Level of Government

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a new regulatory framework to facilitate innovative collaborations between satellite operators and wireless companies. These partnerships leverage the growth in space-based services to connect smartphone users in remote, unserved, and underserved areas. Numerous such collaborations have been launched recently, and the FCC seeks to establish clear and transparent processes to support supplemental coverage from space.

The Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on its expanded authority over incarcerated people’s communications services, as outlined in the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. The new law gives the FCC authority to combat unjust and unreasonable rates and charges for voice and video calls, including calls within a state’s borders, where previously the agency had rate-making authority only over voice calls between states and foreign locations.

A Q&A with Dina Srinivasan, who, in February 2019 as an independent scholar, published an academic paper entitled ‘The Antitrust Case Against Facebook’, in which she identified a correlation between privacy and economics — and argued that the social media giant lowered its privacy standards as soon as it had defeated its rivals.

Community decision-making is the foundation of Maine’s DNA. Town meetings, volunteer school boards, and local planning efforts are all central to what makes this Maine. Dozens of communities have started this process with local people identifying locations and groups needing better service to develop plans addressing these gaps. But these community-led efforts are under threat from big monopoly internet service providers, who fear competition will lose customers.

Over 150 network operators applied for funding in a broadband program operated by the state of Michigan. The operators requested $1.3 billion in funding through the program, which has a budget of $231 million. Applications were due on March 15, 2023, in the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) program. The $1.3 billion in funding would have covered some of the costs of broadband deployments estimated to cost a total of $2.3 billion. The applications proposed to connect approximately 380,000 locations.

The Federal Communications Commission has directed the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to offer an additional funding opportunity of up to $10 million for the National Competitive Outreach Grant Program (NCOP) and the Tribal Competitive Outreach Grant Program (TCOP), which are components of the Affordable Connectivity Outreach Grant Program. This maximum of $10 million will come from a combination of: (a) unspent funding – funding previously allocated to the Outreach Grant Program but not awarded; and (b) unobligated funding – funding from the $100 million Affordable Connectivity P

This is a moment steeped in optimism about our connected future. There are many opportunities to join forces—across government, industry and community organizations. Collectively, we can get big things done. Our current project is to achieve connectivity for all. And, according to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act timeline, if we all hit of our marks, that goal could be achieved by the end of this decade. The question I’d like to pose is this: We have always seen universal connectivity as the end goal.

The Federal Communications Commission is targeting approximately $7.445 million for two additional one-year, pilot outreach grant programs to raise awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The two pilot programs will test a variety of methods to reach out to federal housing communities, and work with trusted third parties to assist consumers with completing and submitting an ACP application. The FCC selected 23 applicants for the Your Home, Your Internet Program and 9 applicants for the ACP Navigator Pilot Program.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) seeks comment on identifying airwaves for more intensive use and innovative new uses by both the private sector and federal agencies. NTIA seeks input on creating a spectrum pipeline for the next decade of frequencies that could be studied for new or additional uses. The agency’s goal is to identify at least 1,500 megahertz of spectrum to study for potential repurposing—perhaps the most ambitious study goal for NTIA to date—to meet future requirements for non-federal and federal users.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan government-watchdog group, called on the Office of Government Ethics, the federal agency that oversees ethics rules, to investigate whether the Federal Communications Commission complied with financial-conflict rules when it permitted several top officials to own stocks in apparent violation of the agency’s own rules. The Campaign Legal Center said FCC officials owned stocks in cable