Devices

The Healey-Driscoll administration and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s (MassTech) Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) launched the Connected & Online Program, a $23 million initiative to close the digital device gap across Massachusetts.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the October Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 28, 2025:

The Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules to empower local and state correctional authorities to jam signals from illegal contraband cellphones. Thousands of contraband cellphones have poured into prisons across the country, and inmates have been using them to coordinate violent gang activity, call in hits, and aid criminal enterprises. Jamming devices are not currently allowed in non-federal prisons.

The ubiquity of screens in American K–12 schools has become a pressing and controversial issue in public education. This report examines the different ways screens appear in classrooms and homes. It also examines how educators, families, and policymakers can work together to navigate their inevitable impact on children. Our report aims to clarify the term “screen time” as it relates to children in K-12 education. In public debates, the term is often used without distinction, making complex and thoughtful conversations between relevant parties difficult.

In September 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2024 American Community Survey data, offering insights into important national and state-level digital divide trends. Digitunity identified and analyzed two data points illustrating the (1) number of households without any type of computing device and (2) households that rely solely on a smartphone to go online. Together, these data points yield the statistic we call households without a large screen computer. In 2024: 

The Federal Communications Commission demanded a total of $1.18 million be repaid to American taxpayers by Boomerang Wireless and Assist Wireless for overpayment of reimbursement claims they made and received for connected devices provided to consumers as part of COVID-era connectivity programs. The companies had sought reimbursement of as much as $100 per tablet for devices that were widely available for half that price. The companies have 30 days to pay the full amount to the U.S. Treasury.

SETDA published its fourth annual State EdTech Trends Report, offering a look at the evolving priorities and challenges facing K-12 education technology leaders across the country. The report comes at a pivotal time. Pandemic-era relief funds have expired, budgets are tightening, and states are reshaping policy priorities while charting the future of digital learning. For the first time, AI surpassed cybersecurity as the top state edtech priority. Key findings of the report include:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the FCC will be voting on a proposal that, for the first time, would allow prisons to jam contraband cellphones. Prior to the announcement, Chairman Carr joined Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, and other public safety leaders, including the National Sheriff’s Association, for a roundtable discussion in Little Rock (AR) on the threats that contraband cellphones pose to public safety officials and the general public.

Millions of students and seniors depend on hotspots and school bus Wi-Fi for homework and tele-health services. Now the FCC is moving to strip that connectivity away while doing nothing to make broadband more affordable. Their latest proposals will only widen the gap between those with access to modern-day tools and those left behind. We must all fight back against this level of cruelty and indifference by this Administration.

Congress has expressed a clear desire to reinvigorate the Universal Service Fund (USF) through legislation. The latter half of 2025 is a critical period for determining the future of the USF. There is a demonstrated need for additional cybersecurity investment in K-12 education, and there are several mechanisms policymakers could use to leverage universal service funds for this purpose. However, it will be up to Congress to decide whether security measures should be baked into broadband offerings or bolted on through other funding mechanisms after the fact.