Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

On Thursday, April 10, the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority Board of Directors voted on proposed guidelines for the PBDA’s Digital Skills and Community Capacity Program. The program, funded by the federal Digital Equity Act’s State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, will provide $25 million for digital inclusion programs in the Keystone State. The eleven-member board voted 9-1 to approve the guidelines, with one abstention.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society joined Access Humboldt, Common Sense Media, Everyone On, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, and New America's Open Technology Institute (all members of the Lifeline Coalition*) in a filing in the Federal Communications Commission's RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE proceeding. With the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program, millions of households lost the support they relied on to access the internet.

On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across the city of Los Angeles, California. The Eaton Fire burned through the eastern side of the city, burning through the Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre communities and causing 18 deaths, destroying 9,400 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres of land. In the west, the Palisades Fire led to twelve deaths, destroyed over 6,000 structures, and covered over 23,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu. The Hurst, Kenneth and Hughes fires also burned through parts of northwestern and central LA.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr, recently launched his own proceeding he calls “IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.” Carr says he’s following Trump’s orders to deregulate the telecommunications industry to spur economic prosperity.

This week, the Senate Commerce Committee––chaired by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)––held a confirmation hearing for Olivia Trusty, President Trump’s nominee to be a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. If (when really) Trusty is confirmed, she would join FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to give Chairman Brendan Carr a working majority at the Commission. Trusty committed to the following actions if confirmed:

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society launched four new research projects to examine a variety of barriers to building and using broadband. Since the passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021, states have been working to achieve universal internet access through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and the Digital Equity Act (DEA) programs.

The Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO), under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, developed the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan to complement broadband infrastructure programs already underway in the state, including the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program and the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Texas has not yet received its federal State Digital Equity Capacity funding and—on March 4, 2025—BDO paused all grants and contracts to implement the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has indicated he’ll make fundamental changes to the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. These changes, such as giving a stronger preference for satellite internet, could force states to restart their broadband grant programs. On April 3, a group of 115 state legislators from 28 states sent Secretary Lutnick a letter requesting that any BEAD changes be optional rather than mandatory.

“One more thing” is the line that Detective Columbo typically uttered in the eponymous 1970s detective series; it signaled that Columbo was on the brink of solving the episode’s puzzle. If Columbo were around today, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) may have vexed him had he pondered its impact. Did it move the broadband adoption dial? If so, by how much?

The expansion of broadband in the United States is at a critical inflection point.