The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Wisconsin, allowing the state to request access to more than $13 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Wisconsin will use the $13,248,029 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

• Awarding grants to expand and support digital navigator programs through the Digital Navigator Competitive Grant program
• Offer a Digital Navigator Pilot Program for incarcerated individuals to increase digital skills.

A bipartisan group of senators is looking into Universal Service Fund (USF) reform and, even better, there are solutions on which both parties can agree. One is for Congress to simply roll the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) into USF's contribution regime and have it take the place of less efficient programs with similar mandates, like Lifeline. Or, to increase USF's efficiency, Congress can also remove the fund's needless and onerous barriers that only few carriers can overcome, like the eligible telecommunications carrier designation, to increase carrier participation and give low-income consumers more choice in providers. Candidly, dropping the eligible telecommunications carrier designation for other USF programs, like the High-Cost Program, would be an easy way to lower the costs of compliance and increase participation for high-cost recipients. Doing so would level the playing field and reduce the needless paperwork that often comes with such a designation. Most importantly, Congress should also fix the FCC's broken contribution mechanism for USF. Instead of unfairly saddling families, veterans, working adults, and the elderly, Congress should place the burden on the businesses that profit the most from broadband services. Those businesses should be the ones paying, not taxpayers. Congress could close the loopholes (such as the self-provision exemption) large telecommunications providers exploit to avoid contributing and ensure that Big Tech companies that profit tremendously from universal service pay their fair share.

[Joel Thayer is president of the Digital Progress Institute]

Broadband access in poorer and more rural communities has been a major campaign issue since 2008. Bridging the digital divide was a key component of Barack Obama’s platform. While successive administrations have promised to continue the work of bringing high-speed internet to the most underserved communities, the results have been disappointing. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have pledged to get Americans online, but political realities will make that goal difficult. Vice President Harris is deeply involved with and expected to carry forward the current administration’s policies. That could give her a chance to salvage some sort of positive legacy from what is currently a rather spotty track record for Biden on broadband. Neither Trump nor the Republican National Convention have much to say about rural broadband or the digital divide. While the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from Project 2025, the document was drafted by a number of people in Trump’s orbit, including former staffers. So, it’s not a stretch to assume he might adopt some, if not many, of its policies.