Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel made it clear recently that the FCC is not willing to tackle funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) that is expiring in May 2024. She estimated that the FCC would have to add something like $9 to every broadband bill in the country to fund the ACP plan. However, states could pick up the ACP funding just for their state. States will have the authority to do this after the FCC approves the reinstitution of Title II authority this week.

The Affordable Connectivity Program, which was created after the pandemic forced many Americans to turn to the internet to connect with work and school, has 23 million enrollees nationwide — 1 in 6 U.S. households — including nearly 3 million in California. Since 2021, it has provided a $30 monthly subsidy for low-income households and $75 for those on tribal lands. But the $14.2 billion funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has run out. April 2024 was the last month of full program benefits, but households could receive a partial discount in May.

Spectrum announced the launch of Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to 400 homes and small businesses in Charleston County (SC). Spectrum’s newly constructed fiber-optic network buildout in Charleston County is part of the company’s approximately $5 billion RDOF-related investment in unserved rural communities, partly offset by $1.2 billion in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. The company’s RDOF expansion will provide broadband access to 1.3 million customer locations across 24 states in the coming years.

When the Federal Communications Commission ended the Obama Administration’s failed, two-year experiment with these heavy-handed regulations back in 2017, Title II advocates guaranteed that doing so would literally break the Internet.  They claimed that broadband prices would spike, that you would be charged for each website you visited, and that the Internet itself would slow down. None of this was true. Broadband speeds increased, prices decreased, competition intensified, and years of record-breaking infrastructure builds brought millions across the digital divide.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been tussling for roughly two decades over regulations that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. And that battle is about to enter a new round. Chair Jessica Rosenworcel will lead her fellow Democrats to impose the rules, known as net neutrality, for the third time. A court overturned them when a Democratic-controlled FCC first voted to put them in place in 2010.

New Democrat Coalition Rep Angie Craig (D-MN) and Freshman Leadership Representative Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) led 95 New Democrat Coalition Members in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling on House Republican Leadership to take immediate bipartisan action to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

A lot of folks have been pleading with the Federal Communications Commission to pick up the tab to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Folks are assuming that the FCC has the ability to take on the ACP program inside the Universal Service Fund.

The Oregon Broadband Office is pleased to announce the awardees of the Broadband Technical Assistance Program (BTAP) grants of up to $150,000 per county which can be used for eligible broadband planning and pre-construction activities, staffing, and grant application support.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has now given 48 states the green light to start their required Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program challenge process to refine the list of locations that will be eligible for BEAD funding. The starting point for the states is the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map, based on its Broadband Data Collection (BDC), with the state-run challenge process providing stakeholders the opportunity to make updates and corrections.

As the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program gets set to end at the end of May, at least three internet providers touted alternative low-cost offerings, including some available only to low-income households. During the ACP’s 29-month existence, numerous providers have offered a $30 service for low-income customers so that service is essentially free when the ACP discount is applied, and some of the providers plan to continue to offer the $30 services. With a few exceptions, however, service will no longer be free.