Infrastructure

Five grant projects totaling $11.4 million for high-speed internet expansion were officially launched in Latimer County by the Oklahoma Broadband Office and AT&T Oklahoma. The projects, funded through federal grants administered by the OBO coupled with additional funding from AT&T, will connect 2,760 homes and businesses with broadband internet using fiber optic technology.

Regardless of the final form it ends up taking, the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program is poised to play a key role in addressing rural connectivity. But the rural access divide isn’t the only issue we need to worry about, according to New Street Research Policy Analyst Blair Levin.

On March 4, the House of Representatives' Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), held a full committee markup to consider twelve bills in total––the committee's first legislative markup of the 119th Congress. "This Committee has a rich, bipartisan history, which we will continue in that spirit with the bills we are considering today," said Rep Guthrie in his opening remarks.

Congress established the BEAD program to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to high-quality broadband, with affordability as a top priority. This has become even more urgent following the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program last year, which left millions of households without essential support for education, career opportunities, and healthcare access. We must remain committed to prioritizing affordability and equal access. After all, BEAD without equity is just BAD.

On March 5, 2025, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chairman of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment (SPEED) for BEAD Act (H.R. 1870), legislation that would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to make changes to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Chairman Hudson was joined by 14 Republican cosponsors, including many (though not all) of the Republicans on his subcommittee.

Reps Kat Cammack (R-FL) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) introduced the Deploying Infrastructure with Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (DIGITAL Applications Act). The bill establishes online portals for the acceptance, processing, and disposal of a Form 299 for communications use authorizations at the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Form 299s are used for permitting related to communications technology. 

US cable operators have been struggling to regain their footing in broadband as they try to grow subscribers again in the midst of an array of pressures including fiber and fixed wireless access competition, a slow housing move market and the impact of the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program. Several US cable operators are responding by leaning into convergence.

The fate of a $24.5 million broadband project in Minnesota came down to one vote at a City Council meeting. Seven council members faced a choice: forge ahead with an ambitious plan to build a city-owned municipal broadband network, or heed a last-minute request from telecommunications giant Charter Communications to pause the project.

The United States Department of Agriculture released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Community Connect Grant Program for fiscal year 2025. The USDA’s Rural Utilities Service estimates that approximately $26 million in grants will be available to eligible applicants this year. The Community Connect Grant Program offers financial support to qualified applicants that will deliver broadband services at or above the grant’s specified speed to all premises in rural, economically challenged communities that lack internet access.

In the final days of the 118th Congress, two new broadband bills were passed and eventually signed into law by then-President Joe Biden. Here's a quick look at the E-BRIDGE Act and the EXPLORE Act. The new laws demonstrate how Congress understands how important broadband is to economic development and that broadband is needed everywhere—even the places we go to 'get away from it all.'