Affordability/Cost/Price

The Alaska House passed House Joint Resolution 6, urging the U.S.

Federal law seeks to make communications technology like telephones and the internet, in the words of one older statute, “available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States.” A longstanding federal program that seeks to implement this goal is now before the Supreme Court, in a case known as FCC v. Consumers’ Research, and the stakes could be enormous.

Today’s defining technology is the internet, along with the interlocking digital tools that contributed to and resulted from its inception. Artificial intelligence may well usher in its own technology epoch, but even this branch of computer science is as beholden to the internet — as the internet is to electricity. How and whether high-speed internet access is like the electrification of homes can teach us something. Getting online and knowing what to do once you’re there matters.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2025 will be 0.366 or 36.6 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the FCC. The FCC calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications re

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Board Chairman and Trustee Austin Hirsch announced that longtime Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss will transition to Benton Senior Fellow and will be succeeded by the Institute’s current Vice President of Programs, Dr. Revati Prasad. Furniss will continue to manage the Institute’s programming in Illinois and advise Dr. Prasad for the rest of 2025. Dr. Prasad will assume leadership of the Benton Institute beginning May 1, 2025.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Broadband Policy and Development (BPD) Office was created in 2023 with a commitment to addressing the internet infrastructure challenges in CNMI. Under this commitment, the CNMI BPD Office assumed the responsibility of spearheading CNMI's efforts to secure federal support, like the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Digital Equity Capacity Grant, and coordinate the effective utilization of broadband funding for residents.

Regardless of the final form it ends up taking, the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program is poised to play a key role in addressing rural connectivity. But the rural access divide isn’t the only issue we need to worry about, according to New Street Research Policy Analyst Blair Levin.

Congress established the BEAD program to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to high-quality broadband, with affordability as a top priority. This has become even more urgent following the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program last year, which left millions of households without essential support for education, career opportunities, and healthcare access. We must remain committed to prioritizing affordability and equal access. After all, BEAD without equity is just BAD.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) says he hopes to bring a resolution to the Senate to repeal the funding of Internet hot spots from the E-Rate Program, which is part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund. The original support for funding hot spots came from a July 2024 vote of the FCC under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to allow the E-Rate program to pay for hot spots.

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee met on March 5 in a hearing titled "Fixing Biden’s Broadband Blunder." Republicans on the panel seem most focused on concerns raised by states and broadband providers about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BEAD Program is distributing $42.45 billion to states to provide grants for last-mile deployment in unserved and underserved areas.