This decision upholds an important tool for broadband deployment as well as an important principle. Low-income Americans need broadband just as much as all other consumers. Broadband gives all of us access to education, healthcare, government services, employment opportunities, and the information necessary to participate in civic discourse and to vote wisely. Today’s decision holds that FCC regulations do not interfere with the states’ ability to ensure that their residents have affordable access. The success of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the national $30 per month broadband subsidy provided by the 2021 infrastructure law, demonstrates the importance of providing affordable access. Unfortunately, even though ACP has been so successful that it has exhausted its original appropriation more quickly than expected, Congress has failed to replenish it, and the subsidies will end in a few weeks. This decision provides a roadmap for other states to follow to join New York in doing what the federal government has thus fair failed to do.

Charter Communications—through its affiliates Charter Fiberlink – Michigan LLC, Charter Fiberlink – Missouri, LLC, and Charter Fiberlink CCO, LLC—was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to deploy gigabit-speed internet service in certain unserved areas of Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Trent Harkrader, Charter notified the FCC that it is returning some census block groups (CBGs) in Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin due to "unforeseen circumstances that are beyond Charter’s control." The CBGs returned represent less than 2 percent of the approximately 1.75 million new locations to be reached through Charter’s rural construction initiative and approximately 2.4 percent of Charter’s RDOF locations. Due largely to unforeseeable costs, primarily costs associated with the need for extensive utility pole replacements, deploying broadband in these few specific CBGs has become uneconomical, according to Charter.

For residents in rural areas of Williamson County (TN), the wait for fiber internet service may soon be over. United Communications announced that it will increase the scope of its current broadband infrastructure expansion efforts in Williamson County to reach nearly 8,000 under-connected homes and businesses—a significant increase from its original goal of 2,800 locations. Through Project UNITE, an initiative to establish universal broadband coverage in Middle Tennessee, United and its parent company, Middle Tennessee Electric, secured $14 million in infrastructure grants for Williamson County through the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund in late 2022. United and the Williamson County Commission committed to a combined $6 million in supplemental funding.  

Cable companies Charter and Comcast have been wooing subscribers to their mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services. But they can’t convince all their internet customers to include wireless in their plans. The stumbling block seems to be inertia. According to a new survey of 1,000 respondents conducted on April 8, 2024 by the analysts at TD Cowen, those holding out on cable mobile are primarily doing so because they like their current wireless provider. The survey asked Comcast and Charter subscribers “why haven’t you subscribed to the mobile bundle with Xfinity or Spectrum?” Excluding respondents who already subscribe to cable mobile, the most common response for Charter subs (31%) and for Comcast subs (53%) was, “I’m happy with the offer from my current wireless provider.” TD Cowen determined that there’s still plenty of opportunity for Charter and Comcast to convince about 7.5 million more subscribers to switch to their wireless services. “With additional marketing and compelling promos, we believe the cable providers still have many years of runway remaining in wireless,” they wrote.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released the Spectrum and National Security Act, comprehensive legislation that will modernize the nation’s spectrum policy to protect our communications networks against foreign adversaries, restore Federal Communications Commission auction authority, secure critical broadband funding to keep Americans connected, and invest in CHIPS and Science innovation initiatives that will boost U.S. technological competitiveness. The Spectrum and National Security Act:

