Federal

The US Department of the Treasury announced the approval of high-speed internet projects in New York under the American Rescue Plan’s (ARPA) Capital Projects Fund (CPF). The state will use its funding to connect nearly 100,000 low-income housing units to affordable, high-speed internet.

On March 28, lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and US Senate reintroduced bipartian legislation to expand broadband access to rural communities. The Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act would strengthen funding mechanisms for the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF), which promotes universal access to broadband and other telecommunications services. Currently, the USF is primarily funded through landline fees, disproportionately impacting seniors, who are more likely to use landlines than other Americans.

As provided for in each Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) and Capital Projects Fund (CPF) award agreement, the Uniform Guidance applies to all uses of funds made available under those awards unless provided otherwise by the US Department of the Treasury. In response to questions from recipients and internet service providers, Treasury is proposing to issue the following guidance regarding the application of the Uniform Guidance to broadband infrastructure projects.

Although T-Mobile paid $304 million for 7,156 licenses of 2.5 GHz spectrum in 2022's summer auction, it now finds itself in the awkward position of not being able to deploy this spectrum. The reason is that Congress recently allowed the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority to lapse.

Some of Syracuse’s poorest neighborhoods will soon have free broadband service. City lawmakers approved a $3.5 million plan to build a new city-owned wireless network. Syracuse will use federal stimulus money to provide service in 10 Census tracts on its south, southwest, and near west sides.

US Reps. Richard Hudson (R-NC) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), co-chairs of the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus, introduced the Next Generation 9-1-1 Act to accelerate federal efforts to modernize the nation's aging 9-1-1 systems. The Next Generation 9-1-1 Act, which passed the House last Congress, would authorize $15 billion in federal funding to help state and local governments deploy Next Generation 9-1-1 systems across the country.

Alabama has committed $537 million in federal funds for high-speed internet under plans state lawmakers and Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) approved during a special session. About one-fifth of addresses in Alabama lack access to high-speed internet, and about three-fourths do not have access to the speed officials consider the standard for the next decade.

When liberals look back on the Biden presidency, they may hail its greatest accomplishment as ushering in a new era of corporate government dependency.

Undersea cables are central to US-China technology competition. Across the globe, there are more than 400 cables running along the seafloor, carrying over 95% of all international internet traffic, according to TeleGeography, a Washington-based telecommunications research firm. These data conduits, which transmit everything from emails and banking transactions to military secrets, are vulnerable to sabotage attacks and espionage. The US cable effort has been anchored by a three-year-old interagency task force informally known as Team Telecom.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said, “I’m pleased that the Fifth Circuit agreed with what I and many others—including bipartisan members of Congress—have said about the Universal Service Fund. It is constitutional, both in concept and implementation. The Universal Service Fund continues to connect rural communities, schools, libraries, healthcare providers, and low-income households all across the country.