Universal Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission has revised the 2019 Broadband Deployment Report to reflect a thorough review of the initial draft triggered by the discovery that a company submitted drastically overstated deployment data to the FCC.

As this report (based on super-accurate Dec 2017 Form 477 data) shows, while broadband deployment to Tribal lands has increased in recent years, additional work remains to increase deployment to the certain Tribal areas and reach the FCC's goal of closing the digital divide for all Americans.

This report explores the availability and adoption of broadband Internet access services by veterans throughout the nation. While the FCC finds that many veterans have access to both fixed and mobile broadband options, a significant number still lack access to fixed broadband, mobile broadband, or both. Specifically, for 92.5% of veterans at least one provider of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps fixed broadband services is available, while only 78.4% of veterans have 10 Mbps/3Mbps mobile LTE broadband coverage.

More than 106,000 rural homes and small businesses in 43 states will get access to 25 megabit per second (Mbps) broadband at some point in the next decade thanks to a Federal Communications Commission policy change. The FCC's Connect America Fund (CAF), which distributes money to internet service providers (ISPs) in exchange for new broadband deployments in underserved areas, had been requiring speeds of just 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream over the past few years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that they had reached an agreement with President Donald Trump to try to craft a $2 trillion plan aimed at overhauling the nation’s ailing roads, bridges, waterways and other infrastructure, including broadband. Sen Schumer said that the bulk of the meeting focused on what kind of investments should be made. Besides spending on roads and bridges, there was agreement that money should be aimed at extending broadband in rural areas and inner cities, as well as improving power grids, Sen Schumer said.

Nearly five dozen rural, wireless internet service providers (WISPs) signed letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission to "express [their] enthusiastic support for the Commission to make available new Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licenses to educators via priority licensing windows." The small ISPs also "strongly oppose auctions of EBS spectrum before educators have had an opportunity to obtain new EBS licenses."  In an April 25 letter to the FCC, six rural operators argued for a requirment that EBS spectrum licensees and their partners have a local presence and adhere to

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is launching a new, dedicated website for the Digital Equity Act of 2019. The new site features:

Democratic congressional leaders emerged from a meeting at the White House and announced that President Donald Trump had agreed to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to upgrade the nation’s highways, railroads, bridges and broadband.

Agriculture Sec Sonny Perdue unveiled a groundbreaking report, A Case for Rural Broadband: Insights on Rural Broadband Infrastructure and Next Generation Precision Agriculture Technologies. The report finds that deployment of both broadband e-Connectivity and Next Generation Precision Agriculture Technology on farms and ranches throughout the US could result in at least $47 billion in national economic benefits every year.

Top Democratic congressional leaders pitched President Trump on a “big and bold” infrastructure bill ahead of a White House meeting on the issue, insisting there are “significant majorities in both the House and Senate” ready to act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E.