On Monday, September 26, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Director of Research and Fellowships Dr. Revati Prasad hosted an online panel discussion, From the Ground Up: Broadband Mapping By and for Communities, on how communities and states are collecting data on local broadband availability as the Federal Communications Commission rolls out the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program. The panel was moderated by Dustin Loup, the Program Manager at the National Broadband Mapping Coalition, the event's co-sponsor. He framed the discussion by highlighting that inaccurate broadband deployment data has not only overestimated the percentage of U.S. households with access to broadband, it has also prevented some communities from being eligible for federal and/or state programs that subsidize broadband network buildout. Read what the panel had to say at the link below.

Now that the federal government included billions of tax dollars in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve internet access to more areas, the task of broadband mapping in Illinois is underway. The Illinois Office of Broadband and its mapping vendor, Connected Nation, are using the mapping efforts to provide internet access to hard to reach areas and make best use of all available federal broadband funds. Ashley Hitt, vice president of GeoAnalytics at Connected Nation, said the organization is updating the state broadband maps with the most accurate, detailed data possible. “Being able to aggregate all of that together, then being able to run some estimates on the number of served and underserved households there are across the state, so that way we can then look county-by-county and see which counties are the least connected that may need more assistance,” Hitt said. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed into law a bill that makes phone calls from California’s prisons free of charge. The new law places the cost of calls not on incarcerated people — or the people receiving calls from them — but on the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In addition to making calls free to users, the law prohibits local agencies from “receiving revenue for the provision of communication services to persons in its custody." The law also charges the state’s utility commission with ensuring service does not fall below standard, now that calls are free. Proponents of the law say the policy change will cost California about $12 million annually, but that is a small fraction of the $14.2 billion budget for the state’s corrections department. The new law covers the 93,000 incarcerated people in the state's prison system. Prison reform advocates argue the new California law will have a hugely positive impact on the families of incarcerated people in California — and potentially other states that follow California's lead. "[T]he simple cost of a call is never going to impair [incarcerated people's] ability to tell their children they love them or help their partner problem-solve a parenting situation,” said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a prison reform organization, which was a key player in advocating for the bill. 

I write to bring to your attention West Virginia v. EPA, a recent Supreme Court decision that clarified the limitations of certain agency action. Given the Biden administration’s track record, we are compelled to underscore the implications of West Virginia v. EPA and to remind you of the limitations on your authority. As the committee of jurisdiction overseeing the FCC, I assure you the Committee and its members will exercise our robust investigative and legislative powers to not only forcefully reassert our Article I responsibilities, but to ensure the FCC under Democrat leadership does not continue to exceed Congressional authorizations. Accordingly, to assist in this effort, please answer the following no later than October 7, 2022:

1. As it relates to your agency, please provide the following:

• A list of all pending rulemakings and the specific Congressional authority for each rulemaking.
• A list of all expected rulemakings and the specific Congressional authority for each rulemaking.
• A list of all pending or expected Declaratory Rulings issued by a Bureau or Office of the FCC on delegated authority.