Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
Minnesotans Urged to Play Role in Digital Equity Plan
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's Office of Broadband Development (OBD) is developing a digital equity plan to create improvements in internet affordability, access to internet-enabled devices, and ways to provide digital skills training. We want to hear from Minnesotans most impacted by the digital access and skills gap to ensure our digital equity plan reflects the goals and needs of all Minnesotans. This plan will help us determine how to spend federal funding coming in 2024 aimed at increasing digital access and skills.
GAO Highlights $14 Billion Broadband Subsidy Program’s Success And How To Improve
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an essential report AFFORDABLE BROADBAND: FCC Could Improve Performance Goals and Measures, Consumer Outreach, and Fraud Risk Management, written by GAO Director of Infrastructure Andr
Panel Suggest Need for Tracking Mechanism for Broadband Infrastructure Funding
There needs to be a way to consistently track the billions in broadband infrastructure money coming from the federal government, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation panelists. With $42.5 billion coming to the states from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, experts floated the idea of having mandated ongoing reporting requirements on what that money is doing. Brookings Institution senior fellow Nicol Turner-Lee said her research group is discussing their own version of a tracking me
How far might the broadband funding go? An update with data from the new maps
An earlier model estimated how far the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding might go, using estimates of the unserved and underserved from the old Form 477 data. The prediction was that with an optimal allocation between states, there would be almost enough money to reach all the unserved and underserved. Well, we’re getting closer to real and final data, and an update is in: $41.4 billion at an average national cost of $6,214 per location should reach 6.7 million locations.
An American Industrial Strategy for US Tech Leadership: Investing in Competitiveness, Innovation, and Equity
The United States and our allies are in a high-stakes technology competition with authoritarian adversaries. How this competition plays out will profoundly shape our economic security – our ability to innovate, grow exports, create jobs of the future, and provide opportunities to all our people. It will also shape our national security – our ability to protect our advantages while preserving our freedoms and democratic values at home and abroad.
Steve Forbes: Giving lower-income families a hand up will help America compete
People in need don’t want a handout; they want a hand-up that will enable them to improve their circumstances and lead more productive, successful lives. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is giving workers, students, and families the hand-up they need to compete in the connected 21st-century digital economy.
Charter Shares Rural Broadband Take Rate Success
Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey hopes to complete the company's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF)-funded rural broadband deployment ahead of time. Charter made broadband available to 200,000 new rural locations in 2022, according to Winfrey. The Charter rural take rate for “passings open at least six months” is “ahead of expectations at about 40%,” he said. Charter was one of the largest winners in the RDOF rural broadband program.
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PSC Now Accepting Applications for ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grants
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin is now accepting applications for multiple federally funded grant programs to assist in the state’s broadband and digital equity planning efforts. In December 2022, Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) and the PSC announced the state will receive nearly $6 million to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet throughout the state.
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $500,000 in High-Speed Internet Grant to Passamaquoddy at Pleasant Point
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded $500,000 to the Passamaquoddy at Pleasant Point as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). With funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), this grant from the Internet for All initiative will support affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet access for 243 Passamaquoddy Tribal households and community anchor institutions, providing qualifying high-speed Internet service for 60 months.
Regional fiber rollups may scream monopoly, but it’s complicated
With all of the recent buzz about fiber players getting prepared for acquisitions and incumbents expected to gobble up billions in forthcoming government funding, it’s not a far stretch to wonder if the rollup will result in less broadband competition across the country. But according to two leading telecom analysts, this is very unlikely to be the case post-mergers.