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Broadband priorities for outgoing and incoming Congress
The 117th Congress is nearing its end. There are still several broadband policy issues and related matters for Congress to sort out. Meanwhile, the current Congress has few working days left in 2022—and still needs to pass a budget for 2023—and it's unclear how much legislation will reach President Biden's desk when Republicans gain the House majority in January. Here are two policy matters to watch for the remaining days of this Congress:
SHLB Coalition urges FCC to label anchor institutions as broadband serviceable locations
With just over a month remaining until the Federal Communications Commission's deadline for broadband map challenges, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition is raising concerns over how the map displays community anchor institutions (CAIs) and is asking the FCC to revise its process.
With Democrats' Senate wins, Gigi Sohn is likely headed to the FCC
Gigi Sohn may soon take a seat as Federal Communications Commissioner thanks to Democrats' narrow victories in US midterm Senate races around the country, according to the financial analysts at New Street Research. "We now believe it is likely that a third Democratic commissioner joins the [Federal Communications] Commission, either through a vote in the lame-duck session (in which case it will be the current nominee Gigi Sohn) or sometime in the first few months of 2023," wrote New Street analysts. A Democratic FCC majority could move forward in areas such as digital discrimination, merger
How state-level subsidies might refill cable's broadband subscriber tank
With US cable broadband subscriber growth remaining flat or going negative, operators are hard-pressed to find a remedy that will rekindle growth in a service category now considered central to the overall business.
These states have broadband on the ballot this November
According to publicly available information on state and local ballot initiatives up for a vote in 2022 elections, broadband is on the ballot statewide for voters in Alabama and New Mexico, as well as for some voters in Colorado. Voters in Alabama will weigh in on the "Broadband Internet Infrastructure Funding Amendment," which, if approved, will amend the state's constitution "to allow local governments to use funding provided for broadband internet infrastructure under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and award such funds to public or private entities." Voters in New Mexico have a simi
Memo to Telcos: NYC Has an RFI for You
[Commentary] The city of New York has released a new Request for Information seeking technical and operational input from industry sources. The city wants to know what types of strategies for public/private cooperation it should consider in an effort to deliver "universal gigabit-class broadband" throughout the five boroughs.