Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL), the Federal Communications Commission identifies two Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I Auction (Auction 904) applicants that defaulted on their bids for support on August 10, 2022, and May 23, 2023, in apparent violation of the FCC’s rules (see applicants below). In light of the applicants’ defaults spanning 7,482 Census Block Groups (CBGs), this NAL proposes forfeitures for each of the two Auction 904 defaulters. The proposed forfeitures assessed here total $22,446,000.

Delaware seeks to promote digital equity to ensure that all residents, regardless of their background or location, have equal opportunities to access education, health care, job prospects, government services, and information critical to personal growth and well-being.

Charter celebrated the $1.3 billion that the company is investing in rural areas of Texas. Charter will invest $700 million of the money to cover the full cost of network upgrades. The remaining $420 million will cover some of the cost of fiber deployment. The remainder of the cost of fiber deployment will come partially from money Charter won in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program in 2020, and partially from public-private partnerships with counties and cities.

Leaders from the Biden Administration said access to high-speed internet will bring opportunity and dignity for residents of rural communities in Wisconsin and across the country. Tom Perez, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Don Graves, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce, visited Dairyland Power Cooperative in La Crosse (WI) on November 30 to talk about federal money for broadband infrastructure. Dairyland is one of the recipients of the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant, a program created through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Connect2First has constructed 4,371 miles of fiber network across 18 Arkansas counties, and the internet service provider still has over 600 miles to go. Sales and Marketing Director Candace Looper said the company is seeing take rates between 40 and 60 percent in areas where service is already available. Connect2First is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Electric cooperative that provides fiber-to-the-home internet and home phone service to the coop’s members.

In its draft Digital Equity Plan, the  Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB) recognizes that digital equity is crucial in today’s interconnected world.

A federal program that provides $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes is expected to run out of money in April 2024, potentially taking affordable Internet service plans away from well over 20 million households. For months, supporters of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) have been pushing Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) more funding for the program.

Viasat, Inc. announced the second satellite in the upcoming Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission has completed thermal vacuum testing at Northrop Grumman’s Dulles, VA, site: a significant milestone as the project looks to connect the Arctic region with high speed broadband in the second half of 2024. The mission, led by the Space Norway subsidiary Heosat, will see two satellites deployed in a highly elliptical orbit (HEO) in the world’s first HEO mission carrying a broadband commercial service payload.

The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC) announced that two Illinois Probation Departments/County Court Services Departments were each awarded a $5,000 grant from the Foundation for Rural Services-Community Service Grants Program. The Foundation for Rural Services (FRS) is a nonprofit organization that works with the National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA) Rural Broadband Association to sustain and enhance the quality of life in rural America. Effingham County Probation Department’s ‘Discovery to Recovery Outpatient Substance Abuse Program’ will “provide new equipme

Bringing broadband to under-served parts of rural America is one element of a giant infrastructure program that began in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed it into law. It was hailed as a historic opportunity to repair America’s bridges, rebuild its roads for electric vehicles and update its power grid and communications technology. However, instead of the anticipated surge, total infrastructure spending has fallen by more than 10% in real terms since the passage of the law. The most charitable explanation is that it takes time for big projects to get going.