Federal Communications Commission

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) is encouraging eligible organizations to apply for grant funding to improve the availability and affordability of telecommunications services to Wisconsin residents. The grant funding opportunities include the Nonprofit Access Grant Program and the Lifeline Outreach Grant Program. Both grant programs are funded by the Universal Service Fund to help Wisconsinites access essential telecommunications services. 

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is a program created by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) under former Chairmen Ajit Pai during the first Trump administration. The program was designed with two goals: 1) to extend broadband networks into unserved rural areas while 2) expending the fewest number of federal dollars possible. To accomplish this, RDOF used a “reverse auction” to select winning applicants (ISPs) that requested the least amount of federal funding to deploy broadband in eligible rural areas.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently issued a directive encouraging states to get internet service providers (ISPs) to remove locations from Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant applications that can’t be served by broadband.

NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NPR and KCBS radio all have one thing in common: They’re under scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission, which is now being led by Brendan Carr, a Republican who has praised President Donald Trump as a leader in combating bias in the media. NBCUniversal and its parent company, Comcast, were the latest media companies to receive word of an investigation by the FCC.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for administrative agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to undertake substantial new initiatives, since doing so inevitably results in multi-year court cases that are increasingly ruling against the agency. We saw this in 2024 in the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which has been widely interpreted to mean an end to the Chevron deference.

We just spent a few years agonizing over the Federal Communications Committee broadband maps. The reasons we’ve cared is easy to understand. The FCC maps were first used to allocate Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment funding to states. States that spent a lot of time to clean up the maps seem to have gotten a better share of the BEAD funding. We’ll soon be at the end of the BEAD map challenges, and that makes me wonder if anybody will ever care about the FCC maps after this. I’m positive that when BEAD is over, the FCC and everybody else will lose interest in the broadband maps.

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Geoffrey Starks issued remarks following reports that Chairman Carr has opened an investigation into the equal employment opportunity practices of Comcast and NBCUniversal. "Then-Commissioner Carr blasted the prior administration for acting in a way that ‘gives the FCC a nearly limitless power to veto private sector decisions,’" Starks said. "From what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach.

Federal Communications Commissioner Nathan Simington announced that he has appointed David Brodian to serve as Senior Legal Advisor, and Sara Rahmjoo to serve as Legal Advisor. Prior to joining the Commissioner’s office as Senior Legal Advisor, David served as an Attorney Advisor in the Competition Policy Division of the Wireline Competition Bureau. Prior to her role as Legal Advisor, Sara served as Commissioner Simington’s Policy Advisor and Confidential Assistant.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case of FCC v. Consumers’ Research—a case regarding the Universal Service Fund—for Wednesday morning, March 26. The court will decide on a 2024 ruling by the U.S.

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee recently approved 17 bipartisan bills, and a few of them impact the broadband industry. Since these have bipartisan support, it seems like they will have a decent chance of becoming law. The first is S.98 – Rural Broadband Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).