After the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep broadband divide across the country, lawmakers said the recently passed infrastructure bill will connect many communities that struggled as much of daily life moved online. The newly passed infrastructure bill allocates $65 billion for broadband access, aimed at rural areas, lower-income populations and Tribal communities. Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) recalled how students in his state were unable to attend classes at the start of the pandemic because they didn’t have access to broadband. “One young man who was from my county said, ‘That’s not going to help me. We don’t have broadband in my town. What am I going to do, go to McDonalds?” This continues to be an issue for millions of students who are in hybrid or virtual school environments. An even larger number of students are “under-connected”, meaning they have internet devices in their home with slow connectivity. The Pew Research Center found that Black and Hispanic adults are less likely than white adults to have access to high speed internet connection or computer devices. Pew also found that 34 percent of households making less than $30,000 a year had trouble paying for broadband amidst the pandemic outbreak. The infrastructure legislation plans to address the discrepancies across these groups. Upton said the stakes for success are high. “Broadband today is similar to what the interstate highway system identified as a need with President Eisenhower in the 50s,” he said.

On November 15, President Biden signed the historic, bi-partisan infrastructure law, which provides $65 billion in funding for broadband deployment and adoption programs. By far, the most significant new deployment program is the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will oversee and States/Territories will implement by issuing grants to broadband providers. NTCA and ACA Connects have joined to establish the BEAD Program State-by-State Tracking Project. As NTIA awards funding to each State/Territory in 2022 and as each State/Territory moves forward to award grants, we will be providing NTCA and ACA Connects Members with State/Territory reports that include up-to-date information about requirements and actions for each State/Territory, including the terms and conditions a State/Territory has adopted for awarding deployment grants and the deadlines for applying for those grants, as well as for the process for challenging whether a location is unserved or underserved. We hope that this project will empower you to help your State/Territory benchmark to how other jurisdictions are implementing the BEAD program, recognizing what might constitute best practices and effective timelines for distribution of funds.

Boost Mobile said it’s going after the big three carriers head-on with a new annual unlimited plan that costs $25 per month. It’s the latest in what the Dish-owned prepaid brand is calling “Carrier Crusher” plans. The first launched in November 2021 offering wireless service with talk text and 1GB of data for an annual price of $100. That targeted customers who use less than 10GB of data per month, while the new focus is on unlimited. Both new and existing customers can get the latest no-frills unlimited plan that includes talk, text and data. Notably, users have to prepay for a full year, so $300 upfront plus taxes, and data speeds are slowed after using 35GB each month. Still Boost said it’s intent on capturing the tens of millions who pay over $60 on average for their wireless service per month and claimed it can save customers up to $400 per year when switching from major carriers. Boost is introing low-cost unlimited plans at a time when MoffettNathanson analysts say the wireless industry is more competitive on price than usual. The firm believes competition between major carriers for 5G subscribers has largely been reduced to who will offer the biggest discounts. 

The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission "alleging [Amazon] is unlawfully deceiving millions of consumers." According to the complaint, Amazon is doing so by "failing to 'clearly and conspicuously' disclose which of its search engine results are paid advertisements rather than 'organic' search results." SOC stated it has conducted an analysis of over 130,000 Amazon product search results and found that the company was "substantially or entirely out of compliance with all the FTC's specific guidelines for the visual identification of online advertisements on search engine pages intended to ensure that consumers are able to distinguish advertisements from organic search results." The study by SOC also found that one-quarter of all search results were third-party advertisements, which they said adds to the level of consumer harm. "Amazon is clearly violating the proscription on consumer deception under Section 5 of the FTC Act," says the complaint. "Accordingly, SOC requests that the [FTC] investigate Amazon’s deceptive advertising practices and take swift and forceful action to halt these consumer abuses."

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in consultation with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, has appointed members to serve on the re-chartered Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States. In its second term, the Task Force will continue its work to provide advice and recommendations to the FCC on accelerating the deployment of broadband Internet access service on unserved agricultural land to promote precision agriculture. The Task Force's work will include: (1) Mapping and Analyzing Connectivity on Agricultural Lands; (2) Examining Current and Future Connectivity Demand for Precision Agriculture; (3) Encouraging Adoption of Precision Agriculture and Availability of High-Quality Jobs on Connected Farms; (4) Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands. Chairwoman Rosenworcel has designated Teddy Bekele, Land O’Lakes Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, to serve a second term as Chair of the Task Force, and Dr. Michael Adelaine, CIO & Special Advisor to the President, South Dakota State University, to serve as Vice Chair.

The Task Force will hold its first meeting on Thursday, January 13, 2022, beginning at 10:00 am EST. The primary agenda of the Task Force’s first meeting will be to introduce members of the Task Force, describe the focus of each working group, review the policies relevant to the Task Force’s duties, and begin discussing strategies to advance broadband deployment on agricultural land and promote precision agriculture. This agenda may be modified at the discretion of the Task Force Chair and the Designated Federal Officer.