Comcast is delaying a plan to enforce its 1.2TB data cap and overage fees in the Northeast US until 2022 after pressure from customers and lawmakers in multiple states. Comcast has enforced the data cap in 27 of the 39 states in which it operates since 2016, but not in the Northeast states where Comcast faces competition from Verizon's un-capped FiOS fiber-to-the-home service. In Nov 2020, Comcast announced it would bring the cap to the other 12 states and DC starting in Jan 2021. But with Feb 18's announcement, no one in those 12 states and DC will be charged overage fees by Comcast in all of 2021. The delay applies to CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NC, NY, PA, VT, WV, and DC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of broadband Internet connectivity into focus as work, school, healthcare, and more shift online. Internet connectivity is more important than ever in keeping our lives moving. The $1 million Expanding Potential in Communities (EPIC) Grant program supports broadband initiatives in the southeastern United States, funded by Truist Financial Corporation’s Truist Cares initiative, a $50 million philanthropic pledge to help rebuild communities in the company’s markets affected by COVID-19. As the administrating partner, the Internet Society will support local broadband expansion by funding complementary Internet connectivity solutions to help alleviate disparities in education, employment, and social welfare that are exacerbated by lack of access to broadband. The $1 million Truist EPIC Grant will be distributed starting in April 2021 to as many as seven cooperative broadband projects in funds between $125,000 and $180,000. Applications are due March 5. 

The heads of three leading broadband trade associations sent a letter to the White House urging stronger action on universal broadband access. Chip Pickering from INCOMPAS, who represents competitive fiber and fixed wireless builders, Shirley Bloomfield of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association representing rural providers and Jonathan Adelstein from WIA who counts wireless infrastructure companies members signed the letter calling on the Biden Administration to make “Broadband for All” central to its COVID-19 recovery efforts as infrastructure investment will stimulate education, telemedicine and small business growth. The associations call for action that targets underserved areas that need it most, helping low-income Americans stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide purchase broadband services at affordable prices. The letter calls for federal investment in wired, wireless and 5G infrastructure and better state and local coordination to remove barriers to deployment, ensuring that funding from the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit Program and future investments reach families and communities in need faster.

The faulty Federal Communications Commission national broadband map has essentially made millions of Americans without fast internet "invisible," as Microsoft put it, and unless the data improve, they're likely to remain so. But there's reason to be hopeful. Thanks to $65 million in funding from Congress in Dec, the FCC now will require internet service providers to share more detailed data, giving a better picture of what areas are unserved by broadband. It will also have to open the map to public feedback, letting people flag when something is wrong and providing more data points on gaps. On Feb 17 at the FCC's monthly meeting, Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel launched a new task force to fix the data, saying "it's no secret that the FCC's existing broadband maps leave a lot to be desired."

But some experts say the new mapping parameters still aren't granular enough, and the new maps almost certainly will arrive too late to help people during the pandemic. The updated data likely won't be available until at least 2022, acknowledged the Broadband Data Task Force's chair, Jean Kiddoo. The FCC still hasn't "gotten rid of the 'could provide service' versus 'does provide service,'" said Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn. That hides areas where people may be disconnected for affordability reasons or other factors that contribute to the digital divide. Under the new rules, ISPs can only count an area as covered if it could set up a connection within 10 business days of a customer's request and without requiring resources or construction costs higher than an ordinary service activation fee.

While the maps may be better than what came before, they likely will still not be enough to truly give an accurate picture of where broadband exists, experts say. Unwilling to wait for the federal government, Maine, Pennsylvania, Georgia and other states have set out to build their own maps, drawing on speed test data, specific information from ISPs about what homes they serve, and other resources to find out where their gaps are. 

A group of K-12 organizations has banded together to urge the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate cybersecurity purchases into the E-rate program. The goal of the 35-page petition is to help school districts protect their networks and data by expanding E-rate in three ways:

• By defining all firewall and related features as "basic" beginning in funding year 2021;
• Increasing E-rate's five-year Category 2 budget cap in future funding years to support additional cybersecurity investments; and
• Updating the agency's definition of "broadband" to include cybersecurity.

The filing was done by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN); the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA); the State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance (SECA); the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed); Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB); and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS).