Universal Broadband

The government has a program to cut your Internet bill. Verizon is using it to force you onto a new data plan.

The government has a new program, the Emergency Broadband Benefit, to help Americans pay their Internet bills. Unfortunately, companies like Verizon are twisting it into an opportunity for an upsell. All Internet service provider participation in the program is voluntary, and each ISP gets to write some of its own rules for how to hand out the money.

Rural Areas Are Looking for Workers. They Need Broadband to Get Them.

Rural areas have complained for years that slow, unreliable or simply unavailable internet access is restricting their economic growth. But the pandemic has given new urgency to those concerns, at the same time that President Biden’s infrastructure plan — which includes $100 billion to improve broadband access — has raised hope that the problem might finally be addressed. In a recent survey conducted for The New York Times by the online research platform SurveyMonkey, 78 percent of adults said they supported broadband investment, including 62 percent of Republicans.

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds -- Interim final rule

The Secretary of the Treasury is issuing this interim final rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the American Rescue Plan Act. The funds may be used to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. The interim final rule provides that eligible investments in broadband are those that are designed to provide services meeting adequate speeds and are provided to unserved and underserved households and businesses.

Bill To Spur High-Speed Broadband Projects In Rural Communities

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO-06) and Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) introduced the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-BRIDGE) Act, a bill to remove barriers for communities seeking to use Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants to develop high-speed broadband access.

The Case for Rural Fiber Buildouts: Don’t Be “Expectations-Neutral”

As policymakers consider the best way to expand broadband availability, a key question is where to set speed targets which, in turn, will impact the technology used – fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-fed copper, fixed wireless or satellite. While some people argue that any government broadband support programs should be technology-neutral, we shouldn’t be “expectations-neutral” or “outcomes-neutral,” argued Ernesto Falcon, senior legislative counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Governor Ducey signs bill to expand broadband access in Arizona

Gov Doug Ducey (R-AZ) has signed legislation to expand broadband access in Arizona, something he called for in his January State of the State address. House Bill 2596 allows the installation, operation, and maintenance of telecommunications equipment within the Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) rights-of-way by private broadband providers.

Department of Education Launches Outreach Campaign to Millions of K-12 Students and Federal Pell Grant Recipients Now Eligible for Monthly Discounts on Broadband Internet Service

The US Department of Education launched a major outreach campaign to millions of students who are now eligible for a monthly discount on broadband internet service under a temporary program administered by the Federal Communications Commission. The campaign will inform millions of families with children participating in the free or reduced-price lunch or school breakfast program, and 6.5 million Pell Grant recipients that they are now eligible for the discount of up to $50 per month.

Three essential elements needed for broadband access

Three elements are essential to making universal broadband access a reality: increasing speed minimums, improving accountability measures, and addressing affordability. 

Comcast exec talks fiber expansion strategy

Comcast Cable CEO David Watson highlighted the company’s efforts to accelerate expansion of its fiber network by focusing on three primary opportunities for new builds. And he noted Comcast plans to ramp testing of offload capabilities for its wireless service later in 2021. Watson said the company added 2.5 million new residential and commercial passings over the past three years, stating this was a pace it aimed to maintain.

Charter CEO flags broadband build challenges

Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge warned the operator expects to face a range of challenges as it presses ahead with Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidized broadband buildouts. In December 2020, Charter won $1.2 billion in Phase I of the Federal Communications Commission’s RDOF auction to fuel broadband deployments across 24 states. Rutledge stressed the size of the undertaking, and he noted the rural nature of the markets it is set to cover will make construction harder. “Physically getting it done is a big deal,” he said.

Boosting Broadband Adoption and Remote K–12 Education in Low-Income Households

This report identifies solutions and best practices to accelerate internet adoption through sponsored-service programs. These recommendations are critical to achieving educational equity and minimizing the risks of the digital divide—including income loss and economic exclusion—for the duration of the pandemic and beyond. As the government pursues additional education and low-income-support programs, the lessons from sponsored-service programs are applicable more broadly.

In President Biden’s broadband plan, cable is in for the fight of its life

Comcast, Charter, AT&T and their respective industry associations have spent years beating back municipal broadband networks in states across the country, lobbying for laws that prohibit such networks and arguing that government-funded broadband puts the thumb on the scale of competition.

