Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Montana, Oklahoma, and Vermont's Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.  This approval enables Montana, Oklahoma, and Vermont to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program—a major step towards closing the digital divide and meeting the President’s goal of connecting everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service. One year from Initial Proposal approval, states must submit a Final Propos

On July 24, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration published the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Competitive Grant Program. The Competitive Grant Program is the third (and final) set of funds available from the

An appeals court ruled the current structure of the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional. This decision puts at risk the high-speed connectivity of millions of rural and low-income Americans and the future trajectory of U.S. economic growth and global competitiveness. Now it’s Congress’s duty to promptly and decisively make clear the nation’s unwavering commitment to affordable, universal connectivity. The court’s fundamentally flawed decision hands Congress an enormously important opportunity to seize the initiative and ensure our nation’s abiding commitment to universal service.

We should not take our foot off the gas when it comes to the importance of better mapping, considering it’s at the heart of so much in the rural broadband space. Congress charged the Federal Communications Commission in early 2020 with creating a national broadband availability map. It is only fair to say that the national broadband map is better than any broadband availability dataset before it, and that it keeps getting better. But we are in no position to declare “mission accomplished” or even “good enough” when it comes to the national broadband map.

The death of the US government's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is starting to result in disconnection of Internet service for Americans with low incomes. Charter Communications reported a net loss of 154,000 Internet subscribers that it said was mostly driven by customers canceling after losing the federal discount.

One of the biggest challenges for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant is for State Broadband Offices to make sure that every unserved location gets covered by the grants. My understanding of the process is that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will not approve the BEAD grants being made by a State until they can demonstrate that every unserved and underserved location will be covered by the grants.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved New Mexico and Virginia’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. This approval enables New Mexico and Virginia to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program—a major step towards closing the digital divide and meeting the President’s goal of connecting everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.  The action allows states to request:  

On July 24, the U.S.

For several years now, a well-funded litigation group has sought an appellate court decision deeming the current method of funding the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund unconstitutional. The litigants finally hit paydirt in an enbanc appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled in their favor on a 9-7 vote. The litigants ostensibly expressed concerns about constitutional rights, economic freedom, what constitutes a tax, how specific a congressional delegation of authority has to be, and the extent to which the FCC could lawfully delegate administration of

Although the urban–rural digital divide is a globally common phenomenon, less is known about the social determinants of the digital divide within rural and urban areas. Understanding this relationship is important for assessing the equity implications of telecommunication policy given the ongoing and significant public investment into high speed broadband infrastructure. This paper contributes to this discussion by connecting high speed broadband maps in Ireland to measures of social deprivation constructed from detailed population-wide Irish census data collected in 2022.