Agenda

I guess it’s inevitable that a $42.5 billion grant program would attract a lot of legislative action trying to set some parameters on how to spend the money. Recent hearings conducted by the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology looked at issues that would expedite the deployment of broadband infrastructure. The subcommittee is considering 32 bills related to broadband infrastructure, many of the bills still in draft form. Following are just a few bills that show the breadth of House legislation being considered:

The Federal Communications Commission — which has jurisdiction over radio, television, cable, and satellites —  isn’t best known for grappling with cutting-edge technology. But amid the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, the communications regulator may be forced to tackle artificial intelligence, an area that’s beginning to intersect with

TikTok is being sued over data privacy — again.

Across the country, broadband advocates and representatives are crunching numbers to figure out how to implement an often under-examined piece of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program puzzle: What does digital equity look like? Passed alongside BEAD as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Digital Equity Act (DEA) provides $2.75 billion dollars that will be parsed between states and territories to help them implement digital equity plans.

Mears is a division of Quanta that provides construction services for fiber broadband deployment projects.