The Federal Communications Commission grants Resound Networks a limited waiver of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligation to serve areas in Oklahoma and Arizona overlapped by the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma's and Cocopah Tribe of Arizona's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Round 1 awards. The FCC relieves Resound of the obligation to serve these areas, with agreement from the Tonkawa and Cocopah Tribes, in order to promote the Tribes’ decisions to serve their members through enforceable commitments under their TBCP Round 1 awards requiring deployment of networks that serve their Tribal lands in these areas. This will also further interagency coordination efforts by avoiding duplication of funding and maximizing the use of federal funds to support broadband service to as many unserved consumers as possible. Once the Bureau publishes revised location counts for all RDOF recipients, the FCC will direct the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to adjust Resound’s RDOF support for the overlapped areas and recover any support that has been disbursed for these areas on a pro rata basis.

Reps August Pfluger (R-TX) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced the PROTOCOL Act, which improves the mapping process for broadband funding and enhances interagency coordination when awarding broadband funding grants. There are currently over 130 federal broadband programs across 15 different agencies with little coordination on the billions of dollars being spent. This lack of coordination has led to waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs and risks leaving unserved communities without access to basic broadband services. Specifically, this legislation would:

• Improve and align the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Deployment Locations Map with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Infrastructure Funding Database.
• Request non-mandatory reports on state-based programs for inclusion in the NTIA database and FCC map.
• Require other federal agencies to use the new FCC map when awarding broadband infrastructure funding.

While city and state governments may move slowly, a nonprofit organization has the agility to convene people, test ideas, and work faster. That’s the model thriving in Texas, where the North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA) and Dallas Innovation Alliance (DIA) are helping push broadband expansion and innovation forward. Jennifer Sanders, who serves as executive director and is a cofounder of both the NTXIA and DIA, recommends the model of a nonprofit working alongside local governments to help foster partnerships. Sanders said that this kind of partnership has helped address some of Texas' biggest broadband challenges—including the state's dispersed geography and permitting issues.

At the beginning of 2024, Verizon executives were skeptical about the direct-to-device (D2D) market, uninterested in using their spectrum for a satellite-based service. Now, Verizon is bragging about how it will be the first mobile carrier to commercially launch smartphone connectivity on Skylo’s non-terrestrial satellite network and be the first mobile carrier to launch a commercial D2D service offering. Not only that, but it’s made a $100 million investment in AST SpaceMobile, which will use 850 MHz spectrum from Verizon (and AT&T) to offer a D2D service. And it’s talking up its ability to use Skylo’s satellite IoT technology to enable farmers to track cattle and monitor soil quality. What changed? The company found the right partner, in AST SpaceMobile.

Lumen Technologies—through its affiliates Qwest and CenturyTel of Wyoming—was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to deploy gigabit speed Internet service in areas of Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Now Lumen is returning nine census block groups (CBGs) where it was awarded RDOF funding in those states. Lumen has observed deployment costs increase dramatically in many areas since it made its bids. In addition, in some areas, the number of locations to be deployed to is substantially different from the initial published auction numbers. As a result of these and other factors, Lumen’s planned RDOF deployment projects in these CBGs are not viable. Lumen is returning these CBGs so that they may become eligible for other federal, state, or local subsidy programs, such as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) Program. Lumen is also notifying the relevant state broadband offices of its intent to return the locations in the affected CBGs and their potential eligibility for alternative funding.