Level of Government

Dish Wireless wants to conduct tests using the 12 GHz band to evaluate coexistence in the band – it’s just waiting for the FCC to say yea or nay.

On the heels of Gov Gavin Newsom (D-CA)’s $6.5 billion investment to expand broadband infrastructure and enhance internet access for unserved and underserved communities, the Governor announces construction began in rural San Diego County (CA) on the first leg of the 10,000-mile broadband network aimed at bringing high-speed internet services to all Californians. Construction began October 13 on State Route 67 near Poway in San Diego County.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that Ohio received its first planning grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative.

Over the last two years, in California and across the country, billions of public dollars have been allocated to end the digital divide. The Digital Equity LA coalition and the California Community Foundation (CCF) Digital Equity Initiative set out in this report to document what people are being asked to pay for home internet in diverse neighborhoods across Los Angeles County (CA). Pricing information was obtained directly from internet service provider (ISP) websites using residential addresses in each of the neighborhoods examined.

The Biden-Harris Action Plan for Accelerating Infrastructure Projects describes federal actions to address these challenges accelerate the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects across all sectors, including transportation, broadband, resiliency, and others. Organized by the themes of On Time, On Task and On Budget, the actions support more efficient processes, collaboration, sharing of best practices, targeted support to new recipients of federal funding, and focused efforts to root out the causes of delays and overruns.

Millions of dollars later, LinkNYC still hasn’t fixed the city’s stubborn digital divide or the privacy issues raised half a decade ago. LinkNYC, unveiled in 2014, was an ambitious plan to replace the city’s dated pay phones with “information kiosks” providing free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, and a tablet for access to city services, maps, and directions.

Colorado’s five-year plan for investing millions of federal funding to expand fast, reliable, and affordable broadband across the state. The Roadmap was developed in coordination with the Colorado Digital Government Strategic Plan to ensure all Coloradans, as well as future generations, have equitable opportunities to access the countless benefits provided by high-speed internet. CBO encourages feedback on the Broadband Roadmap and will continue to travel throughout the state talking about affordability, accessibility, and digital literacy.

To help policymakers, leaders, and residents better understand the state's digital divide, the Community Development Network of Maryland has a new map that shows where gaps in digital equity are more (or less) severe throughout the state. The Maryland Digital Equity Index shows how digital inequity afflicts urban and rural parts of Maryland.

Lieutenant Gov Suzanne Crouch (R-IN) and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs have awarded $760,727 in third-round funding from the Indiana Connectivity Program to expand broadband access to 197 addresses across 28 Indiana counties.

Nearly 450,000 residents in the state don't have adequate broadband, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The office has been tracking the data for years and will roll out its own map in the fall of where Tennesseans lack access to high-speed internet of at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. This measurement is new for the department, so new that the Federal Communication Commission doesn't have that measurement on their own maps, which they believe will show up in the next iteration of data in late 2022 to early 2023.