State

On October 17, 2022,  Jonathan Chambers received an email that wasn't meant for him.

Business Oregon is seeking a consultant (or team) to complete several projects necessary for Oregon's participation in new federal programs to develop highspeed broadband internet access and digital literacy and adoption. The selected party will conduct robust community engagement and data collection, as well as prepare a number of plans which are listed below:

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon led a bipartisan group of 33 attorneys general calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider stronger surveillance and data security protections to prevent misconduct and promote transparency and accountability around online data collection.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress recognizes that just extending the reach of broadband networks isn't enough; there is work to be done on broadband adoption as well.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awards Nebraska with its first “Internet for All” grant for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs. Nebraska is receiving $5,598,563.04 in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed Internet throughout the state. Nebraska will receive $4,999,817.07 to fund:

State and territory broadband offices have dramatically increased in size over the past year as they deploy billions of dollars in economic recovery funds and start to manage a historic federal investment in broadband expansion.

A year ago, I urged us all to look beyond the $65 billion the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act sets aside for broadband and realize the importance of Congress’ recognition that access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States. I still find this renewed and updated Congressional commitment to universal service to be astounding. We should continue to celebrate it—and continue the work that ensures this commitment becomes a reality.

A partnership led by the Maine Connectivity Authority is seeking to build a 530-million "middle-mile" fiber broadband network that would serve tens of thousands of residents and businesses across the state. Middle-mile infrastructure is the regional fiber optic infrastructure made up of high-capacity fiber that carries large amounts of data at high speeds over long distances and between various elements of telecommunications infrastructure. The network would encompass 131 communities, representing over 11,000 unserved residents and local businesses.

Representatives from the Missouri Office of Broadband Development (OBD) are in an information-gathering stage with two main avenues of focus. One is locating areas of the state with little or no broadband infrastructure.

Google agreed to a record $391.5 million privacy settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information. Under the settlement, Google will also make its location tracking disclosures clearer starting in 2023. The attorneys general said that the agreement was the biggest internet privacy settlement by US states.