Marginalized Populations

Under pressure from the U.S.

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez urged policymakers to set aside partisan fights and focus on more pressing issues, like ensuring the availability of spectrum and broadband infrastructure. “I keep hoping that we will turn away from the partisan culture wars and instead focus on our core priorities,” Commissioner Gomez said speaking at the INCOMPAS Policy Summit. She pointed to more pressing issues, like legal challenges to the Universal Service Fund that could jeopardize broadband access for millions of Americans.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Board Chairman and Trustee Austin Hirsch announced that longtime Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss will transition to Benton Senior Fellow and will be succeeded by the Institute’s current Vice President of Programs, Dr. Revati Prasad. Furniss will continue to manage the Institute’s programming in Illinois and advise Dr. Prasad for the rest of 2025. Dr. Prasad will assume leadership of the Benton Institute beginning May 1, 2025.

This study investigates the impacts of 23 US Department of Agriculture Community Connect grant projects approved in fiscal years 2017–2019 on measured broadband download and upload speeds during 2019–2022 using program data, Ookla Speedtest data, and other data. We find that these projects had a positive impact on upload speed but not download speed, increasing upload speeds in project areas by an average of about 28 percent across the study periods. We find larger impacts on upload speed of projects that supported fiber-to-the-household than other projects and larger impacts in some geogra

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Broadband Policy and Development (BPD) Office was created in 2023 with a commitment to addressing the internet infrastructure challenges in CNMI. Under this commitment, the CNMI BPD Office assumed the responsibility of spearheading CNMI's efforts to secure federal support, like the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Digital Equity Capacity Grant, and coordinate the effective utilization of broadband funding for residents.

Patients across the rural South, Appalachia, and remote West are most often unable to make a video call to their doctor or log into their patient portals. Both are essential ways to participate in the U.S. medical system. In 2025, more than $42 billion allocated in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is expected to begin flowing to states as part of a national “Internet for All” initiative launched by the Biden administration.

The  Federal Communications Commission announced the E-Rate and Rural Health Care programs’ annual caps for funding year 2025. The adjusted amounts represent a 2.4 percent inflation-adjusted increase to both programs’ funding year 2024 annual caps. The E-Rate program funding cap for funding year 2025 is $5,058,637,966. The RHC program funding cap for funding year 2025 is $723,892,841.

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.

Reps Randy Feenstra (R-IA) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) introduced the Audio-Only Telehealth Access Act, which would make Medicare’s coverage of audio-only telehealth services permanent. The current waiver—which is set to expire on March 31, 2025—allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reimburse healthcare providers for patient evaluation, patient management, and behavioral health services over the phone.