Sen Tom Udall (D-NM), vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, led a group of 14 Senate Democrats in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to expedite broadband connectivity to Native communities to improve access to critical services during the pandemic including telemedicine, online education, and teleworking opportunities. Sen Udall was joined by Sens Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) in the letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, calling on the FCC to use existing authorities to ensure universal service for all Americans including those living in Native communities.

“The federal trust responsibility imposes on the United States the highest moral and legal obligation toward American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities, as reflected in the Constitution of the United States, treaties, federal statues, Executive orders, and numerous court decisions.  It is one of the most important principles of federal Indian law, strengthening the United States’ government-to-government relationship with Indian tribes and promoting Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. The Commission has long recognized the unique government-to-government relationship between the federal government and Tribal governments, and that it requires the federal government to adhere to certain fiduciary standards in dealing with Indian Tribes. The failure to take action to provide essential broadband service in the midst of the COVID-19 calls into question the Commission’s adherence to the federal trust responsibility."

Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks announces the honorees of the inaugural Digital Opportunity Equity Recognition (DOER) Program, which was created to acknowledge the tireless efforts of Americans working to close the digital divide in communities without access to affordable, reliable broadband. The program honorees will be recognized at a virtual reception in October. Commissioner Starks issued the following statement about this year’s DOER honorees: " I put out an open call to hear about heroic DOERs who have stepped up in their communities to ensure that no one gets left behind because they lack broadband connectivity. The DOER Program received an overwhelming response to that call with more than 60 submitted applications, each one impressive and laudable, and demonstrating a true commitment to serving communities through acts of substance and consequence, big and small, generosity and selflessness both during the pandemic and prior to the recent events that have changed our nation."

To see a list of honorees, visit: https://www.fcc.gov/document/commissioner-starks-announces-2020-doer-honorees.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has "exacerbated existing disparities" related to high-speed internet access in Texas, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked Gov. Greg Abbott to develop a plan to expand broadband access in the state. “Texas is well overdue for a state broadband plan, and we believe the state needs to begin the process of creating one immediately,” the 88 lawmakers wrote in a letter to Abbott’s office. They said the need can't wait until the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature. Access to broadband has become even more important during the coronavirus pandemic as social distancing has prompted remote learning at schools and remote working for many offices. More than 800,000 rural Texans don’t have adequate broadband infrastructure, however, according to data and maps produced by Connected Nation Texas and cited by the lawmakers. As broadband speeds increase, the number of rural communities that get left behind also increases, they said.

Recently, the idea of ICTs being ‘mainstreamed’ in sustainable economic development has been adopted by many countries. For any country, sustainable economic growth is essential for a steadfast and well-balanced development of the entire country. One of the important factors supporting sustainable economic growth is the telecommunications technology and innovation, considering their role and functions as a modern-day indispensable infrastructure. It provides an opportunity for economic development compatible with the safeguard of the environment. Therefore, this study examines whether and to what extent telecommunications technology and innovation have helped improve the economic growth of developed and developing countries. We also aim to investigate the non-linear or kink effect in the relationship between the variables of telecommunications technology and innovation and economic growth. This study analyzes the impacts of telecommunications technology and innovation on economic growth at two different levels. First, we investigate the impact on individual countries which are distinct from one another regarding the level of economic development and the physical structure. Besides, the relationship between telecommunications development and the economic growth of a country may not be linear in the structure which necessitates our use of the kink regression model to capture and explain it. Second, this relationship is later investigated at the group level of countries. We divide the countries into two groups, developing and developed, based on the level of economic development and telecommunications technology. Empirically, we find that (Adak, 2015): there exists the kink effect on the relationship between telecommunications development and the economic growth in both developed and developing countries (Agnew & Romeo, 1981), the impacts of some related variables differ in magnitude depending on their levels and kink points, and (Alshubiri et al., 2019) the telecommunications technology and innovation give a relatively more massive impact on the economic growth of developing countries compared to developed countries.