Level of Government

The Federal Communications Commission recently released the 4th version of the National Broadband Map, with data as of December 2023. At a high level, the trend continues of fewer and fewer unserved and underserved locations: in the previous version, 10.1 million locations were unserved or unserved. Now, with six months more data, we’re down to 8.8 million locations needing better broadband service.

The looming expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program could mean the end of high-speed internet access for just under 1 million low-income households in New York City, a new analysis from the Center for an Urban Future shows. The new analysis shows that the federal subsidy program was most popular in East Harlem, a wide swath of the South Bronx, and Long Island City, which contains the country's largest public housing complex in the country.

Unlike in the past, internet connectivity isn’t a luxury—it’s as necessary as electricity. But currently, this critical lifeline for veterans hangs in the balance as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) approaches the end of its funding at the end of May. The ACP is a key factor in ensuring all veterans have connectivity, especially in rural areas. For many, the ACP can be life-saving.

The release of the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on March 29th triggered the countdown for the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandates releasing the Competitive Grant NOFO within 30 days of the first Capacity award, so we expect it by late summer/early fall 2024. We will not know all the specifics until the NOFO is released.

The mayor of the city of Vineland (NJ) says residents of his city are underserved by currently available broadband services. And he’s moving forward with a plan to create a municipal broadband network. This has already sparked lobbying against the prospect by a dark money group called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation. According to the city’s initial proposal, Vineland suffers from high economic distress with some areas having unemployment rates as high as 9% and poverty rates as high as 19.2%.

Western Governors encourage Congress and federal agencies to recognize that the current definition of broadband – 25/3 Mbps – does not correspond with the requisite download and upload speeds necessary to support many business, education, and health care applications that promote economic and community prosperity.

The Federal Communications Commission recently voted to subject the Internet, once again, to legacy public utility telecommunications regulation originally designed for the old Ma Bell monopoly. While the FCC’s new rules do not push so far as to regulate retail rates (though they do regulate wholesale termination rates), the FCC’s rules open the door to potential retail rate regulation of broadband services by the states.

Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) broadband benefits are set to halt at the end of May, leaving millions of families with a difficult choice to make. For the sake of 60 million Americans who depend on ACP, the program must be renewed.

Today’s interconnected world makes it hard to imagine a day or more without internet access, but that may soon be the reality for millions of Americans when funding for a critical federal program runs out.

When Aaron Wheeler, Washington state broadband office director joined the office, he inherited a process and plans put in place by retiring broadband director Mark Vasconi, and he’s not about to slow the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) process down. While some states are more deliberate and trying to slow down the process of Volume 2 approval to delay the 365-day “shot clock” kicking in, Wheeler explain