To achieve true digital equity, deploying broadband to every household in the United States will not be enough. What is also needed are robust, comprehensive programs that address the human side of closing the digital divide and ensuring everyone has access to the technologies, skills, and opportunities necessary to thrive. Over the last seven months and with funding from the Digital Equity Act's State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have released draft digital equity plans for public review and comment. Prior to these efforts, only California had developed a statewide digital equity plan. By creating their own plans, states can identify barriers to digital equity and outline specific measures aimed at addressing those barriers. Once these plans are approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), states will be able to apply for funds from the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to implement those plans. NTIA required each plan to include a clear description of the state’s vision for digital equity in the context of its overarching strategy and goals.

The Indiana Connectivity Program announced the eighth round of awards on January 8, 2024. The eighth round of the program awarded $637,346 to expand broadband to 175 addresses across 23 counties. Of these addresses, 168 are homes and seven are businesses. Internet providers carrying out the projects matched $1,145,002 for a total investment of $1,782,348. The ten providers who received awards are:

1. Airwave Networks, LLC
2. Auburn Essential Services
3. Berry Communications
4. Central Indiana Communications
5. Joink Inc.
6. Mulberry Telecommunications
7. Orange County REMC
8. PSC Fiber
9. SEI Communications
10. Surf Broadband

As President Biden met with heads of state around the world these past couple of years, he’s been repeating a curious phrase. “Open RAN.” This obscure technology for cellular towers — which the Brookings Institution once dubbed the “Huawei killer” — is Washington’s anointed champion to try to unseat Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies from its throne as the largest supplier of the “pipes” that carry the world’s internet data and phone calls. Open radio access networks, or Open RAN, is an emerging technology for cell towers that allows for the use of mix-and-match parts from different vendors — a little akin to Google’s Android ecosystem. This diverges from the Apple-esque, proprietary, all-in-one systems from Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia that dominate the market. U.S. officials hope that this new initiative will help U.S. vendors get back in a game they were largely squeezed out of during two decades of globalization. Biden’s personal appeals to the leaders of India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and other countries reflect the issue as a top priority in Washington. A broad administration push is underway to persuade countries around the world to say “yes” to Open RAN and “no” to Huawei.

AT&T is attempting to pull its landline service from much of California and the Bay Area, raising concerns among those living in rural areas who rely on the service during emergencies. AT&T submitted an application early in 2023 to end its status as California’s Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, in a vast swath of the state. The designation requires the company to provide basic telephone service, typically in the form of landline service, to any residents who request it. In its application to the state Public Utilities Commission, which will ultimately have the final say on the matter, AT&T argued that having to maintain an “antiquated, narrowband network with an ever-dwindling base of subscribers” gives other companies a competitive advantage. It said the number of California households using landline service dropped 89% between 2000 and 2021. The California Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a series of public hearings where residents are encouraged to share their feedback on AT&T’s proposal. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for April, and a proposed decision from the commission is expected by September.

Meta will not "proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow" on Threads. The policies, which are the same it currently uses to regulate political content on its Facebook and Instagram apps, fill in the details of how Threads and Instagram will handle political content as the election approaches. Threads leadership has previously said the platform did not want to encourage hard news or politics on its platform, but had not laid out the practical measures the company would take to achieve that goal. Threads users will be allowed to follow accounts that post political content, but the algorithm that suggests content from users you don't follow will not recommend accounts that post about politics. Users will have an option that allows them to opt into political recommendations—first on Threads, then on Facebook, at an unspecified date.

Lumen Technologies expects to build fiber to an additional 500,000 locations in 2024, matching its pace for 2023. However, some industry watchers believe Lumen could open itself up to fiber overbuilders if it can't accelerate its pace. During Q4 2023, Lumen deployed fiber to another 126,000 new locations, down from 141,000 in the prior period, but ahead of the 113,000 that analysts were expecting. But the pace of Lumen's buildout concerns some analysts. "Our gripe is that they claim an 8-10MM location target for fiber deployment, with a starting point of 3.7MM, and they are only marching towards that target at a pace of ~500k per year.  It will take a decade to get there at this pace.  In the meantime, they are being targeted by overbuilders," New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin explained in a research note. "If Lumen doesn't build those locations, other overbuilders will build them."