The Federal Communications Commission committed over $12 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. The funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefiting approximately 35,000 students across the country, including students in Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education. To date, the program has provided support to approximately 11,000 schools, 1,000 libraries, and 120 consortia, and provided nearly 13 million connected devices and over 8 million broadband connections.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted American Samoa its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. Guam is receiving $1,394,300 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed internet service throughout the territory. American Samoa will receive $1,244,300.00 from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to fund various activities including: 

• Increasing capacity of a broadband office that oversees broadband programs and broadband deployment in American Samoa;
• Supporting the development of a Five-Year Action Plan to close the broadband availability gap.
• Training for employees of the broadband program and related staffing capacity;
• Research and data collection to identify unserved and underserved locations as well as catalogue broadband adoption, affordability, equity, and access to better understand barriers to adoption;
• Providing technical assistance to potential subgrantees, including through workshops and events;
• Publications, outreach, and communications support. 

American Samoa will receive $150,000 from the Digital Equity Act to fund various activities to support closing the digital equity gap including: 

• The development of a Territory Digital Equity Plan that will benefit American Samoa and its principally unserved and underserved covered populations;
• Conducting data collection and analysis, digital inclusion asset mapping and stakeholder engagement;
• Staff recruitment and development.

[05/16/2023]

Colorado repealed the referendum requirement for community broadband projects with the passage of Senate Bill 183. Support came from all sides, including the cable industry, which was neutral on the legislation. But there was another reason for the timing: federal broadband funding. The Colorado Broadband Office wasn’t sure if communities that hadn’t opted out would be eligible for a piece of the up to $1 billion in federal broadband funds Colorado could receive. Now, there’s no question.  Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, credits Brandy Reitter, executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office. Her team pushed for a clean bill with two goals: Drop the need for a referendum and modernize the language. The bill left rules in the statute to keep private companies from having to compete against public ones that may also control rights of way, permits and fees. The Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association didn’t protest the passage of Senate Bill 183, which became law May 1.

The most rural parts of Mississippi are home to expansive agricultural lands with low residential density and until recent years, little incentive for broadband providers to build broadband infrastructure. Homes in the Mississippi Delta—the state’s most untenanted area—have typically used satellite service to make do, according to Sally Doty, a former state senator who was appointed as Director of the new Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) office in 2022. As the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding nears deployment, the BEAM office is leading the charge to make broadband more affordable and accessible in Mississippi, especially those low-density areas. Through BEAM's mapping efforts Doty estimates the state has almost 1.4 million serviceable broadband locations (those capable of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds), with about 300,000 that are completely unserved and 211,000 that are considered “underserved.” A “tremendous” amount of that work should be attributed to Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi, she said, which has been building out infrastructure through its Connect Rural Mississippi campaign. Mississippi took $75 million in CARES Act funding in 2020, and the state legislature decided to appropriate the “majority” of that money to electric co-ops. 

When scanning the Federal Communications Commission’s latest broadband maps for funding opportunities, city staff in Mesa, Arizona, struggled to find places that still needed access. Mesa’s diverse geography includes older neighborhoods that lacked modern internet services as well as new developments with high-speed fiber. Some legacy providers had mixed coverage that was inconsistent from block to block, Harry Meier, Deputy CIO for Innovation at the City of Mesa. Previously, the city had some “assumptions” and data from the American Community Survey but during the pandemic, schools put out surveys to families to understand connectivity gaps. The data showed around 10 square miles in the city with the highest need that also met low-income requirements for federal aid funding. The city partnered with the school district and used CARES Act funding to buy around 7,000 laptops and 3,000 hotspots for students. Building on this, Mesa is using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to expand public Wi-Fi and bring private cellular coverage to the most underserved parts of the city, The city partnered with Motorola to roll out a free Citizen Broadband Radio System (CBRS) network in priority areas. Over half of the 21 towers have been deployed so far. The longer-term next step was about working with existing providers and attracting new ones. The last leg of the stool is wrapping a digital equity program around all the work, to help people get online, including accessing subsidies, devices, and training.

The US Department of State, on behalf of the US Government, has submitted a proposal to the May 2023 Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL), which calls for opening the 3300-3400 MHz band for 5G mobile services within the Americas Region. If accepted as a regional proposal, CITEL would submit to the November 2023 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23). If adopted by the WRC-23, the international Radio Regulations would be updated to identify this band as possible for 5G use in the Americas by countries that choose to do so. By submitting this proposal, which defines protections for incumbent services in this band, the US Government is protecting critical operations and capabilities, while enabling use of the 3300-3400 MHz band for 5G mobile services by countries that wish to do so. The Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration jointly emphasize that our support for the US CITEL proposal does not prejudice the results of the Congressionally directed study examining the feasibility of sharing the broader lower 3 GHz band or its recommendations about domestic use of the band.  

[05/15/2023]

Governor Greg Gianforte (R-MT) has signed a privacy law that gives state residents new rights to wield control over data about them, including the right to reject some forms of online behavioral advertising. Senate Bill 384 provides that residents can opt out of the use of data linkable to them—including pseudonymous data, such as information stored on cookies—for targeted ads. (The measure defines ad targeting as serving ads to people based on their online activity over time and across nonaffiliated websites or apps.) The law also requires companies to provide links enabling opt-outs and says companies must honor opt-out universal signals that consumers send with mechanisms like the Global Privacy Control. That tool, developed by privacy advocates, transmits an opt-out command to every website consumers visit. In addition, the law requires companies to tell residents what non-pseudonymous data has been collected about them and to delete that data upon request. Montana's law will take effect in October 2023.