1. Modernizes Federal Spectrum Management: The federal government utilizes spectrum across agencies – from military operations to emergency preparedness alerts. The legislation creates a balanced process to maximize government spectrum usage and promote interagency cooperation. This coordination will position the United States to lead on wireless innovation and protect national security interests with American-led technology at home and around the world.  
2. Grows the Spectrum Pipeline: This legislation creates an efficient solution to spectrum management by directing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and spectrum-using federal agencies to conduct feasibility assessments to find unused bands and maximize availability for all users from government to businesses.
3. Invests in New Innovative Technology: This legislation invests in wireless technology innovation like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing to maximize this finite resource by enabling multiple users to access the same spectrum bands. This includes providing $25 million to the NTIA and the Department of Defense to research and develop advanced spectrum technologies such as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.
4. Reignites the FCC’s Auction Authority: The legislation restores the FCC commercial auction authority, which lapsed on March 9, 2023, and extends the authority for five years, until September 30, 2029. The FCC has been unable to auction commercial spectrum for over a year, hamstringing those providers trying to meet the surging spectrum demands of wireless consumers. The auction authority will provide funding for critical technology research and development initiatives.
5. Supports Workforce Training Programs: This legislation creates a new Telecommunications Workforce Training Grant Program to prepare America’s labor force for the future. $500 million in grants will be awarded to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority-serving Institutions to develop education and job training programs for students to enter the telecommunications and spectrum workforce.
6. Boosts Tech Hubs and Science: This legislation provides a critical boost in funding to science agencies and CHIPS and Science initiatives so the United States can continue to lead global innovation. It includes $2 billion for the Department of Commerce’s Regional Tech Hubs Program to fully fund more Hubs across the nation and award more strategy development grants. It provides $3 billion to boost the CHIPS manufacturing incentives program. It also provides $5 billion for NSF and NIST research programs, including critical funding for NIST facilities maintenance and construction.
7. Keeps Americans Connected Online: Currently, more than 23 million households nationwide rely on the Affordable Connectivity Program for work, school, health care and more, but risk losing service if the program is not renewed. By using proceeds from commercial auctions, this legislation provides $7 billion to continue funding this critical bipartisan program for American households. This legislation also provides $200 million for nonprofits to work with Minority-serving Institutions, including Tribal communities, to prepare funding applications for broadband infrastructure and digital equity programs created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
8. Secures American Networks and Supports Rural Providers: As the nation works to secure our telecommunications networks and remove unsecure Chinese Huawei and ZTE equipment from communities, states and rural providers are facing financial burdens in the process – some on the verge of bankruptcy. Without funding to “rip and replace” this equipment, many providers may be forced to cut off service to residents. By using proceeds from commercial auctions, this legislation provides $3 billion to continue funding the bipartisan Rip and Replace Program.
9. Invests in Next Gen 911: The bill provides $2 billion to continue funding the Next Generation 911 initiative to upgrade emergency services to be faster and more resilient and allow for voice, photos, videos, and text messages to work in the 911 system.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology opened a new docket seeking comment on ways to potentially expand Federal access to non-Federal—including commercial—satellite services. In recent years, the commercial satellite industry has undergone tremendous growth and innovation. Federal government agencies have increasingly sought to meet their satellite communications needs by using commercial satellite services. However, most spectrum used by commercial satellite systems is not allocated for Federal fixed satellite service (FSS) or mobile satellite service (MSS). The FCC’s rules provide that Federal agencies’ earth stations communicating with commercial satellite systems in such spectrum must operate on a non-interference basis and do not receive protection from harmful interference. To address this concern, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in 2006 requested that the FCC initiate a rulemaking to seek comment on granting NTIA-authorized Federal earth stations that are communicating with non-Federal satellites, primary status in some of the bands that are used for commercial satellite services which do not currently have primary Federal FSS or MSS allocations. The FCC invites comments on possible mechanisms to expand Federal use of the bands used by commercial satellite networks that are not currently allocated for Federal FSS and MSS. [ET Docket No. 24-121]

The Financial Times has struck a deal with OpenAI to train artificial intelligence models on the publisher’s archived content, in the latest agreement between the Microsoft-backed start-up and a global news publisher. Under the terms of the deal, the FT will license its material to the ChatGPT maker to help develop generative AI technology that can create text, images and code indistinguishable from human creations. The agreement also allows ChatGPT to respond to questions with short summaries from FT articles, with links back to FT.com. This means that the chatbot’s 100 million users worldwide can access FT reporting through ChatGPT, while providing a route back to the original source material.

Charter Communications reported financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Highlights included:

• First quarter total residential and small and medium business Internet customers decreased by 72,000. As of March 31, 2024, Charter served a total of 30.5 million residential and small and medium business customers.
• First quarter revenue of $13.7 billion grew by 0.2 percent year-over-year, driven by residential mobile service revenue growth of 37.8 percent and residential Internet revenue growth of 1.9 percent.
• As of March 31, 2024, Charter had a total of 32.0 million residential and small and medium customer relationships, excluding mobile-only relationships.