The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) and the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) initiated the urban rate survey for 2023. The information collected in this survey will be used to develop voice and broadband reasonable comparability benchmarks that will be in place in 2023. The FCC e will be collecting the rates offered by a random sample of providers of fixed services identified using December 2021 FCC Form 477 data.
Throughout the summer of 2022, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) brought in top-tier talent to lead its key offices. The NTIA announced that Scott Blake Harris has joined the Office of the Assistant Secretary as Senior Spectrum Advisor.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the effects of the digital divide. Those with broadband access could work, attend school, shop, and be seen by their doctors without leaving home, and those without sufficient access could not. Federal efforts to provide broadband access to all span multiple presidential administrations. Here, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explores its work about some of the ongoing challenges to achieving the goal of closing the digital divide. The GAO recommends synchronizing federal efforts through a national broadband strategy.
The federal government is in the midst of distributing an unprecedented amount of broadband funding to states. In 2021 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which is poised to grant states a historic amount of funding totaling $42.45 billion in order to expand high-speed Internet access. To get the money, however, eligible states and territories in the US must submit initial planning funds applications ahead of the August 15 deadline to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Community specialists with Washington State University (WSU) Extension are partnering with the Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) to enhance the capacity of Washington communities, especially those in rural and remote areas, to provide better and more equitable access to reliable, high-speed internet.
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