Analysis

Marylanders Online, a state-funded digital literacy initiative led by the University of Maryland Extension (UME) in partnership with the College of Information, entered its third year in 2024. Leading several of the state’s digital literacy efforts, Marylanders Online focused the year on resource curation, grassroots community engagement, and capacity-building. These efforts, added to the program’s expanding portfolio of digital classes and programs, have made 2024 a year of notable growth and achievements for Marylanders Online.

Congress created the new Broadband Data Collection (BDC) maps with the passage of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (the Broadband DATA Act). This created the requirement for the new mapping system that replaced the old system of reporting maps called the 477 process. One of the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act is that internet service providers (ISPs) have to engage a professional engineer to certify that the data submitted to the FCC is accurate.

The $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program faces serious hurdles in its goal to “make sure that every American has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet.” For one, traditional broadband is capital intensive, requiring large initial investments to deploy infrastructure. The theory behind BEAD was that it would resolve this issue through a massive one-time lump-sum expenditure to deploy broadband infrastructure to every American. However, we are now three years removed from when BEAD legisl

Following up on the release of The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead, we are providing examples of core, complementary, and coalition models for digital equity work. With 27 locations, the Denver Public Library (DPL) is an innovative hub for digital equity throughout the city, serving more than 700,000 residents. The library provides more than 1,400 public internet computers that receive more than 250,000 uses annually, as well as free public Wi-Fi.

Digital skills and access to educational materials at home are critical for preparing students for the future. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic put into sharp focus the divide between students with and without consistent, reliable broadband and device access.

On January 13, 2025, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced its approval of Louisiana’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Final Proposal. Delaware’s approval followed the next day. With those two landmarks, coming as the fourth year since the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) begins to elapse, the BEAD program is at last beginning to bear fruit.

In late 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Commerce Data Governance Board launched the AI and Open Government Data Working Group. The working group, consisting of AI and data experts throughout the Department of Commerce (Commerce), was tasked with evaluating how the Department could enhance the creation, curation, and distribution of its open data assets to best meet the needs of users who leverage generative AI applications to interact with Commerce’s open data. This guidance provides actionable guidelines and best practices for publishing open data optimized for generative AI systems.

AT&T has made it official that it plans to shut down copper networks everywhere except California by the end of 2029. This is not exactly news since the company has been quietly shutting down copper all over the country. California is a special situation because the California Public Service Commission has never deregulated AT&T as a local telephone company and the state is going to make AT&T prove to it that customers will not be stranded when the copper comes down. AT&T says it will offer an alternate technology to customers—either fiber or wireless.

Conexon Connect has completed its first fiber to the home project in Florida, a 2,000-mile network launched in partnership with Escambia River Electric Cooperative (EREC).

In an open letter, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. shared a summary of the progress the Biden-Harris administration made over the last four years. The focus of the letter is on economic recovery and the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. A key tenet is President Biden's Investing in America agenda, which aimed to mobilize historic levels of  investments in the United States and revitalize U.S. infrastructure, including broadband internet access. Here is a look at President Biden's broadband accomplishments as he prepares to leave office.