State

In 2021, the Office of the State Comptroller reported that more than 1 million (roughly 14 percent) New York households lacked access to broadband. Two federal programs—the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB) and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—have been established to address these disparities in access and are demonstrating positive results. The share of low-income households with a broadband subscription climbed from 64 percent to 76 percent between 2019 and 2021, a 12 percentage point increase.

Dleł Taaneets is the traditional name of my hometown of Rampart; it means “the hanging moose hide,” which the bluffs near our village mimic in color. My ancestors survived on these lands by following the lifeways of the season: spruce tips and birds in spring, salmon and plants in the summer, berries and moose in winter, trapping in the winter. Living off the lands of Alaska is unforgiving due to extreme weather, but my lineage endured and thrived by maintaining respect for one another, having gratitude to the animals and plants, and honoring the gorgeous lands that sustained them.

About 27 percent of households in rural West Virginia currently lack access to 25/5 Mbps internet speeds. The US Department of the Treasury disbursed West Virginia’s $136.3 million in Capital Projects Funds (CPF) dollars in May 2023—and the entirety of the funding is going towards broadband access initiatives across the state. Since all broadband solutions throughout the state pose unique challenges because of topography, there is a case to lean into what is considered a superior solution anyway: fiber. “At this point, it’s as future-proof as you can get.

Texas lawmakers approved a bill that aims to regulate teenagers' ability to use social media platforms. Unless vetoed by Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (HB 18) will require social platforms to verify users' ages, and allow parents to access accounts of children under 18. The bill not only prohibits social platforms from serving “harmful” content to minors but also requires platforms to deploy filtering technology to screen out such material.

A North Carolina company is becoming recognized not only for its network expansion throughout the eastern part of the state but for its unique public-private partnerships that are bringing fiber-to-the-home in rural, underserved counties.

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced $60 million in awards through the Broadband Opportunity Program to expand broadband Internet access in Florida’s unserved communities. These awards will support 22 projects in 19 Florida counties for broadband Internet expansion that will impact nearly 58,000 unserved residential, educational, agricultural, business and community locations. Including today’s awards, more than $226 million has been awarded to expand broadband Internet access across the state, helping to connect more than 250,000 homes and businesses.

Texas became the latest state to pass a privacy bill that aims to enable consumers to exert more control over data about themselves. Unless vetoed by Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (SB 4) will require companies to allow residents to opt out of targeted advertising—defined by the bill as serving ads to people based on their online activity over time and across nonaffiliated websites or apps. The measure also will obligate companies to honor universal opt-out tools—su

Congress appropriated $65 billion through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to close the digital divide and ensure universal access to reliable, high-speed, and affordable broadband across the US. The cornerstone—$42.45 billion—rests with the implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which entrusts execution and deployment of the resources to state governments. To maximize the opportunity that BEAD presents and to close the digital divide once and for all, we recommend the following 11 points:

On first look, the new Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map seems to be a step in the right direction. For example, in Alaska, a known problem area, the number of locations and the estimated amount of money allocated increase significantly. But Michigan is another story. Michigan has 71,139 fewer Unserved locations on the new map versus the old one, by far the biggest decrease in the 50 states.