We release a much-anticipated sequel to the 2019 national agenda, Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, written by Benton Senior Fellow, Jonathan Sallet. A new sense of urgency to implement equitable broadband policies and start addressing at-home internet access as a civil rights emergency in need of a comprehensive solution drives us to release Broadband for America Now.
In 2019-2020, the Benton Institute speaks with policymakers, advocates, and practitioners around the country to create recommendations for a national broadband agenda because we care about harnessing broadband’s potential to improve people’s lives, our communities, and our democracy. From those discussions we learn that leaders at all levels of government need to embrace four building blocks of broadband policy—Digital Equity, Deployment, Competition, and the importance of Community Anchor Institutions and community leadership. The ways people use broadband now have changed
Benton Foundation changes its name to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society to better reflect our mission and work.
Mignon Clyburn, former Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from 2009 to 2018, including a term as Acting Chairwoman in 2013, joins Benton’s Board of Directors.
Republicans block debate on infrastructure bill
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently released a new public map, the Indicators of Broadband Need. This publicly available resource accompanies the National Broadband Availability Map (NBAM), pulling together public and private broadband internet access service datasets.
Nearly 4 million households have enrolled in the Federal Communications Commission's emergency broadband benefit program since it launched in May. But as researchers have begun digging into data recently released by the FCC, they're finding that not only are the vast majority of eligible Americans still being left out of the $3.2 billion program, but there are also stark geographic differences in where people are being enrolled.
When T-Mobile acquired Sprint in April of 2020, it brought our major wireless carrier choices from four down to three. Recognizing that this would indeed be a bad thing for US wireless customers (aka all of us), T-Mobile agreed to a set of conditions with the FCC’s blessing that would theoretically position Dish Network to fill the Sprint-shaped hole in our wireless landscape. In other words, one wireless competitor was allowed to reduce competition only if it agreed to help set up another competitor in its place. Sounds a little suspect, right?
Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) pressed the Federal Communications Commission to probe Verizon’s proposed acquisition of TracFone and secure specific commitments from the company to ensure that this acquisition will not harm consumers. In the $6.9 billion transaction, Verizon would acquire one of the largest operators of the Lifeline program which provides free or discounted internet and affordable prepaid mobile phone services to low-income Americans.
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