Agenda

Over the past few years, Americans have lived through an unprecedented surge in censorship. Your companies [Google, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, and Apple] played significant roles in this improper conduct. Big Tech companies silenced Americans for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights. They targeted core political, religious, and scientific speech.

RightFiber, a brand of Ritter Communications, agreed in principle to acquire the City of Ruston’s fiber optic broadband network in Louisiana. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. RightFiber will continue serving existing business customers at that time. Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said, “RightFiber’s personal approach and future-minded vision set them apart as a service provider.

Any time there is a change of administration at the White House the Federal Communications Commission gets a new Chairman and a new agenda—and we now know the new Chairman will be current Commissioner Brandon Carr. With a new Chairman comes new policies, but also a turn against some of the policies of the previous FCC. There are a few things that obviously get reversed. First is net neutrality, which is poorly named and is really an effort to put some regulatory oversight on broadband. It seems likely that Commissioner Carr will reverse Chairman Rosenworcel’s decision on discrimination.

Donald Trump picked Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture secretary, after weeks of intense internal fighting over the role. Rollins served as director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump administration.

Under your leadership, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has repeatedly ignored the text of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in administering the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

On November 5 North Carolinians continued a trend of ticket splitting during the 2024 elections.

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Congress should fund the $8.1 billion Universal Service Fund through annual appropriations. “I do think that the time has come for Congress to shift this to a general appropriation,” said Pai, FCC chairman from 2017 to 2021. “[If USF were funded by appropriation] we wouldn’t have this situation now where we’re essentially getting more and more money from a declining base of contributors.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is expected to soon begin distributing $1.25 billion in grants to nonprofits under the “Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program” (Program) “to support efforts to achieve digital equity, promote digital inclusion activities, and spur greater adoption of broadband among Covered Populations.” The Program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) establishes that applicants must use the funding to serve members of “Covered Populations,” defined to include “individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” This

At first, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” looks like the most Silicon Valley-style project one could imagine. But now that they’ve laid out their plans for the “department” (actually an advisory commission outside government) in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, concern is bubbling up—even in the tech world—that the project might suffer from a couple other very Silicon Valley qualities: ego and overpromising. It’s not clear to many experts that the pair’s plans, as detailed as they s

There has been a lot of speculation since the election that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program is going to get revamped. This raises the interesting question if it’s too late for a new administration to make major changes to the BEAD program. There is also the question of the process needed to change the BEAD rules. The BEAD rules were created by Congress, and it seems that Congress would have to act to change the rules. There are several ways the administration could give more funding for satellite.