Analysis

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), established in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is expected to end this Spring if it does not receive additional funding from Congress soon. The funding situation is so dire that this week the FCC halted any new enrollments in the program. For millions of people eligible for the ACP, affordable broadband service is getting harder to obtain.

The draft New Hampshire Digital Equity Plan was created with partnership and collaboration at its core, as a joint effort between the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, the National Collaborative for Digital Equity (NCDE), and the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

Comcast and Charter broadband customer growth has stagnated, and all of the cable companies are now slowly losing customers. There are a lot of reasons for the stagnation and customer losses. One of the factors that put cable companies at such a competitive disadvantage is broadband prices. The cable companies have been regularly raising rates annually for years to levels that are far higher than all of their competitors.

Before implementing their BEAD programs, every state and territory broadband office will have one last chance to update the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new broadband availability maps by running their own challenge process. This will be the final step in determining which areas are eligible for a BEAD-funded project.

Patricia Pereira, an 80-year old woman living in Camp Seco, California, is cut off from 911 and other essential services. At the beginning of 2023, Pereira asked AT&T if landline service could be transferred from a neighboring home to hers. Instead of transferring the service, AT&T cut the copper lines dead on both properties. Pereira lives in a dead zone and barely receives cellular signals. This is happening in rural AT&T areas across the country.

In our increasingly connected world, dependable and reasonably priced internet access is an essential lifeline. However, on February 7, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will end enrollments for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a broadband affordability program benefitting over 20 million households.

Federal courts are full of cases that are challenging the authority of federal regulatory agencies, including the case of Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, which is pending before the Supreme Court as of January 2024. Hedge fund manager George Jarkesy was accused of committing fraud by misrepresenting himself to investors. The case was heard by an administrative law judge at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who imposed a fine and penalties, and ordered Jarkesy to disgorge $685,000 in unlawful profits.

In January 2024, the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology released the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design, and Use Divides. The NETP examines how technologies can raise the bar for all elementary and secondary students.

It’s clear in reading the various proposed Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) rules that State Broadband Offices are following the lead of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and putting a lot of emphasis on making sure that everybody gets served with the grant funding. I’m not sure they understand the costly consequences of this emphasis. There are some passings in this country that are largely unservable.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a federally funded program that has offered a monthly benefit to eligible households. Without urgent congressional funding, ACP will run out of funds, most likely at the end of April 2024. The FCC’s ACP Wind-Down guidance includes critical information and estimated dates. In addition, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance is providing guidance, based on insights from our community of affiliates, for organizations navigating this difficult period.