Universal Broadband

In June 2018, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to address increasing demand in the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program. Specifically, the FCC: (1) increased the annual RHC Program funding cap; (2) provided for the annual RHC Program funding cap to be adjusted for inflation; and (3) established a process to carry-forward unused funds from past funding years for use in future funding years. The FCC also directed the Wireline Competition Bureau to announce a specific amount of unused funds from prior funding years to be carried forward to increase available funding for future fu

In what has become known as the homework gap, an estimated 17 percent of US students do not have access to computers at home and 18 percent do not have home access to broadband internet (nearly 3 million students), according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. The consequences can be dire for children in these situations, because students with home internet consistently score higher in reading, math, and science.

According to recent National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) survey data, roughly 28 million households in the United States still do not use the Internet at home (Goldberg, 2019). In its survey, the NTIA also asked why households did not use the Internet at home, with 58 percent citing a lack of interest as their main reason for being offline and every fifth household (21%) stating that it is too expensive.

The Department of Education urged the Federal Communications Commission to maintain and modernize the current educational priority of the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum by keeping the current eligibility requirments for EBS licenses, modernizing the educational use requirement, and issuing new EBS licenses using local priority filing windows. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement regarding USTelecom’s release of broadband investment figures for 2018:

US broadband provider capital investment increased by approximately $3 billion in 2018, continuing the positive momentum shift that began in 2017 when the Federal Communications Commission initially signaled its intention to restore a forward-looking regulatory framework for broadband.  According to a preliminary analysis of 2018 company data, USTelecom estimates that US broadband providers invested approximately $75 billion in 2018, up from $72 billion the prior year.

The Federal Communications Commission authorized $166.8 million in funding over the next decade to expand broadband to 60,850 unserved rural homes and businesses in 22 states, representing the second wave of support from 2018's successful Connect America Fund Phase II auction. Providers will begin receiving funding in June. In total, the auction last fall allocated $1.488 billion in support to expand broadband to more than 700,000 unserved rural homes and small businesses over the next 10 years.

As part of its 2015 merger with DirecTV, the Federal Communications Commission required that AT&T expand its deployment of high-speed, fiber-optic broadband internet service to 12.5 million customer locations, as well as to E-rate eligible schools and libraries, by July 2019. Consider that done, said AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan; AT&T now has a large inventory of fiber-based assets that it can sell to, and that the build-out actually reached 14.5 million customer locations.

Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) understands a life without broadband internet. In fact, he still doesn't have high-speed internet inside his rural home in Fernvale, the small unincorporated community between Franklin and Leiper's Fork. Rural broadband was a part of Lee's 2018 campaign, and the governor told the organization he planned to follow in the footsteps of former-Gov. Bill Haslam (R-TN) to hand out grants in the state to rural areas that need it most.