The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) that provides a discount for millions of homes will disappear unless Congress takes action to continue it. Most big internet service providers (ISPs) have announced how they will handle broadband for low-income homes after the end of ACP. 

• Altice Optimum provides the Optimum Advantage Internet plan that provides 50 Mbps download speed for $14.99 per month.
• AT&T will still offer its Access from AT&T plan for $30 per month that provides unlimited usage at 100 Mbps.
• Charter will continue to offer the Spectrum Internet Assist plan, which offers 50 Mbps download speeds for $24.99 per month.
• Comcast is going to keep its Internet Essentials plan that provides speeds up to 50 Mbps for $9.95 per month. Plan participants can also buy a low-cost basic computer. Comcast is going to let customers who were enrolled in ACP rollover to Internet Essentials without having to go through the qualification process again. But it looks like customers will have to choose the rollover option and it’s not automatic.
• Cox Communications will continue to offer two plans. First is its Connect2Compete plan that provides a $9.95 monthly broadband connection to families with a child in grades K-12 who qualifies for the national School Lunch Program or other federal programs. Cox also has a ConnectAssist plan for $30 per month for other families who qualify for a list of federal programs. Both plans deliver speeds up to 100 Mbps.
• Frontier will allow customer who were using ACP to instead get the $9.25 FCC Lifeline discount.
• Mediacom offers the Xtreme Connect plan for low-income households for $28.99 per month.
• T-Mobile has several plans for customers who are already using the ACP discount. Customers of Assure Wireless will continue to get the equivalent of the ACP discount through August 2024, at which point they will covert to get the FCC’s $9.25 Lifeline discount.
• Verizon will continue to offer its Verizon Forward plan that gives customers a 300/200 Mbps connection for $20 per month.
• Windstream gave ACP customers until April 30 to transfer their ACP benefit to its Kinetic Benefit program. Any customers who made the transition will be able to keep the identical discount received under ACP for as long as they keep the plan at the same address and don’t make any changes to the plan.

The Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) is pleased to announce the creation of the Nevada Middle Mile Network.The Nevada Middle Mile Network is a 2,500-mile open access, fiber optic network that will reach many unserved communities in Nevada. Construction of the middle mile network will enable OSIT to bring better connectivity to hundreds of unserved K-12 schools, libraries, State and local government facilities, and community anchor institutions in the coming years. The Nevada Middle Mile Network will also significantly expand network capacity between urban areas of Nevada and throughout rural regions across the state, greatly enhancing the capacity of last-mile networks to deliver affordable, high-speed Internet access to over 40,000 locations that are unserved or underserved. The Nevada Middle Mile Fiber Network project is a part of the larger High Speed Nevada Initiative with the goal of universal access to high speed internet that is affordable, reliable, and scalable.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a new agency proposal that, if adopted, would look into whether the agency should require disclosure when there is AI-generated content in political ads on radio and TV. With the circulation of this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the subsequent support of her colleagues, the FCC would initiate a proceeding that recognizes consumers’ right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they view. If adopted, this proposal aims to increase transparency by:

• Seeking comment on whether to require an on-air disclosure and written disclosure in broadcasters’ political files when there is AI-generated content in political ads,
• Proposing to apply the disclosure rules to both candidate and issue advertisements, • Requesting comment on a specific definition of AI-generated content, and
• Proposing to apply the disclosure requirements to broadcasters and entities that engage in origination programming, including cable operators, satellite TV and radio providers and section 325(c) permittees.

The proposed FCC proceeding does NOT propose any prohibition of such content, only the disclosure of any AI-generated content within political ads.

This report looks at four key measures of the broadband user experience: Broadband Download Speed, Broadband Upload Speed, Broadband Consistent Quality, and Broadband Video Experience. Together, these measures capture the wide range of ways that households use broadband services, ranging from remote work and education to video streaming and gaming. This is the first in a two-part series of reports on the US fixed broadband experience. This first report focuses on the five Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with the most extensive service areas: AT&T, Spectrum (Charter), T-Mobile, Verizon, and Xfinity (Comcast). These providers are the only ones with a claim to having a nationwide footprint. Key findings include:

• Xfinity comes first in two out of four metrics—Broadband Consistent Quality and Broadband Video Experience.
• In speed categories, Spectrum wins Broadband Download Speed outright, while AT&T triumphs for Broadband Upload Speed.
• Charter and Comcast win the most head-to-head matchups against Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T.
• Verizon outperforms T-Mobile in all head-to-head comparisons.