Digital Divide

The number of older adults who lack wireline broadband access at home has fallen from 22 million in 2018 (42 percent) to 19 million (32 percent) in 2023. The gap is closing, but it has not closed. Older adults have seen modest increases in ownership of large-screen computers (desktops and laptops), from 70 percent in 2018 to 73 percent in 2023, with a slightly larger increase from 60 percent to 67 percent for those over age 75. Some states have done better work than others in reducing age-based disparity of wireline access, controlling for other factors.

National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and Public Knowledge (PK) submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) about the questions for the 2025 Internet Use Survey:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced the launch of his “Space Month” agenda. One of the core objectives of the FCC’s Build America Agenda is boosting America’s space economy, and the Chairman has previewed actions that the FCC will vote on later in October to reimagine the regulatory framework for space innovation. First, the FCC plans to modernize the FCC’s licensing processes to match the scale and dynamism of today’s space economy.

The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) announced it will offer $7 million in state funds to further implement or expand public Wi-Fi in New Mexico communities. The Community Connect Grant Program will award financial assistance grants to roll out or expand Wi-Fi in public areas such as parks, plazas and municipal buildings. The Wi-Fi grant targets communities with poor levels of connectivity and digital inclusion to provide them with sustainable, place-based solutions that meet community needs.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr circulated an item that would revisit the framework established by the FCC’s 2024 Incarcerated People’s Communications Services (IPCS) Report and Order. Specifically, the item would set, on an interim basis, rate caps for IPCS that allow for the full inclusion of safety and security costs to correctional facilities and IPCS providers, consistent with the statute.

A constellation of socioeconomic factors influences a household's ability to pay for broadband service. Often, broadband affordability is the final barrier to adoption, and the amount of affordable broadband options can vary greatly from community to community. New research by Ambika Nair, Community Development Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, introduces a novel measure—Relative Broadband Affordability—that can be used to compare a community’s broadband affordability relative to other communities in the same city.

Finley Engineering Client Vice President Andy Heins — a 25-year veteran of the broadband industry — was frank about the challenges he foresees in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program’s future. First, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is setting three cost-per-location thresholds. Depending on the threshold reached, providers must (1) explain and justify their price, (2) explain, justify, and lower their price, or (3) renegotiate and accept other providers’ technology to serve the proposed area.

The Federal Communications Commission granted a petition for reconsideration filed by Maurine and Matthew Molak and found that the best reading of section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, (the Communications Act) is that it does not permit funding of off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots and the associated wireless Internet services with E-Rate program support. In so finding, the FCC rescinded the rules adopted in July 2024.

In this Declaratory Ruling, the Federal Communications Commission takes the opportunity to better align E-Rate eligibility with section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (Communications Act), and clarify that the provision of Wi-Fi, or other similar access point technologies, including the equipment needed to provide such service, on school buses is ineligible for E-Rate funding.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said, "Today’s decision corrects course. It restores the FCC’s commitment to following the law as written and respecting the intent of Congress. Section 254 of the Communications Act is clear: E-Rate funding is meant to enhance access to telecommunications services in classrooms and libraries. A school bus is neither. We cannot simply reinterpret “classrooms” to mean any place where learning might occur. That’s not how statutory interpretation works, and it’s not how responsible policymaking should work either."