Press Release

Verizon reported second-quarter 2024 results today with strong wireless service revenue, broadband subscriber growth, and continued momentum in its three financial priorities of wireless service revenue, consolidated adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. The company remains on track to achieve its full-year 2024 financial guidance. Highlights from quarter two include:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded more than $20.5 million to Michigan to implement their Digital Equity Plan.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Connecticut’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative. This approval enables Connecticut to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program. The BEAD program is a $42.45 billion state grant program authorized by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Francisco Cigarroa, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, announced that president Darren Walker has shared his plans to step down from the foundation by the end of 2025. The Ford Foundation Board of Trustees will oversee the presidential leadership transition process.

The Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network sent a letter following concerns that Meta's ‘pay or consent' model might breach European Union consumer law. The European Commission coordinated this action which is led by the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention.

Tillman Fiber, a leading developer of open-access fiber infrastructure, announced the successful closing of $815 million in committed debt financing. The financing will support the deployment of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks throughout Florida, with the new credit facility providing for up to $200 million of additional term loans. This significant capital infusion comes on the heels of Tillman Fiber's Florida expansion and will enable the rapid deployment of high-speed and reliable fiber infrastructure across the state. 

The Federal Communications Commission voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades. Under the new rules, the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to $0.90 from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10. The new rules also, for the first time, address the exorbitant cost of video visitation calls, dropping those prices to less than a quarter of current prices and requiring per-minute rate options based on consumers’ actual usage.

July 18 marks a major milestone on the long road to right a market dysfunction that has wronged incarcerated persons and their loved ones for decades.  The Federal Communications Commission’s vote on Bringing Common Sense and Fairness to Correctional Facility Phone Rates will lower rates for voice phone calls including, perhaps most importantly, local and intrastate calls.  Among the many other long overdue reforms, the agency’s Report and Order will end kickbacks, euphemistically called “site commissions,” to carceral facilities.  No less significantly, the new measures are forward-looking

he Federal Communications Commission voted to approve final rules to support the students, school staff, and library patrons around the country who find themselves on the wrong side of the digital and educational divide. Now, schools and libraries will be able to utilize E-Rate resources to loan out Wi-Fi hotspots which will provide internet access for those individuals without a reliable connection at home.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed that the agency require mobile service providers to unlock customers’ mobile phones within 60 days of activation. Expanded unlocking requirements would establish a clear and uniform set of requirements for all mobile service providers. New unlocking rules would allow consumers the freedom to take their existing phones and switch from one mobile service provider to another more easily, as long as the consumer’s phone is compatible with the new provider’s wireless network.