Norman Vasquez often has to choose between buying soap or calling his family while serving time at Colorado’s Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility. Vasquez was one of 15 people who urged Colorado lawmakers to pass a bill that would make phone calls free to people incarcerated in state prisons and their families. The approximately 17,000 people incarcerated in the Colorado Department of Corrections pay 8 cents a minute for phone calls—or $4.80 for an hour, according to data collected by the state. In 2022, people in the Department of Corrections and their families paid $7.7 million to talk on the phone. Requiring incarcerated people to pay for phone calls breaks their connection with their families—the exact connection that studies say helps people succeed after they leave prison, proponents of the bill said. The lack of free calls places a financial burden on imprisoned peoples’ families—many of which are living in poverty—and keeps incarcerated people from connecting to resources outside of the prison walls that can help them re-enter society. The bill, HB23-1133, is part of a wave of legislation across the country to provide free phone calls to incarcerated people and regulate the private companies that dominate the prison communications industry.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is thrilled to share details and answer questions about the launch of the first round of funding from our $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund will allow us to invest in the next-generation of wireless innovation to unlock opportunities for new and emerging companies. It’s a long project – it will take a decade or more – and to get there, we need your help. Out of the 200 attendees heard at the first public session for the Wireless Innovation Fund, we heard that testing, evaluation, research, and development are going to be critical if we're going to catalyze new approaches to wireless networks. 76% of the respondents to our request for comments in this space cited the need to prioritize testing. And nearly 70% said we need to invest in security. And so our first Notice of Funding Opportunity responds to that input in a few important ways. First, we focus on the testing and evaluation of open and interoperable networks. This includes expanding industry-accepted testing and evaluation activities to assess these networks; developing new or improved testing methodologies to validate them, and addressing specific wireless testing needs. Second, is the emphasis on security. Research and development should make sure to minimize network risk, build trust and mitigate potential vulnerabilities. And finally, we are extending eligibility to international applicants as a result of the feedback we received. In closing, we believe that open and interoperable networks are the way of the future. Our Wireless Innovation Fund will help put the US and its partners at the forefront of that innovation. 

Altice USA reports results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023:

• Total unique Residential and Small and Medium Business (SMB) customer relationships declined -2.8% Year-over-Year (YoY) in Q1 2023. Quarterly unique customer net losses were -26k in Q1 2023, compared to -20k in Q1 2022;
• Total Broadband Primary Service Units (PSUs): Quarterly broadband net losses were -19k in Q1 2023, compared to -12k broadband net losses in Q1 2022;
• Total Fiber Broadband PSUs: Quarterly Fiber (FTTH) broadband net additions were +38k in Q1 2023, our best quarter for fiber net adds and more than three times the growth compared to Q1 2022 (+11k). Fiber broadband net adds were driven by both higher fiber gross additions and increased migrations of existing customers. Total fiber broadband customers reached 210k as of the end of Q1 2023;
• Optimum Mobile has approximately 248k mobile lines as of March 31, 2023, adding +8k mobile net additions in Q1 2023 (+15k net additions excluding customers receiving free service), reaching 5.4% penetration of the Company's total broadband customer base.