State

In late December 2021, President Donald Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a $2.3 trillion COVID relief and government spending bill that extended unemployment benefits and ensured the government kept running. Through that law, Congress allocated $7 billion to help improve connectivity in the U.S. including a new $300 million broadband deployment grant program at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The Link Up Idaho initiative encourages Idahoans to submit information about their internet to provide insight into broadband availability across the state. Idaho residents can submit information about their internet by March 15, 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission is an important institution. It oversees a huge input to our information economy: Spectrum. Fortunately, three decades ago, we developed a method for allocating spectrum that has garnered bipartisan praise, been copied around the world, underlaid two Nobel prizes, and is arguably the most successful communications policy innovation ever. Unfortunately, Congress can’t decide how to reauthorize that auction authority. Congressional dysfunction? Alas, not weird. The stakes are high: billions in investment capital, 10x more in economic impact.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes the Digital Equity Act of 2021 (DEA), establishes a broad framework and significant funding to advance broadband connectivity and digital equity. The law recognizes key factors and populations to address when striving for digital equity. To fully realize the full benefits of digital technology for individuals, communities, and society at large additional insights are needed. The Digital Opportunities Compass is an holistic framework for broadband and digital equity planning, implementation and evaluation.

One of the biggest speed bumps on the road to solving climate change is reducing the mining and burning of coal.

The Alaskan landscape is rife with broadband accessibility and deployment challenges, which GCI is all too familiar with.

The Arkansas Department of Commerce announced on Feb.

In 2016, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development published research performed by Strategic Networks Group and NEO Connect aimed at answering four basic questions: 1) What is the technical definition of broadband? 2) How many Tennesseans do not have access to broadband? 3) What is the cost of bringing broadband to Tennesseans that do not have it?

Should states run their own broadband mapping challenges? States could choose to award grants in an technology-aware manner, adding 3.1 million locations currently served or underserved by DSL or 25/3 fixed wireless, which would have the same — or an even better — effect. There are 218,878 locations where a DSL offering is advertising 100 Mbps download throughput and 20 Mbps upload throughput or better, and there is no other offering to the location that would serve them at 100/20.

Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera (D-CO) announced a statewide initiative to increase awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a long-term benefit to help eligible households pay for high-speed internet.