Federal

C Spire has been working to bridge the middle-mile gap in the rural southeastern US, plugging away at construction of a backhaul network in the area for the past few years.

Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced the Connecting Our Neighbors to Networks and Ensuring Competitive Telecommunications (CONNECT) Act of 2023 to reform the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) ReConnect Loan and Grant Program.

The federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) announced a new milestone. Launched nearly two years ago in 2021, it has now connected more than 20 million households to the Internet. This is a remarkable achievement and we at Comcast are proud to participate in the program.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) announced the Broadband Infrastructure Program grant round is now open.

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program has the potential to be a socioeconomic equalizer that helps close the gap between those Americans with access to broadband and those without. So far, the ACP has proven remarkably effective at making that happen. Despite only existing for over a year and a half, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) calculates that nearly 20 million people have already enrolled in the program at a cost of just $14.2 billion in funding.

Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) awarded $7.86 million to continue expanding high-speed internet services in Alabama. The three grants, awarded from funds provided by the Alabama Legislature, will serve areas in Blount, Cullman, Marshall and Morgan counties. The expansion projects will make broadband service accessible for more than 6,700 households, businesses and community anchors. Community anchors include schools, fire and police departments, libraries, and other public buildings. Households and businesses must subscribe to paid service to receive broadband.

More than 20 million US households are now receiving discounts on internet service as part of Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program. The program has continued to gain more than half a million new households a month since February 2023.

With the end of the fiscal year quickly approaching,  the Administration is transmitting a supplemental funding request to the Congress to address three sets of critical needs for emergency funding as part of a potential short-term continuing resolution for the first quarter of FY 2024: assistance for Ukraine and other foreign policy priorities, US disaster assistance, and border security.

On July 24, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission authorized a new subsidy program, Enhanced A-CAM (Alternate Connect America Cost Model). This program will extend subsidies to small, regulated telephone companies at a cost of about $1.27 billion per year for ten years.

More than 20 million households have enrolled in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the nation’s largest broadband affordability program. Thanks to funding support in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, millions of families who previously could not get online or struggled to pay for this modern-day necessity are now connected. “For a long time, closing the digital divide focused on one part of the equation—the lack of physical infrastructure to get online.