Federal

The Federal Communications Commission is required by statute to assess the deployment of broadband across the US.  Although not explicitly required to do so, FCC uses its discretion to set a minimum fixed broadband speed that it uses as a benchmark.

Congressman Jim Baird (R-IN) introduced a resolution emphasizing the need to invest in broadband expansion. The resolution, if passed, says the House of Representatives finds that:

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report uncovered that “federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping, with more than 100 programs administered by 15 agencies.” We request that GAO build upon this work and conduct an additional review of federal, state, and local broadband efforts to determine the effectiveness of each program.

Senators John Hickenlooper (R-CO) and Debra Fischer (R-NE) introduced the Defend Our Networks Act. The Federal Communications Commission confirmed in 2022 that the Rip and Replace program was $3.08 billion short in fulfilling eligible applications, disproportionally impacting smaller carriers in rural areas that possess more at-risk network gear.

How do big broadband providers get away with charging the same prices in urban areas for both slow and fast broadband? An Associated Press article found that one customer was paying the same price for 1 Mbps DSL from AT&T as other city residents were paying for a fiber connection. It would be easy to justify charging the same price for both technologies if AT&T was in the process of converting everybody in New Orleans to fiber, but this is not the case.

The Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have recommended filing dates for bulk challenges to the National Broadband Map, which is updated twice yearly. But stakeholders hadn’t seen similar guidance from either agency about individual challenges.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted the following spectrum management principles.

Interference Realities

Lingering concerns about whether money from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will be used to fund overbuilds of other government-subsidized projects flared up again recently. Concerns seemed to center on what BEAD will mean for those receiving funding from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program.

I look forward to discussing 6G and how we can work with our partners to promote open, interoperable, secure, and reliable approaches to this technology. 6G will be the next step in the evolution and revolution of mobile data. To start, 6G will be deployed at a time when mobile connectivity has become centrally important in our daily lives.

The Federal Communications Commission is working to ensure that all areas of the United States can access high-speed, high-quality broadband, through a revision of the Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) program. The program is meant to provide additional universal service support to certain rural carriers in exchange for increasing deployment to more locations at higher speeds.