Agenda

A tug-of-war over the McKee administration's proposed use of $108 million in federal "internet for all" dollars has evolved into a lawsuit by Cox Communications against Rhode Island. Cox is seeking to stop the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation from using a "flawed mapping and challenge process to build redundant broadband internet infrastructure in some of Rhode Island’s wealthiest communities ...

Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks spoke at the 6G Symposium about the benefits and challenges of 6G, and what the FCC has done to advance the development of 5G. "I believe 6G presents both an environmental challenge as well as an opportunity. Like 5G, 6G has the potential to increase our energy efficiency and reduce our emissions in areas like manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. But we simply cannot take this for granted.

A recent Politico article quoted a National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) spokesperson as saying that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was intended to be completed on a 10-year cycle. This is the first time I’ve heard that BEAD was intended to be a 10-year plan. States will be making BEAD awards starting sometime in 2025.

Brazil’s ban of social media platform X has led to greater scrutiny on another part of Elon Musk’s business empire: Starlink. From Amazonian tribes and farming frontiers, to the armed forces and offshore oil industry, the satellite internet service has connected remote corners of the continent-sized territory to the worldwide web since launching there in 2022. Access for Starlink’s 225,000 users in Latin America’s largest nation was thrown into doubt after it was recently dragged into the dispute surrounding the supreme court’s shutdown of X.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a federally funded program providing discounted internet service to economically disadvantaged households, officially ended on June 1, 2024, due to lack of funding from Congress.

One looming question in telecom land is what happens to President Joe Biden’s mammoth $42.45 billion internet expansion effort — known as the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program — if former President Donald Trump wins the White House in November 2024. The big-ticket broadband program is at an inflection point. While the Biden administration has signed off spending plans from most states and territories, it will be many months before any internet construction projects begin — the first groundbreaking won’t start until 2025, under the next president.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Body on AI released a report, Governing AI for Humanity, calling for a new policy dialog on AI so that the UN’s 193 members can discuss risks and agree upon actions. The report asserts that while AI is transforming our world, offering tremendous potential for good, the opportunities it provides may not manifest or be distributed equitably if the technology is left ungoverned.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program—established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—gives priority to projects that will result in broadband internet access service being offered in areas where service wasn't available before. Given that federal funds will provide roughly 75 percent of the costs to deploy these networks,¹ the chances that competing networks will be built at any time in the foreseeable future are very slim.

Top officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the National Economic Council, and private industry all dropped by downtown Washington for the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit on September 17. And with the first presidential election of the generative AI era a mere seven weeks away, much of their attention was turned to ensuring its security and trustworthiness. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) described how artificial intelligence demands a response from each sector of government.