On Friday, May 9, 2025, the Trump Administration began notifying states that their Digital Equity Act Capacity Grant funds were terminated. The day prior, President Donald Trump shared via Truth Social that he and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are determined to bring an end to the Digital Equity Act and its “unconstitutional” and “illegal” programs. In 2021, Congress included the Digital Equity Act in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to give U.S. states, territories, and Tribal entities the tools they need to help people get online and use the internet. These governments have completed their plans and, until May 9th, were preparing to implement programs to improve digital literacy, access to affordable internet-connected devices, provide technical support, and increase awareness of privacy and cybersecurity. The digital divide is multifaceted. Some 24 million people in the U.S. lack high-speed internet service in their homes, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Many households can’t afford service when it is available. And many millions have not adopted broadband because they lack the skills and/or devices to do so. The Digital Equity Act primarily aims to address these issues around broadband adoption.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) granted a limited waiver of the support reduction schedule for certain recipients of Connect America Fund (CAF) high-cost support that missed the July 1, 2024 network performance testing certification deadline. The Bureau finds good cause to consider a carrier to have certified its network performance testing based on when it contacted the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) about its certification.  Specifically, for carriers that contacted USAC prior to the July 1, 2024 deadline, the FCC waives the certification deadline if the carrier clearly communicated that it did not have data to submit for certain quarters or if it notified USAC that it had technical difficulties testing or with the USAC system.  For carriers that contacted USAC after the July 1, 2024 deadline, the FCC will consider the date the carrier contacted or responded to USAC as the certification date.  The FCC will consider carriers that had no subscribers to test to have timely certified their network performance testing.

This study examines the offerings of 21 broadband providers across four U.S. cities (Boston, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Seattle) to assess trends in consumer broadband pricing and availability. The objectives were: (1) to understand the expected cost of home broadband service in the United States and how this varied across different user classes, (2) to evaluate how these trends vary across the country’s cities and regions, and (3) to assess the availability of super high-speed plans across providers. Key findings include: 

• 500Mbps is increasingly becoming the entry-level speed; however, 1 and 2 Gbps still command a price premium 
• Some differences exist between operators, but similar pricing dynamics were present across all four cities 

Communications Workers of America in Ohio are speaking out against using federal dollars to subsidize satellite Internet providers like Elon Musk’s Starlink. "Satellite Internet service is a terrible use of public funds,” said the CWA in their signed petitions to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is planning to make changes to the $42.45 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, with some betting he will require states to spend less on fiber and more on satellite broadband to close the digital divide.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced initial findings and anticipated savings resulting from a top-to-bottom review of agency contracts.  The FCC has undertaken this review consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order 14222, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative.”  The FCC’s initial work has reviewed contracts with a focus on identifying areas of redundancy and overspending.  To support this effort, the FCC stood up an internal DOGE team composed of FCC staff and coordinated with the government’s DOGE representatives. Through a combination of scaling down and terminating contracts, the FCC has reduced the total contract ceiling value by more than $567 million. This figure represents cumulative savings from eliminating spending authorization under numerous contracts over multiple years.  In the near term, the elimination or modification of contracts has generated more than $6.7 million in savings for the remainder of 2025 from the cancellation of obligated spending.  In addition, this effort has also generated more than $21.1 million in savings for 2026, effectively reducing planned contract spending for 2026 by 20 percent. Contract cancellations and modifications thus far have included a wide range of agency work.  Specifically, the review resulted in savings and efficiencies from the elimination or reduction of contracts for redundant or duplicative IT services, lightly used periodicals and press, unnecessary hog trapping services, tasks more efficiently done in-house, IT licenses exceeding the number of active users, and projects completed ahead of schedule or without exhausting the planned budget, among other circumstances. This review effort remains ongoing. More broadly, the Commission is working to improve agency efficiency by removing unnecessary rules and regulations.  Its “In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative seeks to identify outdated and overly burdensome regulations that should be repealed.  Its dormant docket proceeding seeks to terminate over 2,000 official proceedings that have become dormant and no longer serve a purpose for the American people.