Level of Government

The Federal Communications Commission is working to ensure that all areas of the United States can access high-speed, high-quality broadband, through a revision of the Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) program. The program is meant to provide additional universal service support to certain rural carriers in exchange for increasing deployment to more locations at higher speeds.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) led 10 colleagues in a letter to National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson expressing concerns with the $42.45 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

What challenges exist at the federal, state, and local levels that delay or burden broadband deployment?  How can Congress help expedite or streamline the process for broadband deployment? Is attaching telecommunications equipment on municipally or cooperatively-owned poles more difficult or expensive than on other poles?

Today, government officials have new strategic decisions to make just as momentous as the ones the intersection of policy and technology dumped in our Federal Communications Commission laps back in the early 1990’s. As we look out on a future in which more and more of our economic and civic activity involves online communications, we should not forget there is an urgent and critical task: eliminating the digital divide.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to improve Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) by making them available in more than a dozen

The Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) is asking the public for input on internet accessibility, affordability and usage. BDO will use the Digital Opportunity Plan: Public Survey to develop a Texas Digital Opportunity Plan, which is required to draw down federal funding for connecting Texans to reliable, high-speed internet. The survey is open for approximately two months. BDO expects to complete the plan this fall.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules that would require, for the first time, companies with existing authorizations to provide international telecommunications services to and from the US to file renewal applications at the FCC.

There are a variety of landline or wireless technologies that can deliver broadband. In most instances, wireless solutions have an advantage with respect to mobility and transferability (the ability to move broadband investment from one subscriber location to another). However, this advantage often disappears (and sometimes flips) when considering the increased operational expenses of wireless and the ongoing capital investment required.

In his most recent State of the Union address, President Joe Biden highlighted the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program for connecting unserved and underserved locations to broadband. However, in the same address, President Biden went on to declare that “when we do these projects, we’re going to buy American...I’m also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.” The problem is that the country can close the rural digital divide in the next few years, or it can enforce a strict