Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) announced that Wavelength LLC, a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF or Auction 904) long-form applicant, has defaulted. The Bureau has concluded its review of Wavelength’s long-form application in Arizona.

By passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS), and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the 117th Congress approved over a trillion dollars in immediate appropriations and nearly $600 billion more in authorizations to invest in infrastructure, clean energy, climate resilience, and industrial policy. Given the complex challenges that rural communities face to achieve and sustain prosperity, we examined the provisions of this legislation to identify where rural places are statutorily included or where funding objectives are exceptionally relevan

How should broadband adoption, affordability, and equity impact the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s assessment of the availability of broadband for all Americans? A review of recent research indicates that it is not enough for networks to meet just certain deployment benchmarks. Consumer behavior is part of the picture: We cannot reach our universal broadband goals without widespread adoption, and we cannot achieve universal broadband adoption if service is not affordable.

This report presents the main findings from the 2023 Statewide Survey on Broadband Adoption Survey.

One of the most interesting rules in the BEAD Program is that broadband needs to be offered to every unserved location in the country—not 98 percent, not 99 percent, but all of them. This sounds like a terrific policy goal, but as I’ve been thinking about it, the goal is going to be incredibly hard to meet in many places. There are homes throughout the West that are far away from everybody else and will be extremely expensive to reach. There might be even more such homes in Alaska.

We write in response to your testimony at the December 5, 2023, hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology titled, “Oversight of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).” Throughout the hearing, you provided troubling answers that suggested that the NTIA would permit rate regulation by states participating in the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

Growth, equity, education, workforce opportunities, access to government services, and sustainability. Each of these values—and many of the actions that can be taken to achieve them—can be enhanced by equitable access to high-speed internet, and a population equipped with the digital skills to productively use computers and the internet.

There’s a lot of optimism in the broadband industry, driven by new opportunities in rural broadband, technology advances and more. In no particular order, here are 11 important developments that we saw this year.

A Top 10 list of elements that are novel or different in Louisiana's BEAD plan compared to what has been proposed in other state draft plans: 

Earlier this month, we released an updated version of the Affordable Connectivity Program Enrollment Performance Tool, with data current through October 2023, the most recent dataset the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) has posted on ACP enrollment. The downloadable USAC dataset shows that 21.6 million households had enrolled in the program through October 2023.