This brief examines how place-based factors—such as education levels, social vulnerability, regional economic strength, and measures of income inequality—influence broadband affordability. These measures reinforce that income is not the only factor policymakers should consider when seeking to understand broadband affordability and adoption challenges.
Pennsylvania will be getting $1.2 billion in Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding, making it one of the top states in terms of the amount awarded. Telecompetitor spoke with Brandon Carson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, about BEAD and other efforts to make broadband available throughout the state. Pennsylvania aims to deliver service to 236,000 unserved and 52,000 underserved locations.
State Broadband Offices and the BEAD grant process have designed grant rules that put pressure on internet service providers to provide inexpensive rural broadband. But in doing so, I’m not sure that they understand the high prices that rural folks are paying for broadband today. In rural areas I've looked at, most households are paying over $100 a month for broadband. There are state BEAD rules that are trying to force rates down to rates between $50 and $75 per month for gigabit speeds. I find several faults with these rate-setting efforts:
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) announce the availability, under the terms of the 2023 IPCS Protective Order, of the preliminary Incarcerated People’s Communications Services (IPCS) Database (2023 IPCS Database). The FCC staff developed this database to help analyze data and other information that IPCS providers submitted in response to the Commission’s 2023 Mandatory Data Collection.
Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) announced that the State of New Jersey has been approved for a total of nearly $180 million through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Project Fund (CPF) to support a wide range of infrastructure projects that promote public health and safety, digital connectivity, and equitable access to critical services. The CPF, a component of the American Rescue Plan, is designed to provide crucial funding for enhancing the quality of life, economic vitality, and resilience of communities across the United States.
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