The findings from the three Communications Equity and Diversity Council working groups offer guidance to states and localities seeking to prohibit “digital discrimination” in broadband deployment, adoption, and use, as well as in the contracting and grants processes for funds related to forthcoming broadband infrastructure. This is a starting point for further deliberations and actions that promote increased deployment, adoption, and use of high-speed broadband that not only make it easier for populations to engage in daily activities of remote work, learning, and health care, but also encourage affordable and widely deployed connectivity. The three combined draft reports and recommendations from each of the Working Groups present a series of critical and distinguishable next steps for the Federal Communications Commission to consider with findings largely extracted from structured interviews with subject matter experts and secondary research.

Heartland Forward is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “think and do tank” focused on improving economic performance in the center of the United States. Its Connecting the Heartland initiative aims to boost internet availability, speeds, and adoption rates across America’s heartland. With the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration distributing $42.5 billion to states for broadband infrastructure deployment, community engagement and planning are paramount if federal funds are to be used effectively and efficiently. Angie Cooper, chief program officer at Heartland Forward, said, “With unprecedented federal funding to increase access to high-speed internet, it is so important for local communities to have the tools necessary to create a plan to ensure their residents are connected as soon as possible.” Heartland Forward collaborated with the Illinois Office of Broadband and University of Illinois Extension and supported the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society to lead the Accelerate Illinois Broadband Infrastructure Planning Program, helping communities get ready to leverage federal and state funds for community-driven broadband expansion. The 14-week Accelerate program, and this guidebook, focus on engaging community leaders to develop broadband plans to address their unique connectivity needs.

As it gears up to meet a goal of full broadband connectivity by 2025, Washtenaw County (MI) has launched a digital map that tracks its progress, thanks to American Rescue Plan Act dollars and general county funds. Lack of broadband is a huge detriment to any county and its residents, particularly in the sectors of education, healthcare, employment, and business development, said Washtenaw County Commissioner Jason Maciejewski. “This goes way beyond simply trying to stream movies and music online — these are really things that impact people’s everyday lives, their ability to get broadband level internet service,” Commissioner Maciejewski said. The county contracted with DCS Technology Design to tackle rural broadband in its gap-filling effort. Chris Scharrer, CEO of DCS, drove to each house in the county’s 15 townships that had been identified as not fully serviced to create an accurate map that determined the scope of what needed to be done for the county and could be updated in real time for its residents. 

In January 2020, under former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY), New York City released an ambitious $2.1 billion plan for universal broadband across the city — the first effort of any large US city to strategize delivery of equitable internet access to all its residents. The proposal was to build a “neutral host” infrastructure that could be shared by multiple internet operators rather than a single company, increasing competition to the entrenched private companies that had failed to address New York’s digital divide. In forging this infrastructure, the city would provide opportunities for community-based providers to use the city-owned property for expanded, affordable service. Hearings with the Office of Technology and Innovation — a new agency under current Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) — in May revealed that the plan was being put on hold and re-evaluated. And then, this September, Mayor Adams announced Big Apple Connect, a partnership with Altice and Charter to bring affordable service to the 300,000 New Yorkers living in public housing. Sources point out that by abandoning the Internet Master Plan the city is likely to lose out on federal funding from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which allocates $65 billion to increase broadband access and will prioritize under-connected communities. It’s an unfortunate end for a plan that positioned itself as the first effort of a big US city to strategize delivery of equitable internet access to all its residents. “Other cities will be looking at us now, and they might think the best way to address digital equity is the Big Apple Connect approach, and that’s not the message we want the country to see,” said co-founder of Silicon Harlem, Clayton Banks. “A plan must be in favor of the people, not the providers,” Banks says.

An offshore company that is trusted by the major web browsers and other tech companies to vouch for the legitimacy of websites has connections to contractors for US intelligence agencies and law enforcement, according to security researchers, documents, and interviews. Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, nonprofit Firefox, and others allow the company, TrustCor Systems, to act as what’s known as a root certificate authority, a powerful spot in the internet’s infrastructure that guarantees websites are not fake, guiding users to them seamlessly. The company’s Panamanian registration records show that it has the identical slate of officers, agents, and partners as a spyware maker identified as an affiliate of Arizona-based Packet Forensics, which public contracting records and company documents show has sold communication interception services to US government agencies for more than a decade. TrustCor’s products include an email service that claims to be end-to-end encrypted, though experts said they found evidence to undermine that claim. A test version of the email service also included spyware developed by a Panamanian company related to Packet Forensics, researchers said. 

Northleaf Capital Partners acquired a controlling interest in Mercury Broadband and will invest up to $230 million over the next several years to support the provider’s expansion plans. Mercury Broadband, also known as Mercury Wireless, won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money to cover some of the costs of deploying a combination of fixed wireless and fiber broadband to unserved and underserved rural areas of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. Northleaf, a “global private markets investment firm,” raised $21 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments from public, corporate and multi-employer pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. The company currently has 500 active investments.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hopes the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections will help break the longstanding 2-2 tie on the regulatory commission, but she also defended the body’s deadlocked body’s record during her leadership. “We’ve turned the noise down, and turned up the number of things we’re getting done,” she said, alluding to the commission’s profile under her predecessor as chair, Ajit Pai. At the behest of former President Trump, Pai spearheaded a series of dramatic rollbacks of longstanding media rules when the five-member commission tilted 3-2 in favor of the Republicans. With Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump, Pai then stepped down. But the Democrats’ nominee, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], has seen her prospects stymied by the Senate. The former FCC staffer and progressive activist has yet to receive a full vote in the Senate despite the usual dynamic of the commission leaning toward the party of the president. The Senate’s current 50-50 tie leans toward the Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris can step in to break ties, but many centrists have raised concerns about Sohn. Chairwoman Rosenworcel said she is rooting for Election Day to provide more clear direction for the FCC. Despite the gridlock, Chairwoman Rosenworcel said, “We’ve done a lot.” She listed accomplishments in areas like affordable broadband, national security, network security. spectrum auctions, and responding to climate change. Chairwoman Rosenworcel noted that her tenure as the first woman chair in the 87-year history of the FCC began during the deadlock, so that’s the only operating environment she has known from her leadership seat.