One of the features that President Joe Biden cited in his plan to bring internet to every home and business in the United States by 2030 was affordability. But an important federal program established to keep broadband costs down for low-income households is set to expire in 2024. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has not reached everyone who is eligible. According to an Associated Press analysis of enrollment and census data, less than than 40 percent of eligible households have utilized the program. But the program’s future is uncertain. Its primary source of funding, a $14.2 billion allocation, is projected to run out by the middle of 2024. That could end access to affordable broadband for millions of people and hinder the Biden administration’s push to bring connectivity to the people who need it most. “ACP is the best tool we’ve ever had to help people afford broadband,“ said Drew Garner, broadband policy advisor for Common Sense Media.

Digital inclusion took on new urgency in the U.S. when the COVID-19 pandemic thrust the issue into the spotlight, forcing schools, governments and businesses to expedite the move online. While broadband access is necessary to fully participate in society and the economy, it’s not available or affordable for many. The costs of having inadequate access—or no internet at all—can be high, limiting opportunities for success, educational achievement, positive health outcomes, social inclusion and civic engagement, according to the Digital Equity Act of 2021. The act seeks to promote digital literacy and access, establishing the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to help communities advance telecommunications capabilities. In this first article in a series on digital inclusion, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas documents the level of digital connectivity in 2022 in the Federal Reserve’s Eleventh District—Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico. This article finds that while the digital divide is wide in poor and more isolated areas of the states, concerted efforts are taking shape across the region to close it. It documents some of the ongoing public efforts to improve digital inclusion in the Eleventh District, including the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and the Digital Navigator program specific to Louisiana.

Somewhere above you right now, a plane is broadcasting its coordinates on 1090 megahertz. A satellite high above Earth is transmitting weather maps on 1694.1 MHz. On top of all that, every single phone and Wi-Fi router near you blasts internet traffic through the air over radio waves. A carefully regulated radio spectrum is what makes it possible for these signals to get to the right place intact. The Federal Communication Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) share the task of managing radio frequencies for US airwaves. The NTIA manages all federal radio uses (including military use), while the FCC manages everything else. It is an incredibly complex system, and to help with the job of explaining the importance of managing this invisible natural resource, the NTIA publishes the United States Frequency Allocation Chart (which you can order as a wall chart for $6). The chart uses 33 color-coded categories to visualize the information in a crazy quilt of blocks (some wide, some narrow), spread from 9 kHz (very low frequency) all the way to 300 GHz (extremely high frequency). It does suffer from scale distortions, not unlike a map of Earth.

To assist those affected by the Hawai’i Wildfires, this temporary waiver of certain Lifeline program eligibility rules will ensure that consumers receiving federal disaster assistance can easily apply for and enroll in the Lifeline program. Because of the exigent circumstances arising from the Hawai’i Wildfires, the FCC finds that there is good cause for further action to ensure that consumers in the affected areas receive critical assistance for their communications needs. The FCC temporarily waives the Lifeline eligibility requirements to permit households to enter the Lifeline program if they are receiving individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Individuals and Households Program (IHP) as a result of the impacts of the Hawai’i Wildfires.

An unsurprising theme at Fiber Connect 2023 was executives from the fiber industry dragging its cable counterpart. For example, AT&T Fiber’s EVP Chris Sambar said, “don’t ask cable about symmetrical speeds, they don’t even know what that means.”  Derek Kelly, Lumos’ VP of market development, went as far as to say that “fiber is always the answer,” and suggested cable alternatives will not stand the test of time. But with all this talk about fiber versus cable, is the rivalry being overplayed? Over the last seven years, the definition of a "served location" has evolved significantly, with required internet speeds progressing from 4 Mbps upload and 1 Mbps download speeds to the current Federal Communication Commission threshold of 25/3 Mbps. Kelly highlighted that as $42.5 billion is set to roll out through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, relying on investments in fiber will provide stability over the next 15 years. While acknowledging the need for funding in areas without even cable access, Kelly noted another large-scale program after the BEAD initiative is unlikely. Kelly noted Lumos defines “unserved being no cable, underserved means they're stuck with cable. And then there's everyone else that has life-changing fiber,” adding “So we don't care about speeds at this point.” Fiber execs mostly targeted cable’s “Achilles heel,” Jay Lee, CTO of ATX Networks, said, which is lacking symmetrical speed capabilities. But he noted cable operators are “right in the throes” of upgrading their networks to get to full DOCSIS 3.1, and that high-split type of architecture will allow them to achieve competitive speeds in the upstream.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) seeks nominations for the following Board member positions on the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) listed below for a three-year term:

• Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (non-Bell Operating Companies) with $40 million or less in annual revenues (position currently held by Geoffrey A. Feiss, General Manager, Montana Telecommunications Association);
• Representative for competitive local exchange carriers (position currently held by Joseph Gillan, Consultant, Gillan Associates);
• Representative for low-income consumers (position currently held by Ellis Jacobs, Senior Attorney, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc.);
• Representative for interexchange carriers with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less (position currently held by Michael Skrivan, former Vice President, Regulatory, Consolidated Communications);
• Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules (position currently held by Joan H. Wade, Ed.D., Executive Director, Association of Educational Service Agencies);
• Representative for rural health care providers that are eligible to receive supported services pursuant to section 54.601(position currently held by Katharine Hsu Wibberly, Ph.D., Director, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center).

All nominations must be filed with the Office of the Secretary by October 24, 2023.