Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announced the first cohort of grant recipients as part of the Office of Broadband Regional Engagement for Adoption and Digital Equity (READY) program. Through this first of its kind program, $200,000 has been awarded to four regional entities to accelerate progress toward eliminating the digital divide. The inaugural READY cohort is fueling local efforts in four major regions throughout Illinois, including East Central, Northern Stateline, Southeastern, and Southern Illinois. The program is one of an increasing robust Digital Equity Package offered by the Illinois Office of Broadband to increase access, adoption and utilization of high-speed internet access--all through the lens of digital equity and inclusion. To further these efforts across all ten economic development regions of the state, the Office of Broadband is launching the next READY notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) June 16, with another $250,000 available for grants. The initial cohort of READY grantees includes awards of $50,000 for the following entities:

• Eastern Illinois University on behalf of the Southeastern Region
• Region 1 Planning Council on behalf of the Northern Stateline Region
• Southern Illinois University on behalf of the Southern Region
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on behalf of the East Central Region

The Broadband READY program is part of a comprehensive Digital Equity Package announced by Governor Pritzker in Fall 2020 to boost broadband capacity while addressing existing broadband equity gaps.  The  program and other investments to enhance community planning and equitable implementation will complement the Governor's Connect Illinois program, a $400 million plan to deliver universal access to high-speed internet statewide. A second round of READY grants are now available, with a deadline of October 4, 2021, to apply.

Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein is feeling “very encouraged” by recent Capitol Hill machinations over how to structure the $65 billion chunk of the bipartisan infrastructure deal intended to close the digital divide. He cited recent rumblings that lawmakers may ultimately opt for lower minimum internet speed requirements than what Democrats had previously hoped for. Democrats had wanted to require super-fast download and upload speeds of 100 Megabits per second — speeds Adelstein and others warned would only allow for more expensive fiber-optic buildout and would effectively prevent cable, satellite and wireless companies from competing for subsidies. But Adelstein now suggests senators are looking at making the speed requirements 100 Mbps download and just 20 Mbps upload, well within the range wireless companies can offer. “Both [fiber and wireless] are part of the solution,” he said. “It’s a dangerous time to experiment with putting all our eggs in a single fiber basket.”

The California legislature unanimously approved a plan to build a statewide, open-access fiber network. The legislation was supported by Democrats and Republicans in votes of 78-0 in the California Assembly and 39-0 in the state Senate. The statewide, open-access fiber lines will function as a "middle-mile" network that carries data from Internet backbone networks to connection points in cities and rural areas. A middle-mile network doesn't extend all the way to residential properties, but "last-mile" ISPs can get access to it and focus on building infrastructure that connects the middle mile to homes. California's decision to make the middle-mile network open-access means it will provide "non-discriminatory access to eligible entities on a technology and competitively neutral basis, regardless of whether the entity is privately or publicly owned," the bill text said. If all goes as planned, the network will make it easier for existing ISPs to expand and for new ISPs to get started, filling in gaps where there's no modern access and boosting competition and speeds in other areas. Last-mile ISPs could use network technology other than fiber to connect to homes because of the provision allowing technology-neutral access. The state is providing $3.25 billion to build the middle-mile network and it doesn't stop at the middle mile. While the package won't build an open-access last-mile network, it provides $2 billion in funding for last-mile ISPs to serve more homes.

Frontier Communications is advancing its fiber deployments in pockets of the US. The company said that as part of the initial phase of its multi-year expansion efforts it’s deploying fiber broadband connections past an additional 280,000 consumers in Connecticut and an additional 24,000 consumers in San Angelo (TX) in 2021. Frontier is positioning its fiber service as an alternative to cable, saying it provides “uploads up to 25X faster than our cable competitors," and plans to double its fiber network to ultimately cover more than 6 million homes and businesses. In 2021, it plans to extend its fiber to pass 495,000 more locations. With their announcement of more than 300,000 new fiber passings in Texas and Connecticut, it’s made a big stride in its 2021 goal. Frontier’s network, comprised of fiber and copper connections, currently spans 25 states.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), and the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) are implementing the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act to improve the FCC's data on broadband availability. To implement the Broadband DATA Act’s requirements and obtain better mobile broadband availability data, these Bureau and Offices are developing: (1) technical requirements for a challenge process that will enable consumers and other third parties to dispute service providers’ coverage data; (2) a process to verify service providers’ coverage data; and (3) a process to accept crowdsourced information from third parties. These measures will enable the FCC, Congress, other federal and state policymakers, Tribal entities, consumers, and other third parties to verify and supplement the data collected by the FCC on the status of broadband availability throughout the United States.

The FCC seeks comment on proposed technical requirements to implement the mobile challenge, verification, and crowdsourcing processes required by the Broadband DATA Act. These requirements include the metrics to be collected for on-the-ground test data and a methodology for determining the threshold for what constitutes a cognizable challenge requiring a provider response. This Public Notice also provides tentative views and seeks comment on the types of data that likely will be probative in different circumstances for validating broadband availability data submitted by mobile service providers. 

[WC Docket No. 19-195. Filing deadlines pending Federal Register publication]

President Biden’s attack on Facebook followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant’s handling of vaccine misinformation, according to US officials, bringing into public view tensions that could complicate efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19. The false narratives that Covid-19 vaccines result in widespread death and that the U.S. government is mandating vaccines more than doubled across the major social-media platforms within the past three months, according to Zignal Labs Inc. Others include false claims that vaccines are really microchips and that vaccines change people’s DNA, the media-analytics firm said. Administration officials have suggested they have few concrete policy options for cracking down on the misinformation—aside from publicly pressuring social media firms. The administration’s confrontational approach marked a shift for Mr. Biden and his team, which began meeting with social-media companies during the presidential transition in a bid to strengthen protections against misinformation. But in recent months, the behind-the-scenes discussions with Facebook grew increasingly unproductive, according to the officials, who said they were unsatisfied with the company’s responses to their requests for more information about how it was responding to the influx in misinformation. Convinced that private negotiations had little hope of success, senior Biden administration officials decided to ratchet up public pressure on Facebook amid growing concern in the White House with the slowing pace of vaccinations and the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.