National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Evan Feinman, a director with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), addressed the “elephant in the room,” specifically what the new Trump administration will mean for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. “My job is to faithfully execute the laws as written by Congress and as directed by my leadership, and we are getting an awful lot done," he said.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today has approved and recommended for award applications from Delaware, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico allowing them to request access to more than $68 million to implement their Digital Equity Plans. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The awards received are:

Securing our nation's cyber infrastructure is imperative. That is why all Department of Commerce networks have taken the first step to implement Internet routing security. Routing security ensures that Internet traffic reaches its intended target. Misconfigurations or manipulations of routing information can lead to significant degradation and loss of service. The United States Government is tackling concerns about routing security through a whole-of-government approach. The Department of Commerce is playing a leading role in these efforts:

The largest-ever federal broadband expansion program—Broadband Equity, Access and Development or BEAD—was passed in November 2021 but is only now really starting to hit its stride. No one has been connected to broadband by BEAD, nor have any BEAD funds been awarded to any internet service provider (ISP) for expansion purposes. But they will come soon.

Charter CFO Jessica Fisher recently announced that Charter will spend substantially less on pursuing Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants than the company spent on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) [funny wording for how a company wins federal money]. This is big news because a natural assumption in some state broadband offices is that Charter would likely be a big player in the BEAD grant process.

Superior Court Judge Brian Stern issued a decision dismissing Cox Communication’s lawsuit against Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Stern says this is a matter that should be pursued in federal court.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) more than $72 million from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption in Native Hawaiian households. The nearly $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All Initiative.

A key challenge to achieving universal broadband adoption in Alabama is that low-income households struggle to afford broadband services and devices with adequate technical support. Among Alabama residents who do not have internet service at home, 42.6 percent report that a primary reason they do not pay for broadband at home is an inability to afford service.

“We have worked really hard within the confines we’ve been given to create one of the most competitive, free-market-based, business-friendly (or business-encouraging) types of programs,” said Arkansas broadband director Glen Howie. Howie said Arkansas’ broadband funding program is flexibly designed, allowing providers to use census block groups (CBGs) to align their project footprints, while accounting for their financial modeling. Before Howie joined the Arkansas State Broadband Office, providers were able to draw their own project footprints and submit their designs to the state.

Decades after the internet’s debut, millions of Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband service. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD) provides $42.45 billion in federal funding to expand high-speed internet service across the country.