Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

The House Oversight Committee recently decided to investigate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision in 2022 to deny Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to Starlink. The timing of this announcement clearly has political overtones since it was announced as Elon Musk took the stage at a campaign event with one of the presidential candidates. RDOF was awarded using a reverse auction, where the provider willing to take the lowest amount of subsidy winning the funding.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from New Mexico, allowing the state to request access to more than $8 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  The state will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

New Mexico: $8,673,975

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from California, allowing the state to request access to more than $70 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The state will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

California: $70,226,453

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award applications from Georgia and Indiana, allowing them to request access to more than $37 million to implement their Digital Equity Plans. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The states will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

Georgia: $22,455,639

The 2024 Rural Telecommunications Benchmark Study provides data from 147 rural telecommunications companies and provides insight into the financial and operational performance of the telecommunications industry. As of June 2024, participating companies accepted $950 million of federal, state, and local government broadband grants compared to $600 as of 2022. THhis represents a 50 percent increase in broadband grants over the amounts for 2022.

A group in Vermont got so fed up with the lack of high-speed broadband in small towns and rural areas—and the complete lack of interest by incumbent telephone and cable companies—that it went to the Vermont legislature for permission to create a communications union district (CUD). There are now nine CUDs successfully operating in Vermont, and these groups are poised to garner the lion’s share of Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) awards in the state. The trailblazing CUD was ECFiber, which has been so successful that it doesn’t plan to apply for BEAD funds because it’s already

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative addresses the Nation’s digital divide by bringing high-speed Internet availability, device affordability, and digital literacy to left-behind communities. Some of those programs and their impacts:

In the late hours of Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall at Keaton Beach (FL). On Friday, downgraded to a tropical storm, Helene made its way up the east coast, leaving a path of destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel its October 2024 Porker of the Month for her decision to block funding for Starlink to deploy satellite internet service in hard-to-reach areas of the country. The FCC approved and then revoked SpaceX Starlink’s $885.5 million competitive award under the Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF).

In July 2024, the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) released its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Initial Proposal Volume II.