The future of the state’s high-speed internet and wireless connectivity was recently at the center of discussions between industry, community and university leaders at Ohio State University. President Kristina Johnson joined Lt Gov Jon Husted, director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT), to open the first meeting of the Ohio Broadband & 5G Sector Partnership.
One of the most interesting sections of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requires that states must define how they are going to make it easier for grant recipients to implement broadband solutions.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government today approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2023 bill. For fiscal year 2023, the bill includes $29.8 billion in funding, an increase of $4.3 billion (17 percent) over fiscal year 2022. The bill provides annual funding for certain federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2023 funding bill. For 2023, the bill provides funding of $27.2 billion– a critical increase of $2.075 billion, 8 percent above 2022. The bill includes over $4.2 billion for rural development programs, investing over $560 million for the expansion of broadband service, including $450 million for the ReConnect Program.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee gave a big thumbs up to extending the Federal Communications Commission's ability to raise tens of billions of dollars through the treasury with spectrum auctions, not to mention freeing up spectrum in the process for Wi-Fi. The subcommittee voted unanimously to favorably report the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act of 2022, which would extend the FCC's spectrum auction authority, which otherwise would expire September 30 of this year, to March 21, 2024. Also favorably reported were:
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