Data & Mapping

Louisiana continues to reach significant milestones while expanding broadband access across the state, with new Federal Communications Commission data highlighting the state's continued progress in bringing reliable connectivity to all communities. The latest FCC Broadband Data Collection data, which reflects broadband availability as of December 2025, shows significant growth in Louisiana's broadband access over the past six months. During that timeframe, more than 52,000 homes and businesses gained access to broadband statewide.

There is a lot of talk about improving the Federal Communications Commission broadband maps. I published a blog a few weeks ago that described a bill passed by the Senate that would require a new review of the FCC broadband maps. The bill is labeled the Modernization, Accountability, and Planning for Broadband Funding Act. I’m all for changes that would create an accurate broadband map.

Illinois isn’t doing so great closing its digital divide, and perhaps that’s why people in the state are picking up Starlink broadband at a faster pace than other states. According to new research from Ookla, based on Ookla’s Speedtest data, rural broadband access expanded across the U.S. in the first half of 2026, with nearly every state narrowing the gap between broadband performance in cities compared to broadband performance in rural areas. When compared to the second half of 2025, every state—with the exceptions of California, Delaware, and Illinois—made progress.

America’s broadband providers invested $92.6 billion in U.S. communications infrastructure in 2025—up 3.4% from 2024 and the third-highest annual total since 2002. Cumulative investment now approaches $2.3 trillion since 1996 as consumer and business demand for faster, more sophisticated networks grows. In 2025, broadband providers pushed fiber deeper into more communities, expanding modern networks to meet demand that is growing in scale and changing in character. Average monthly broadband usage reached 767.4 gigabytes per subscriber by year’s end, up 9.9% from 2024.

I can think of only three sources of locations that the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program missed the first time around. One group of locations is those being turned back to State Broadband Offices when BEAD awardees decide not to accept a BEAD grant. The broadband offices have been trying to find other internet service providers to take these locations at the original award price. But I already know of several examples where there are no takers—at least at the dollar level of BEAD that was awarded after the Benefit of the Bargain round.

There has been continued debate about the best way to measure poverty in the United States since the first official U.S. poverty statistics were published in the mid-1960s. The U.S. Census Bureau releases two poverty measures each September. The first, called the official poverty measure, is based on cash resources. The second, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), includes both cash and noncash benefits and subtracts necessary expenses (such as taxes and medical expenses). The official poverty measure has remained mostly unchanged since it was introduced in the mid-1960s.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration seeks feedback under the Paperwork Reduction Act on a set of questions for the November 2027 edition of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. This collection of questions is known as the NTIA Internet Use Survey and is also referred to as the CPS Computer and Internet Use Supplement.

Since 2020, Congress has steered tens of billions of dollars, including more than $50 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, through federal agencies to connect homes and businesses that lack high-speed internet access. Four agencies account for most of that money: the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Treasury.

Every unserved home and business deserves a broadband connection, and this notice gives states a new path to find the locations the first round of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program missed. We support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's effort to true up the Federal Communications Commission's maps and ensure funding follows the households and small businesses still waiting for service. Congress recognized that universal connectivity requires investment in both the physical and human infrastructure of broadband.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provided new guidance to Eligible Entities (States, Territories, and the District of Columbia) regarding the next step in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program implementation.