Healthcare Facilities

AT&T is giving schools access to a new security alert system through FirstNet, the company's dedicated telecommunications network for first responders. The school safety system will be available fall 2023, and entail a FirstNet-certified mobile app, wearable panic button and online portal designed by the telecommunications company Intrado.

The Universal Service Fund Working Group seeks public comment on the future of the Universal Service Fund (USF). The goal of this working group is to create a bipartisan forum to guide education, awareness, and policy-making on the USF. The working group invited comments on ten questions related to money collected from telecommunications companies that is dedicated to fulfilling the goals of universal service.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced that USDA is expanding access to health care for more than 5 million people living in 39 states and Puerto Rico as part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda. USDA is awarding $129 million in Emergency Rural Health Care Grants to improve healthcare facilities in rural towns across the nation.

BroadbandOhio, a division of the Ohio Department of Development, released for public comment Volume I of the state's Initial Proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

Utah continues working to close the state's digital divide. On June 20, 2023, the Utah Broadband Center released its draft State Digital Equity Plan in conjunction with its Digital Connectivity Plan. Both plans will help guide the allocation of federal funding to the state for broadband access and adoption expansion over the next five years. Here, we take a look at Utah's digital equity plan.

There are at least seven reasons why states should consider connecting anchor institutions early in the broadband deployment process rather than at the tail end:

The Federal Communications Commission announced an important update to its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform to incorporate maternal health data, enabling policymakers, public health experts, clinicians, researchers, innovators, and other public and private stakeholders to better explore the intersection of broadband and maternal health.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, in consultation with the Office of the Managing Director, announces the amount of unused funds for the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program that has been carried forward for funding year 2023.

Is the Lifeline program effective? Should E-Rate be expanded to cover school-related connectivity outside of campuses? Would it make sense to fold the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) into the Universal Service Fund (USF)? These were some of the questions asked and answered at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the state of universal service. Sen John Thune (R-SD) claimed the Lifeline program is “riddled with waste, fraud and abuse” and chided the Federal Communications Commission for failing to evaluate whether the program is functioning as intended.

Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and John Thune (R-SD) announced a bipartisan Senate working group to evaluate and propose potential reforms to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The goal of this working group is to create a bipartisan forum to guide education, awareness, and policy-making on this topic.