The Federal Communications Commission is committing over $40 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. These funding commitments support applications from the third application window, benefiting approximately 100,000 students across the country, including students in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin. This announcement will fund applications from the third application window that will support over 275 schools, 15 libraries, and 5 consortia.

Governor Laura Kelly (D-KS) announced that $44.5 million will be awarded to nine service providers to extend high-speed internet to 18,468 locations in 15 underserved counties across the state. This is the third and final award phase of the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Broadband Infrastructure Program. The CPF program provides funding to make broadband connections in critical areas of the state that lack access to high-speed internet. The $83.5 million total CPF investment, combined with almost $42 million in matching funds, will result in more than 24,500 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other public institutions being connected to fast, reliable internet for the first time. The targeted counties have as few as five locations per square mile, which until now has prevented providers from investing the resources needed to deliver a quality broadband option. The CPF Grant Program provides the funding needed to implement high-speed broadband in these areas of the state.  [more at the link below]

Time is running out for wireless internet service providers (WISPs) to change the government’s mind about unlicensed spectrum. With pressure mounting, Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) CEO David Zumwalt sent a fresh letter to the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) warning its current rules could lead to $8.6 billion in broadband subsidy money being spent on areas that are already covered by fixed wireless access services using unlicensed airwaves. WISPA says NTIA's rule would impact a large subset of WISPs which have long used unlicensed spectrum as a low-cost, flexible option to reach rural areas. By deviating from precedent and marking these locations as unserved, Zumwalt argued, the NTIA could end up wasting as much as $8.6 billion in BEAD money trying to run fiber to areas already receiving 25/3 Mbps or 100/20 Mbps service. The $8.6 billion number stems from analyst calculations that the cost to deploy fiber to each of the 1.92 million locations currently served by unlicensed fixed-wireless access could be as high as $4,500.

Fitting the monthly cost of a broadband subscription into a low-income household budget is difficult, to say the least, because of the costs of competing necessities like lodging, food, and healthcare. These financial pressures—and unexpected expenses—keep too many people in the U.S. from subscribing to home broadband service—or cause them to drop service at times to make ends meet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress recognized these obstacles for low-income people and created a program—first called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program—to reduce the monthly costs of connectivity. With passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, Congress turned the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit Program into a longer-term subsidy. Launched in January 2022 with $14.2 billion in funding, the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a critical component of the ongoing federal investment in broadband adoption. Eligible households receive $30/month (and up to $75/month on Tribal lands) to defray the cost of internet service, as well as up to $100 towards the purchase of a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers. On January 18, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society hosted a panel discussion on ACP enrollment. Drew Garner, the State Broadband Policy Advisor at Common Sense Media, moderated the panel. He began the discussion by noting the three steps low-income households must complete before they begin enjoying ACP benefits: first, they must confirm that their household is eligible to participate in the program; then they must complete an application to be enrolled in ACP; and, finally, they must choose an internet service provider and pick a plan to subscribe to.

It’s rather surprising that despite the fact that billions of dollars are about to be distributed to US states from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act for the purpose of closing the digital divide, there are no major government initiatives to establish community Wi-Fi in urban areas. The only federal funds currently available to help people access Wi-Fi are through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides discounts for internet service to eligible low-income households. And there might also be a smattering of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) projects still getting funds for Wi-Fi. Despite the lack of a national vision to provide Wi-Fi to close the digital divide, community Wi-Fi does exist in the US. In locales ranging from New York City to Council Bluffs (IA) to San Jose (CA) some municipalities have established Wi-Fi networks for the benefit of their citizens. And they seem to be successful. 

The Federal Trade Commission opened a claims process for former AT&T customers who have yet to claim a refund stemming from the FTC’s lawsuit against the company for misleading consumers about its unlimited data plans. Former AT&T customers may be eligible to claim a refund from the $7 million remaining in a fund created to settle allegations that the wireless provider charged for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, a practice known as throttling. The FTC in 2019 required AT&T to provide $60 million for refunds for failing to disclose to millions of smartphone customers with unlimited data plans that once they reached a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T would reduce or throttle their data speeds. Some customers experienced data speeds so slow that many common phone applications, such as web browsing and video streaming, became difficult or nearly impossible to use. AT&T has not been able to reach everyone who was eligible for a refund. The FTC is using the remaining $7 million from the fund to provide partial refunds to consumers who meet all these requirements:

• They are a former AT&T customer;
• They had an unlimited data plan at some point between October 1, 2011, and June 30, 2015;
• They experienced data throttling; and
• They have not received a bill credit or payment from AT&T related to this matter.

Consumers who meet these requirements can submit a claim online at www.ftc.gov/ATT. Consumers can contact the claims administrator by calling 1-877-654-1982 or emailing info@ATTDataThrottling.com if they have questions or if they would like to request a claim form. Consumers have until May 18, 2023, to submit a claim.

As if household budgets were not already under enough pressure, millions of broadband and mobile phone customers look set to face rises of more than 14% in their monthly bills from April 2023. BT, TalkTalk, Three, and Vodafone are among the big operators that are contractually allowed to increase their bills in line with the previous year’s inflation rate, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) in December – plus a further 3%-3.9% on top. If the increases are passed on in full, as many experts expect, it would result in home broadband customers typically paying about £50 ($60) a year more, while mobile phone customers on expensive contracts could face rises of more than £100 ($123). The Office for National Statistics said the CPI rate fell back slightly to 10.5%. It means there is nothing to stop the telecommunications providers from increasing bills by 13%-14.4%. Although suppliers could surprise customers and withhold part of the increase, consumers can start looking forward to a flurry of announcements before April. Companies have to give customers 30 days’ notice of price increases but have so far been tight-lipped as to whether bills will rise by the maximum. Consumer groups are calling on households who are out of the contract to use this as a catalyst to move to a new deal.