The federal government is rolling out record amounts of broadband funding. It could be just the beginning

The new broadband affordability programs [the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program and the Emergency Connectivity Fund] are just temporary — and advocates say lawmakers need to develop a long-term program that will ensure low-income Americans can afford the Internet. “We’re not going back to 2019,” said Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn. “The digital divide doesn’t end when the pandemic ends.

Digital Equity Leadership Lap aims to create the next wave of digital equity leaders in Baltimore

The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation is graduating the first cohort of the Digital Equity Leadership Lab, a pilot leadership program that offers training on everything that a person seeking to be an expert on internet advocacy needs to know. The five-week program covered topics including laws governing the internet, core concepts about network engineering and the workings of community internet networks, like mesh networks. The group of 25 participants also met with guest speakers, such as former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Mignon L.

The New Normal

My top priority for the year ahead, which should surprise no one, is continuing the work we have been laser-focused on all year: making sure all Americans have access to high-speed broadband. Here, in year two of our battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are enduring the lingering effects of a multilayered crisis that has reverberated across healthcare, education, the economy, widespread job losses, and food insecurity.

BroadbandNow Estimates Availability for all 50 States; Confirms that More than 42 Million Americans Do Not Have Access to Broadband

In 2020, we manually checked availability of more than 11,000 addresses using Federal Communications Commission Form 477 data as the “source of truth.” Based on the results, we estimated that 42 million Americans do not have the ability to purchase broadband internet. In 2021, we expanded our study, manually checking availability of terrestrial broadband internet (wired or fixed wireless) for more than 58,000 addresses. In all, we checked more than 110,000 address-provider combinations using the FCC Form 477 data as the “source of truth”.

House Commerce Chairman Pallone, Doyle Statement on Launch of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

Internet service isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity like any other utility. This has never been truer than it is now, as hundreds of millions of families across the country are relying on it to telework, attend tele-health appointments, and keep their kids learning in virtual classrooms. Our economy would fall apart without it, yet right now millions of Americans are struggling to afford it. That’s why Congress enacted the Emergency Broadband Benefit last year – because it’s time to get serious about bridging the digital divide, and in that fight, affordability is half the battle.

Rural CBRS Wireless Broadband Pilot Project Unveiled

The state of South Carolina has teamed up with educational broadcasters, 5G tech suppliers, and others to launch a residential wireless broadband pilot project using COVID-19 aid funding.

How Does the Emergency Broadband Benefit Discount Work?

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program launches on May 12. Here's what you need to know

Funding - Congress dedicated $3.2 billion to the Emergency Broadband Benefit.

Discounts – eligible households can receive discounts off monthly broadband service:

FCC to Launch $7.17 Billion Connectivity Fund Program

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously adopted final rules to implement the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program. This $7.17 billion program, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, will enable schools and libraries to purchase laptop and tablet computers, Wi-Fi hotspots, and broadband connectivity for students, school staff, and library patrons in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Report and Order establishes the rules and policies governing the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program.

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds

The Secretary of the Treasury is issuing this Interim Final Rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Capital Projects Fund

The Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CCPF) will address many challenges laid bare by the pandemic, especially in rural America and low- and moderate-income communities, helping to ensure that all communities have access to the high-quality, modern infrastructure needed to thrive, including internet access. The American Rescue Plan provides $10 billion for payments to States, territories, and Tribal governments to carry out critical capital projects that directly enable work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options, in response to the public health emergency. The America

“Building Back Better” Requires Building In Digital

Any national infrastructure package should include 21st century digital infrastructure—not only investments in core digital infrastructure, such as broadband and government IT systems, but also hybrid-digital upgrades to existing physical infrastructure to improve its performance. There is an array of areas any infrastructure bill should target to ensure digital infrastructure deployment.

How Long Prairie, Minnesota and a Local Cooperative Partnered to Build a Citywide Fiber Network

Tired of waiting for connectivity solutions to come to town, one Minnesota community has instead partnered with a local telephone cooperative to build a fiber network reaching every home and business in the city. In embarking on its journey to improve local Internet access six years ago, Long Prairie (pop. 3,300) ended up partnering with one of the most aggressive fiber network builders in the state - Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) - on a solution that meets local needs. The two finished a ubiquitous Fiber-to-the-Home build in 2018, with CTC now owning and operating the network.