Mayor London Breed announced a partnership between the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and national nonprofit organizations EducationSuperHighway and the 1Million Project Foundation to provide connectivity support for thousands of students in San Francisco who lack home internet access, including the deployment of up to 25 WiFi “SuperSpots.” As part of the new Digital Bridge project, the SuperSpots will be installed in locations to serve students from underserved communities who need to participate in distance learning due to COVID-19 and related school closures.

Next Century Cities sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to collaborate with mayors and other local officials on broadband deployment. As residents are forced to work, access virtual classrooms, obtain medical care, and more from their homes, local officials have been working tirelessly to ensure that every resident stays connected during the national coronavirus (COVID-19) shut-in. Next Century Cities asks the FCC to consider the following points. 

“It’s really unfortunate that it has taken a national emergency, a worldwide pandemic, for people to realize how many people don’t have access to broadband internet,” said Benton Institute Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn. Right now, the Federal Communications Commission could make E-Rate funds available for mobile hotspots and connectivity.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission demanded that service providers do their part to stop coronavirus related scam robocalls from bombarding American consumers. They specifically warned three gateway providers facilitating COVID-19-related scam robocalls originating overseas that they must cut off these calls or face serious consequences. Unless these gateway providers stop bringing these calls into the US in the next 48 hours, other phone companies will be able to begin blocking all traffic from these gateway providers’ networks.

As Congress considers whether there is a need to take additional next steps in responding to the health and economic crisis facing our nation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports indicate that some are actively considering another round of economic support. While I will reserve judgment on other communications matters for the time being, one questionable proposal floated for possible inclusion in past rounds was to inject Federal funding into deploying advanced 9-1-I systems in states and territories, better known as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1). Any effort to do this without appropriat

As the nation prepares to ride out a pandemic that will persist for months, the need is acute for fast and inexpensive broadband rollout. It’s important to know that you have options to deploy new facilities – options that can be exercised in days or weeks, not years. Last week, we shared some ideas for using fiber, mmWave, and Wi-Fi to get services to the unserved.

President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (or CARES Act) into law late last month. With a $2.2 trillion dollar price tag, the law has gotten a lot of attention for its direct payments to U.S. taxpayers and assistance to companies.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) said the coronavirus pandemic could forever change the importance of expanding broadband connectivity and bolstering the security of digital networks. “Things have changed. I'm not sure they ever go back to exactly the way they were before,” he said. The timeline to bring some businesses and school districts online has sped up, for instance, as they offer new remote learning and work-from-home options. Those coronavirus-era changes could become the norm.

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) led a group of his colleagues to demand better mobile internet service for low-income Americans impacted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The federal Lifeline service program, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, provides free and discounted voice, text and cellular internet service to 9 million low-income Americans. The senators requested Lifeline service providers take a number of steps to expand their service:

When Anderson County (TX) told residents not to assemble in groups with more than 10 people, officials got some pushback from churches. County Judge Robert Johnston said that was partly because residents wanted to meet on Sundays like they always have, but it was partly because they don’t have a way to meet online. “A lot of this county has no internet service,” he said. Only 65.6% of Texas households have adopted broadband, according to numbers from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.