The U.S. Commerce Department is not likely to announce changes to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program until June or July, according to Blair Levin, policy advisor for financial analyst firm New Street Research. Previously, an announcement had been expected around mid-May. Levin pointed to the Senate’s recent nomination hearing for Arielle Roth as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. While Republicans tended to ask Roth softball questions, those from some rural states were a bit more probing. For example, Sen Shelley Capito (R-WV) asked if July would be a reasonable deadline for Commerce’s BEAD review to be completed. Roth declined to answer, but, according to Levin, “Capito, who has had private conversations with [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick, is trying to both accelerate the decision while being friendly to a fellow Republican....Her citing a July deadline suggested to us that the decision could be delayed from May.”

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) received 94 applications requesting nearly $3 billion in federal funding and proposing more than $1.3 billion in private investment to support innovation in wireless equipment. The third Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund makes up to $450 million available to invest in industry-specific use cases and integration of automated solutions for open and interoperable radio access network (Open RAN) equipment, aimed at accelerating the adoption of Open RAN technology. The radio access network refers to the physical and digital infrastructure underlying mobile wireless networks and represents the largest share of capital expenditure for mobile network operators. Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund invests in American technology leadership in mobile telecommunications networks, aiming to drive wireless innovation, foster competition, and strengthen supply chain resilience. NTIA has awarded over $550 million across 35 projects through the first two funding rounds.

Thousands of Kentucky residents could lose internet access in the coming weeks after KentuckyWired, the state’s open-access middle-mile broadband network, cancelled its contract with the network’s administrator. In mid-April, internet service providers in Kentucky began receiving a 30-day disconnection notice from KentuckyWired and the agency that oversees the network, the Kentucky Communications Network Authority. The KentuckyWired system was announced as a public-private partnership in 2013 to provide each county in the state with a high-speed broadband access point. After a troubled and costly rollout, the network has provided critical internet infrastructure to state and local government offices, courthouses, hospitals, schools, colleges, and businesses. Beyond critical services, half of the 3,200-mile fiber optic KentuckyWired network allows private internet service providers to tap into sell last-mile services, especially in rural and other hard-to-reach areas. The KCNA terminated its contract with the telecommunications firm Accelecom following “a series of ongoing serious breaches of contract.”

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, warned at a Senate hearing that requiring government approval to release powerful artificial intelligence software would be “disastrous” for the United States’ lead in the technology. It was a striking reversal after his comments at a Senate hearing two years ago, when he listed creating a new agency to license the technology as his “number one” recommendation for making sure AI was safe. Altman’s U-turn underscores a transformation in how tech companies and the U.S. government talk about AI technology. Widespread warnings about AI posing an “existential risk” to humanity and pleas from CEOs for speedy, preemptive regulation on the emerging technology are gone. Instead there is near-consensus among top tech executives and officials in the new Trump administration that the United States must free companies to move even faster to reap economic benefits from AI and keep the nation’s edge over China.