Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

In November 2021, President Joe Biden (D) signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law.

The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission grants a request filed by seventeen groups and individuals for an extension of the time in which to file comments in response to the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Empowering Broadband Consumers Through Transparency docket. As determined by the date of publication in the Federal Register, comments and reply comments were originally due on January 17, 2023 and February 14, 2023, respectively. The FCC extends the comment date 30 days to February 16, 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau reminds potential applicants that complete applications to the Affordable Connectivity Outreach Grant Program (ACP Outreach Grant Program) must be received electronically through Grants.gov no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Monday, January 9, 2023.

While there has been a lot of activity on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program, there is still a long way to go before this grant money is used to build new broadband infrastructure. Most of the delay is due to the incredible complexity of the BEAD grant rules. The priority for state grant programs is usually to quickly get the money out the door and spent on infrastructure. Why are the BEAD grants so complicated?

On Thursday, December 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 2617). Most importantly, the government funding package, which includes all 12 fiscal year 2023 appropriations bills, keeps the federal government running through September 30, 2023.

On November 23, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, establishing the Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection, which will collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) participating providers.

Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just created the Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection in rules released on November 23, 2022, there is still a great deal of work to be done to collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) participating providers. First, implementation of the rules now falls to FCC staff; many details will be decided in the coming weeks.

In one of the provisions of the massive Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Congress articulates the policy of the United State that 1) subscribers should benefit from equal access to broadband internet access service within the service area of a provider of such service, 2) "equal access" means the equal opportunity to subscribe to an offered service that provides comparable speeds, capacities, latency, and other quality of service metrics in a given area, for comparable terms and conditions; and 3) the Federal Communications Commission should take steps to ensure that all peopl

When it comes to affordable broadband, Vermont has always been a trailblazer.