Reps August Pfluger (R-TX-11) and Darren Soto (D-FL-09) reintroduced bipartisan legislation to improve transparency and efficiency in the broadband deployment process, which will help close the digital divide for rural Americans. The Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to submit a comprehensive plan to Congress within 180 days detailing how the agency will track the acceptance, processing, and disposal of broadband permitting applications on federal lands. These applications are essential for accessing easements and rights-of-way to build or maintain telecommunications infrastructure. Through this legislation, the NTIA will also be responsible for detailing how they will quickly implement their plan and any potential barriers they could face.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently issued a directive encouraging states to get internet service providers (ISPs) to remove locations from Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant applications that can’t be served by broadband. These extra locations might be barns, sheds, or other locations that are not eligible for a BEAD grant. It’s been clear to anybody who has looked closely at the Federal Communications Commission mapping fabric in rural areas that there are a lot of errors. The NTIA is asking ISPs to eliminate locations where the maps are clearly incorrect but not letting ISPs add back locations that should be in the fabric. This feels like a way to reduce the amount of grants being awarded instead of trying to get it right.

There’s been great progress in recognizing how essential digital skills are! But which skills are those, and who needs them when? In this series we'll look at the framing of digital skills training, starting with the basics, and to provide tools for you to use. This is the first of two posts on digital skills. Part 1 presents a model for digital skill learning purposes, the link between individual and broader field needs, and introduces digital skill assessments, lists, and frameworks. Part 2 goes deeper into what frameworks and skill lists are available, how to use them, and digital literacy definitions. We also provide sample skills checklist tools for your use.

Having reached much of their 5G coverage and capacity goals in the urban and suburban areas of the U.S. in 2023, the big-three national U.S. wireless operators have turned their attention toward expanding their 5G networks into rural markets. This strategy is intended to help operators acquire new subscribers, particularly as growth in the urban and suburban markets has slowed. But the big three U.S. wireless operators have taken very different approaches when it comes to expanding their 5G networks into less-densely populated areas. 

• T-Mobile has the largest percentage of 5G users spending the majority of their time on its 5G network in both urban and rural markets.
• Nevada and Illinois are the only two states to make the Top 10 list for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon when it comes to high urban 5G availability indicating that these states, and their large cities of Chicago and Las Vegas, have been a 5G focus for all three operators. 
• 5G service is scarce in remote Wyoming, which makes the Top 5 list for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon for having the lowest rural 5G availability. This isn’t particularly surprising as Wyoming ranks 49th in population density among all 50 states.

The Senate voted 51-45 to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary, putting in place a billionaire Wall Street veteran turned avowed protectionist to lead the president’s global trade agenda. The former chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm, ran the personnel operation for Trump’s presidential transition. Lutnick, age 63, took the reins at Cantor in 1991. He stepped down following the confirmation vote. President Trump has said the secretary will lead the second-term trade portfolio as well as oversee an agency of roughly 47,000 employees. Its responsibilities range from economic sanctions to weather forecasting. Lutnick was confirmed after a relatively routine nomination hearing conducted by the Senate Commerce Committee. He pledged to divest himself of his personal stocks and business holdings to avoid conflicts of interest. He also promised to uphold the agency’s core functions. He committed to disbursing funding under the 2022 Chips Act to bring more semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S., though he hinted he might seek to alter some Biden administration stipulations that recipients provide child care and other services for employees. He cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in a 16-12 vote. Only one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), voted to advance his nomination.