Government & Communications

Community decision-making is the foundation of Maine’s DNA. Town meetings, volunteer school boards, and local planning efforts are all central to what makes this Maine. Dozens of communities have started this process with local people identifying locations and groups needing better service to develop plans addressing these gaps. But these community-led efforts are under threat from big monopoly internet service providers, who fear competition will lose customers.

If you’re a person living in the United States without quality broadband, you should be very disappointed in the way your elected officials have failed to meet the following challenge of closing the digital divide recently: 

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a Report and Order proposing a second, more targeted Notice of Funding Opportunity to raise awareness and promote the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the FCC’s broader consumer outreach efforts. The proposal is part of a reinvigorated campaign to enroll more eligible households and families in the nation’s largest broadband affordability program.

On March 3, 2023, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a letter from Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Thune (R-SD) which inquired about the FCC's National Broadband Map and challenge process. In her response, Chairwoman Rosenworcel detailed the FCC's prior actions in compliance with the Broadband DATA Act. Rosenworcel added that the FCC will accept location challenges from all stakeholders at

Astonishingly, the U.S. Senate has allowed the auction authority of the Federal Communications Commission to lapse for the first time since it was granted to the FCC in 1994. The U.S. Communications and Technology Subcommittee is holding more hearings related to the issue. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member, said, “Yesterday, for the first time since the agency gained this authority 30 years ago, Congress failed to extend it when the Senate refused to act.

The Federal Communications Commission is targeting approximately $66 million through the Affordable Connectivity Outreach Grant Program to drive awareness and enrollment in the country’s newest and largest broadband affordability program in the nation’s history.

US Senators John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) reintroduced the Network Equipment Transparency (NET) Act, a bipartisan bill to increase broadband supply chain transparency through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to ensure an on-time rollout of federal broadband programs. Broadband infrastructure projects have been affected by supply chain woes in the past.

Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority Executive Director Brandon Carson is asking Pennsylvanians to provide input on the stakeholder engagement process for developing two plans: the State Digital Equity Plan and the Commonwealth’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Five-Year Action Plan. The two-week public comment period began on February 27 and ends Friday, March 10, 2023. The State Digital Equity Stakeholder Engagement Plan will focus on engaging eight primary populations required through federal guidance – aging individuals, incarcerated individuals, veterans, indivi

An effort to boost awareness of the year-old Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is getting more local after earlier attempts to promote it statewide resulted in just 23% of eligible Colorado households signing up to get up to $30 off their internet bills. To get the rest of the 77% signed up, state officials feel that the campaign needs to go analog and provide help right in local libraries, schools, and community centers.

One of the most interesting aspects of the upcoming Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants is that the Infrastructure Ivestment and Jobs Acy requires states to solicit feedback from the public. I can’t recall that ever happening with any grants in the past—normally the rules are handed down from on-high, and that’s that. States have to solicit feedback on two grant programs. First will be each state’s share of the $42.5 billion of BEAD broadband infrastructure grants. Second is the state’s portion of $1.44 billion in digital equity grants.