Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

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.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (Office) announced the 2024 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that are subject to broadband public interest obligations.

The Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) released the state's draft Digital Equity Plan for public comment.

A few short years ago, many might have thought that universal broadband in Louisiana was an impossible dream. But the leadership of Veneeth Iyengar and the state’s partnership with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is making the impossible possible. Louisiana is on a path to closing its digital divide. We hope that other states will follow Louisiana’s example and get this job done.

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo addressed Tribal leaders at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit. Secretary Raimondo reiterated the Department’s commitment to working and coordinating with Tribal Nations to ensure Tribal communities have the needed resources for economic growth.

Louisiana’s approved Volume 2 illustrates where the key areas of flexibility that has been granted to states in deploying BEAD intersects with the guardrails Congress and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have set. We'll take a closer look at three key points of the Louisiana plan:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Louisiana’s Initial Proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Louisiana is the first state to reach this important milestone, which will enable the state to move from the planning phase to the implementation phase for the BEAD program—a major step towards closing the digital divide in Louisiana and meeting the President’s goal of connecting everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.

"The USF is a critical tool to provide, among other things, Lifeline internet and voice service to low-income Americans, and reduced-rate internet access to schools, libraries and healthcare providers. Today's opinion underscores the importance—and the validity—of the Congressionally-mandated USF program.