Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a Report and Order proposing a second, more targeted Notice of Funding Opportunity to raise awareness and promote the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the FCC’s broader consumer outreach efforts. The proposal is part of a reinvigorated campaign to enroll more eligible households and families in the nation’s largest broadband affordability program.

Tonya Felsinger spent more than half her life working in the food service industry. She obtained her GED a few years ago, and her GED teacher and an administrator at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT) encouraged her to try the school’s new fiber technician training course.

How much impact will the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program—and the connectivity it brings—have on the poorest, most underserved pockets of the country? “Broadband deployment in this country has been market-driven, with private sector telephone and cable companies investing in areas that provide higher rates of return,” said Kathryn de Wit, Project Director for the Broadband Access Initiative with the Pew Charitable Trusts. “Profit and return are important to the long-term operation of networks, even for ISPs receiving government subsidies.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Broadband ReConnect Program already got a $2 billion boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but President Joe Biden is looking to bolster the loan and grant initiative with a fresh batch of funding. In a budget proposal covering fiscal year 2024, President Biden called for an additional $400 million to be allocated to the program to help deploy broadband in unserved areas. “Installing high-speed internet creates high-paying union jobs and strengthens rural

On March 3, 2023, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a letter from Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Thune (R-SD) which inquired about the FCC's National Broadband Map and challenge process. In her response, Chairwoman Rosenworcel detailed the FCC's prior actions in compliance with the Broadband DATA Act. Rosenworcel added that the FCC will accept location challenges from all stakeholders at

Astonishingly, the U.S. Senate has allowed the auction authority of the Federal Communications Commission to lapse for the first time since it was granted to the FCC in 1994. The U.S. Communications and Technology Subcommittee is holding more hearings related to the issue. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member, said, “Yesterday, for the first time since the agency gained this authority 30 years ago, Congress failed to extend it when the Senate refused to act.

The Federal Communications Commission is targeting approximately $66 million through the Affordable Connectivity Outreach Grant Program to drive awareness and enrollment in the country’s newest and largest broadband affordability program in the nation’s history.

Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission to pass rules designed to end digital discrimination. The directive could not be more clear: Enact regulations to “eliminate” existing digital discrimination on the basis of “income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin” and to prevent it from recurring in the future.

Seven contestants have been selected to participate in a $7 million research competition to promote more secure and interoperable wireless network equipment, the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced. The 2023 5G Challenge, a collaboration between DoD and NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder (CO) aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks, and modular multi-vendor so

Several people have asked me recently if cellular companies will be pursuing Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants. Until recently, cellular companies didn’t have a product that would have qualified for broadband grants. BEAD and other grants are awarded to internet service providers (ISP) that serve homes and businesses, not cell phones.