Marginalized Populations

Up to 1 million locations could still need broadband service, according to Brooke Donilon, chief of staff of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), as the government prepares to identify areas that may qualify for additional funding. NTIA is waiting for an updated Federal Communications Commission broadband coverage map before working with states to identify locations that remain unserved. “We're anticipating somewhere between 600,000 to a million.

As part of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s commitment to unleashing high-speed infrastructure to close the digital divide, in an Order circulated for a Commission vote, he proposes providing an additional $162 million for the Alaska Connect Fund. This additional funding builds on the work of the FCC’s Alaska Plan and Alaska Connect Fund by injecting additional dollars in Alaska for the deployment of mobile broadband services.

Louisiana’s GUMBO 2.0 program has delivered two national firsts in fiber deployment, with Coushatta becoming the first community in the nation to receive fiber internet service through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program and SkyRider Communications becoming the first provider in the nation to begin BEAD fiber construction.

It is disheartening and surprising that the Commission in the current proceeding asks questions that run directly counter to the goals of universal service and Congress’s directives. While most of the country and world are racing ahead to prepare for the future facing our nation’s citizens and students, the Commission is asking whether it should shelve or significantly reduce the E-Rate program, which is the financial pillar supporting most schools’ and libraries’ digital connections. The statute provides the Commission no authority to do so.

Typically, when I’m on the road, I split my time between sharing what’s happening in Washington (DC) and gathering information on what’s happening in the field. But the conversations during my recent two-stop swing were unexpectedly different. To be clear, we still did the “DC update,” compared notes on operational issues, and talked a lot about the interaction of the two. That’s so valuable, and I can’t pass up those opportunities.

A federal broadband subsidy program under financial duress could get bailed out by AI-related companies, as policymakers consider making major users of broadband infrastructure contribute to universal service. Universal service reform could expand the pool of companies that help finance broadband networks to include hyperscalers, cloud providers and other major users of internet infrastructure, according to former Federal Communications Commission officials and broadband advocates. 

Awards from a $50 billion federal rural health fund included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act from July 2025 are now paying for digital health care records and home monitoring devices. But whether that remote care reaches a patient still depends on the connection in the patient's home or pocket. Maine's first-year share of that fund is $190 million, according to Andrew Solomon, a senior program manager at MCD Global Health, the Maine public health nonprofit administering the work.

President Donald Trump has been adamant about one thing: the United States is in an existential race against the People’s Republic of China to win the biggest prize of all: AI dominance. President Trump has also weighed in on the side of data centers to meet the demand provided by accelerated AI adoption. Microsoft recently reported a $680 billion backlog in demand for its cloud services—an 84 percent increase over the previous year.

For over four decades, the Lifeline program has helped Americans get online and stay online, and that support matters even more now, with rising prices, a country at war, and nearly half of Americans struggling to afford the cost of living. This enforcement action is a targeted and responsible step that holds the providers who committed fraud accountable while exposing the weaknesses in our own systems that made that fraud possible.

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing more than $10 million in fines against two providers who apparently defrauded the FCC’s Lifeline Program. The Federal Lifeline Program is funded by the Universal Service Fund to provide a discount on phone and internet services for qualifying low-income Americans. The Notice of Apparent Liability adopted by the FCC proposes $2,673,966 and $7,453,966 fines against AirVoice Wireless and TAG Mobility, respectively.