Municipal leaders are on the front lines of the digital divide, responding to the needs and concerns of the communities they serve. As cities, counties, towns, and villages continue to innovate, local leaders are continually searching for ways to connect residents who are locked out of economic, wellness, educational, civic engagement, and other opportunities that are now exclusively online. Currently, at least 42 million Americans have no access to broadband. These Americans are disproportionately low-income and minority households. The Universal Service Fund (USF) helps fill in the gap by providing funding for a myriad of programs addressing some of the largest variables that prolong digital disadvantages for disconnected residents. Without these important funding programs, the burden on local officials working to bring broadband within reach for every household in their communities will only increase. The USF continues to play a significant role in getting and keeping Americans connected. Without USF-funded programs, people most likely to be impacted by digital inequality – low- income populations, people in rural areas, those impacted by natural disasters, and others – will face unnecessary disadvantages. It will also be more expensive to provide them with access to critical government services. Efforts to modernize the USF should include the following actions:

1. Eliminate the eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) designation, making funds available to more providers that want to serve their communities;
2. Increase data transparency and allow public audits of USF funding;
3. Change the definition of classrooms. Congress should update the E-Rate rules to reflect new developments in distance learning;
4. Recognize that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) will not eliminate the need for the High-Cost Program;
5. Note that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is not designed to be and cannot be a replacement for the Lifeline program.

An important aspect of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s work has focused on schools and libraries. As far back as 1995, Benton published The Learning Connection: Schools in the Information Age, examining how educators were grappling with the difficult interplay of technological change and educational values. We began by reviewing the potential for technology-driven education reform and outlining an agenda for building the human infrastructure of the Information Age by addressing such issues as content, curriculum reform, professional development, assessment, equity, and community involvement. The following year—thanks to the leadership of Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA)—President Bill Clinton signed into law the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996, which took the bold step of creating the “E-Rate program” to connect schools and libraries to the internet. The goals of this immensely successful program are just as vital today as the day the Act was signed—helping to connect every school and library to high-speed broadband, every classroom to Wi-Fi, and every student to digital learning opportunities. When the E-rate was first conceived, just 4 percent of classrooms had access to the internet. By 1999, 95 percent of U.S. schools were connected to the internet. By 2014, almost all schools had some access to the internet but only 65% of schools had access to adequate broadband. This “connectivity gap” was especially acute in rural schools that may not have been able to afford the cost of broadband connections or may have had no choice at all as to what broadband provider to use.

There are several states already estimating that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant funding is not going to be enough money to reach all of their unserved and underserved areas. California, New Mexico, and Minnesota have estimated that BEAD will fall short. By the time the dust settles there will likely be more states. I’m not surprised by this. Just since the BEAD grant program was enacted by the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act (IIJA) in November 2021, there have been some significant cost increases for building broadband networks. Network design engineers are telling me that costs have gone up in most places by 20% to 25% since 2021. Part of this comes from inflation, which has driven up the cost of materials and labor. But a lot of the increase comes from perceived labor shortages in the industry, which has prompted construction contractors to raise prices faster than inflation. The various cost increases mean that BEAD funding won’t cover nearly as many locations as might have been supposed by whoever determined that $42.5 billion was enough money. Where might the money come from to cover these shortages? There are several possibilities.

123NET and Allegan County (MI) have been awarded a $65 million project to construct an open-access, carrier-neutral fiber network. This county-wide broadband project will begin construction in mid-August 2023. The Allegan County Board of Commissioners and 123NET established a public-private partnership earlier in 2023 and applied for the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant together. Now that the project has been awarded, 123NET will construct an extensive 1,100 miles of high-capacity fiber and provide world-class connectivity to over 10,000 unserved and underserved homes across the county. 123NET will provide fiber internet with speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, which is 100 times faster than the grant’s requirement. This project will establish Allegan County as the best-connected county in the state and one of the fastest in the nation. The new network will enable other broadband providers to utilize the fiber infrastructure to offer their services.

As airlines upgrade their in-flight Wi-Fi systems, they often tout the passenger experience benefits, like faster internet browsing or better entertainment options. But some see another advantage: Easier communication with medical experts on the ground when a passenger is sick or injured — and potentially one day, true airborne telemedicine service. About 11 of every 100,000 flights are diverted because of in-flight medical emergencies, per one 2021 study, costing airlines anywhere from $15,000-$893,000 per incident. While flight crews have first-aid training and aircraft carry some basic medical equipment and medications, easier access to fully-trained experts could save lives — and maybe reduce the need for diversions that are both expensive for airlines and a headache for travelers. Delta Air Lines and others have partnered with MedAire, which provides on-demand medical advice to flight crews, among other services. Delta flight attendants can connect with MedAire's medical experts via voice or text directly on their company-issued mobile device, using on-board Wi-Fi. That simplifies and quickens the process compared to the old days of using satellite phones and passing messages back and forth with pilots, who are ultimately responsible for passengers' safety and make the call on whether to divert.

H.R. 4250, the "PRESS Act," would exempt journalists and third-party service providers, such as telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers (ISP), from being compelled to identify a source or disclose other information that was gathered or created as part of news gathering activities unless such information is necessary to prevent an act of terrorism or a threat of imminent violence. Federal courts would make that determination based on the preponderance of the evidence after the journalist or service provider has had notice and an opportunity to respond. For matters related to federal cases, the Department of Justice (DOJ) typically files subpoena requests that seek information from journalists. Under existing regulations, federal prosecutors may request a subpoena of a journalist or a third-party service provider only in limited circumstances after an internal review. According to DOJ, only a small number of subpoenas seeking information from journalists are approved each year. Based on information from DOJ, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expects that H.R. 4250 would apply to more people than the existing regulations. However, CBO estimates that the increase in the number of subpoenas subject to the bill’s requirements would be small. In addition, CBO expects that the bill’s preponderance of evidence standard would increase the amount of work required by federal prosecutors to obtain those subpoenas. In total, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 4250 would cost less than $500,000 over the 2024-2028 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

Ubiquity has launched open access networks in Carlsbad (CA) and Mesa (AZ). The company said the Mesa deployment is the nation’s first scaled fiber deployment, in which service provider tenants will use both lit and dark fiber to service business and residential customers. At the same time, the company announced new fiber “footprints” in Omaha (NE) and Council Bluffs (IA). The four new networks will serve hundreds of thousands of addresses in those four cities. According to the company, service provider tenants served by the Mesa project will use a fully managed network connection to customer addresses. The dark fiber will allow tenants to serve end users with their own equipment.