March 2022

How a State Can Blow a Once-in-a-Generation Investment to Close the Digital Divide

The Illinois General Assembly is currently considering legislation that will constrain the state's use of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act broadband funding and likely impair efforts to close the digital divide in Illinois.

After it sheds WarnerMedia, AT&T plans to enhance services for wireless and internet customers and shrink its copper network

AT&T offered more concrete plans for its telecommunications operations after it abandons the entertainment business, detailing goals to drop old copper telephone networks and build new fiber-optic lines. AT&T said it would focus its investments on fifth-generation wireless network connections and fiber-optic lines. To that end, the company said it would cut its network of copper lines—a legacy of its landline telephone network—in half by 2025, allowing the company to serve 75 percent of its network footprint using 5G and fiber.