Public Notice

The Rural Utilities Service announces the acceptance of applications under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant program for fiscal year (FY) 2025, subject to the availability of funding. This notice is being issued prior to passage of a FY 2025 Appropriations Act in order to allow applicants sufficient time to leverage financing, prepare and submit their applications, and give the Agency time to process applications within FY 2025. Based on FY 2024 appropriated funding, the Agency estimates that approximately $40 million will be available for FY 2025.

The principal purpose of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program is to deploy broadband service to all unserved and underserved locations. To achieve this goal, Eligible Entities (states) may fund a variety of technologies that satisfy the BEAD Program’s minimum technical requirements. The BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) establishes a clear hierarchy of technologies that states must apply when awarding subgrants for Unserved and Underserved Service Projects: (1) Priority Broadband Projects (end-to-end fiber); (2) other Reliable Broadband Service (RBS) projects;

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announced that on December 23, 2024, the Spectrum and Secure Technology and Innovation Act of 2024 was signed into law as part of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (2025 NDAA).

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking information and public comment on the potential impact on the GPS L1 signal at 1575.42 MHz of the increasing deployment of mobile devices capable of operating on satellite systems in the L-band at 1610-1660.5 MHz. Under current FCC rules, these devices are permitted to operate subject to a substantially less restrictive out-of-band emission limit than similar devices transmitting on the same frequencies and connecting to terrestrial base station systems.

The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau reminds broadband Internet service providers (ISPs or providers) that they must display accurate broadband labels, for both wireless and wired retail standalone broadband services, at all points of sale.  The FCC is emphasizing key aspects of the label requirements to assist provider compliance and to ensure consumers receive the benefits of the labels. Providers must display the label at all “points of sale.”  Points of sale are ISP websites and any alternate channels through which the service in question is s

The Federal Communications Commission grants RiverStreet Communications of Virginia, Inc. a limited waiver of the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) service milestone and non-compliance rules. We will relieve RiverStreet of RDOF obligations to serve all the eligible census blocks within the census block groups covered by RiverStreet’s authorized winning bids in New Kent County (VA).

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hereby appoints eight members to the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company. The individuals are: 

The Broadband Data Task Force announces that the sixth Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filing window for submitting broadband availability and other data as of December 31, 2024, will open on January 2, 2025. In addition, the December 2024 update of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) is being made available to existing Fabric licensees in advance of the opening of the window.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking public input on the potential writing of ethical guidelines for the use of “pervasive data” in research. “Pervasive data” refers to data about people gathered through online services. NTIA will rely on these comments, along with stakeholder engagements, in considering whether to draft and issue non-binding guidelines to assist researchers working with pervasive data.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), provides $42.45 billion of funding to states, territories and the District of Columbia (“Eligible Entities”) for broadband planning, deployment, mapping, equity, and adoption activities.