The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a new dashboard highlighting federal investments in high-speed Internet programs. NTIA developed the dashboard to accompany the Federal Broadband Funding Report. The data in the Investing in Internet for All Dashboard serves as a benchmark of recent federal investments into high-speed Internet funding programs, beginning in Fiscal Year 21 (October 2020-September 2021). Federal broadband spending from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other federal initiatives passed after FY21 will be included in future iterations of the dashboard. The dashboard: 

• Includes spending data from 13 agencies across 98 federal high-speed Internet programs. 
• Reports Tribal broadband funding for the first time.  
• Includes data by federal program at the state level.  
• Breaks out funding by appropriated (budgeted by Congress), obligated (awarded for spending by the program) and outlayed (spent by the program). 

The ongoing Farm Bill negotiations may mean linking millions of Americans to the 21st-century economy and taking a step toward the broader dream of high-tech agriculture. Since the last Farm Bill was passed in 2018, the federal government has spent billions to try to bring high-speed internet to the nearly 12 million rural households that don’t have it. The $1.4 trillion omnibus Farm Bill will fund and set guidelines around federal subsidies for causes ranging from rural energy, crop insurance, and, above all, nutrition. Since 2018, high-speed internet — once seen as a luxury — has been discussed in the same vital terms as issues like disaster funding for drought. The Farm Bill package passed in that year included funding for the Reconnect program, which subsidizes broadband providers to bring high-speed internet to rural areas that lack it. One impetus behind the push for rural broadband is unleashing the economic potential of rural America. Large-scale agriculture in America relies on farm equipment like tractors and combines that are increasingly in continual contact and conversation with satellites overhead, and moisture and soil sensors in the fields — allowing for the precise and automated delivery of seed, water, pesticides, and fertilizer. The report suggested many future farm tasks could be carried out by drones — which can save considerable weight if they can rely on the cloud computing possibilities of the wider internet for some of their processing. This, however, requires broadband.

A bipartisan effort to push the Federal Communications Commission to expand internet access to rural areas will finally get a Senate hearing, two years after the bill was first introduced. The Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act has support in both the House and Senate and will get its day in the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday, May 11th, 2023. The bill — introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in the Senate and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) in the House — orders the FCC to determine how to modernize the Universal Service Fund (USF). The fund comprises a system of subsidies and fees meant to expand telecommunications access in the US.  It was initially focused on telephone service, but lawmakers now see it as a key tool for expanding broadband access for rural areas, low-income households, and critical health services. The bill also asks the FCC to pay special attention to how any change in the fund would impact seniors. As more seniors have landlines and make more traditional long-distance calls than any other group, they are most impacted by the current structure of fund collection. While the bill leaves the specifics to the FCC, the idea would be for the agency to levy similar contribution requirements on internet providers and change the contribution levels for other increasingly common forms of communication. If the FCC creates rules to increase fee revenue, that money could supplement the funds already in the fund and provide additional support for programs that expand broadband access to rural areas and for low-income households.

As the US and China battle for geopolitical and technological primacy, the fallout has reached small wireless carriers in dozens of states. They are on the receiving end of the Biden administration’s sweeping policies to suppress China’s rise. What the wireless carriers must do, under a program known as “rip and replace,” has become the starkest physical manifestation of the tech Cold War between the two superpowers. The program, which took effect in 2020, mandates that American companies tear out telecommunications equipment made by the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. US officials have warned that gear from those companies could be used by Beijing for espionage and to steal commercial secrets. Instead, US carriers have to use equipment from non-Chinese companies. The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the program, would then reimburse the carriers from a pot of $1.9 billion intended to cover their costs. But cleansing US networks of Chinese tech has not been easy. The costs have already ballooned above $5 billion, according to the FCC., more than double what Congress appropriated for reimbursements. Many carriers also face long supply chain delays for new equipment. The program’s burden has fallen disproportionately on smaller carriers, which relied more on the cheaper gear from the Chinese firms than large companies like AT&T and Verizon. Given rip-and-replace’s difficulties, some smaller wireless companies now say they may not be able to upgrade their networks and continue serving their communities, where they are often the only internet providers.

West Virginia development officials have been focusing on expanding broadband internet service through a range of resources, Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael told legislators. Money is flowing from federal, state, and local sources; specifically $33 million in state and local recovery funds, $70 million in Capital Project Funds (CPF), and $44 million in private investment. That adds up to $147 million in total investment. Carmichael said American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds have gone toward funding 24 projects in 38 West Virginia counties, accounting for more than 3,000 miles of infrastructure. Carmichael said state officials have focused on mapping to ensure there isn’t unnecessary redundancy. Kelly Workman, director of the state Office of Broadband, said three of the 24 total projects funded have already been completed within the past year, accounting for 79 miles of fiber.

5G coverage has expanded across the US, fueling personal and commercial applications. But as 5G spreads — with roughly 62 percent of Americans able to receive high-speed coverage at home — rising demand, lack of infrastructure, and a political impasse are posing roadblocks to pushing it further. Approximately 206.4 million Americans can receive high-speed 5G coverage at home, according to data by Broadband Now, an independent broadband availability website. But that access isn’t spread evenly across the country with gaps, especially in more rural areas. Stakeholders are grappling with a political roadblock: a fight over access to spectrum. Congress let the Federal Communications Commission’s longstanding authority to auction spectrum lapse in March 2023 for the first time in decades, an issue that both the agency and the wireless industry are urging Congress to fix in order to let the US meet demand and stay globally competitive. At the crux of the political issue is Department of Defense allies on Capitol Hill pushing for the government to keep control over more of the available spectrum, with wireless companies pushing for more spectrum to be available to be licensed to them. 

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) threatened enforcement action against Google that could include holding the company in contempt of Congress for failing to produce documents the committee subpoenaed. In a letter to a lawyer for Google shared exclusively with CNBC, Chairman Jordan called the company’s compliance so far “insufficient” and demanded it hands over more information. Chairman Jordan issued subpoenas to the CEOs of Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft in February 2023. The subpoenas demanded that the companies hand over communication with the US government to “understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech. The House Judiciary Committee may also seek to take other actions against Google, like deposing the company’s management or trying to restrict federal dollars from going to Google in future legislation.