operator AST SpaceMobile to provide satellite connectivity to consumers and first responders.
Recon Analytics has tracked consumer wireless and broadband behavior continuously since July 2022, accumulating almost 1.5 million survey responses across the US consumer telecommunications market. This weekly dataset captures the 5G era in real time, measuring satisfaction, churn intent, and competitive positioning at ZIP code granularity. Six years after the first nationwide commercial 5G networks in December 2019, the technology has delivered results that confound the original hype cycle. Some promises materialized in unexpected ways. Others collapsed entirely. This assessment identifies the three clearest victories and three most consequential disappointments, drawing exclusively on Recon Analytics proprietary survey data:
- Failure one: Millimeter wave never registered with consumers
- Failure two: Enterprise 5G differentiation remains minimal
- Failure three: No consumer killer app emerged
- Success one: Fixed wireless proves good enough beats premium
- Success two: Value carriers crush premium brands on satisfaction
- Success three: Network quality gains are real and measurable
[Roger Entner is an analyst and the Founder of Recon Analytics.]
Sens Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) reintroduced the Internet Application Integrity and Disclosure Act (S.3614) to help protect Americans online. This legislation would require operators of websites and mobile applications to disclose if their applications have been developed, are controlled, or store data within adversarial countries, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The Internet App ID Act would help prevent foreign adversaries—like China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea—from being able to utilize apps to store, expose, and transfer the personal data of American citizens without greater transparency. Failure to properly disclose or presenting false information would result in fines from the Federal Trade Commission. To better safeguard Americans’ data, the Internet App ID Act would:
- Require anyone who maintains a website or application to disclose whether:
- An app is owned, wholly or partially, by an adversarial country;
- An app stores or maintains user data within an adversarial country; or
- An adversarial country or a government-owned entity has access to user data.
- Allow the FTC to enforce violations of the law.
I am hereby "establish[ing] an AI Litigation Task Force (Task Force) whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws inconsistent with the policy." The Task Force shall challenge such State AI laws "on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by existing Federal regulations, or are otherwise unlawful." I or my designee will serve as the Chair of the Task Force, and the Associate Attorney General will serve as the Vice Chair. The Task Force will be further composed of representatives from the Office ofthe Deputy Attorney General, the Office ofthe Associate Attorney General, the Office ofthe Solicitor General, the Civil Division, and any other components or representatives that I may from time to time designate to assist in the Task Force's work. "The Task Force shall consult from time to time with the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President regarding the emergence of specific State AI laws that warrant challenge. "
America’s artificial intelligence (AI) boom is pushing the nation’s largest power-grid operator to the brink of a supply crisis. Sixty-seven million people in a 13-state region stretching from New Jersey to Kentucky get their power from a market operated by nonprofit PJM. So, too, do the many AI data centers springing up in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” which have a bottomless appetite for electricity. Rates are going up for consumers. Older power plants are going out of service faster than new ones can be built. And the grid’s capacity is in danger of maxing out during periods of high demand, which could force PJM to call for rolling blackouts during heat waves or deep freezes to avoid damaging grid infrastructure. Mark Christie, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that a few years ago, he considered the PJM blackout threat to be on the horizon. “Now I’m saying that the reliability risk is across the street,” he said. PJM expects power demand to grow by 4.8 percent a year, on average, for the next decade—an astonishing pace for a system that hasn’t had substantial demand growth in years.
Public discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) often focus on scale—massive data centers, rapidly expanding energy demands, and a race for ever-greater computing capacity. This narrative conveys an image of AI as a technology that will remain concentrated in the hands of major companies operating sophisticated, power-intensive facilities. In many ways, this mirrors the earliest era of computing, when mainframes defined the limits of what was possible and who could participate. While this centralized model reflects the current phase of AI development, history suggests that it is unlikely to be the final stage. Technologies that begin in highly centralized forms often evolve toward more personal and distributed ones. The rise of the personal computer (PC) is a good example of this progression. Once computing power moved from institutions to individual devices, innovation accelerated, access broadened, and society integrated technology in new and meaningful ways. AI may now be approaching a similar turning point. A growing share of intelligence is beginning to shift outward toward personal devices. This emerging trend signals the rise of personal AI where AI becomes more localized, context-aware, and tailored to individual users. Like the PC revolution, this transition holds significant implications for innovation, governance, privacy, and the broader AI ecosystem.
Given its diminished state and declining influence, network television might seem to be an odd prize in the Trump-era culture wars. But network television, which can still be received free by any home with an antenna, regularly draws a mass audience on the order of 10 million for “60 Minutes,” 7 million for ABC’s “World News Tonight,” and more than 100 million for the Super Bowl. The stations’ local newscasts are the only form of journalism that still rates well with members of both parties in polls on media trust. President Trump, who spent more than a decade as the star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” registers every televised knock on him as a serious political hit. Since his earliest days running for president, President Trump has demanded that the Federal Communications Commission punish the networks for any perceived mistreatment by stripping them of their licenses. Few took the demands seriously, in part because they were based on an erroneous premise: The FCC does not, in fact, license ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox—it licenses the hundreds of affiliated local television stations that broadcast their content over the public airwaves, some of which are independently operated and some of which are owned by the networks themselves.
A recent post from the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society declared, “Broadband Prices Increased in 2025.” But the data discussed in the piece tells a more nuanced and far less alarming story for consumers. According to the Federal Communications Commission Urban Rate Survey data cited by Benton, price declines were widespread across the plans most households actually use. “Prices for mid-tier plans...declined 8.5% in real terms between 2024 and 2025,” said Benton Senior Fellow John Horrigan, and “lower tier plans also witnessed price declines” of 13.4 percent. The reason the average advertised broadband price appears to rise is clearly acknowledged. The increase is driven by the growing availability and adoption of “expensive high-speed plans … driving up average broadband prices.” This could suggest a voluntary shift by a subset of consumers toward ultra-high-speed premium offerings, not an across-the-board increase in the cost of internet service. And even this apparent phenomenon is by no means definitive. Looking at FCC data from 2024 and 2025, the actual average rates paid for some ultra-high-speed plans (e.g., 500/50 Mbps, 2000/1000 Mbps) have decreased, not increased.
For most of Iran, the internet was shut off on January 8—the most severe blackout the country has seen in years of internet shutdowns, coming after days of escalating anti-government protests. For a very small sliver of the country, it is still possible to get photos and videos to the outside world, and even to make calls. The Telegram channel Vahid Online posted photos of dead bodies lying next to a street in Kahrizak, on the southern outskirts of Tehran; it also shared a video of Iranians chanting “death to Khamenei” at a funeral. Some of these videos and messages are transmitted through an ecosystem of online tools designed to bypass censorship—among them Telegram proxies and a browser called Ceno, said Amir Rashidi, an Iranian digital rights expert. By far the most significant parts of this system are Starlink terminals, which connect to the internet via thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit, and have been smuggled into Iran en masse over the past two years. Those who are using them risk their lives.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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