Telecommunications Act of 1996

TDS has been taking every opportunity to talk up the Federal Communications Commission's Alternative Connect America (A-CAM) program and why the company is so excited about a possible extension to the program, even as the US gets set to award an unprecedented $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband program. “A-CAM has been absolutely revolutionary for improving our hardest-to-serve rural areas,” said TDS Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Andrew Petersen. TDS is rather unique among publicly-held broadband providers in that it is eligible

The Federal Communications Commission quietly won two court cases over the last month that most folks have not heard about. A group of complainants brought a suit against the FCC, saying that the agency didn’t have explicit direction from Congress for the creation of the Universal Service Fund (USF) or the authority to delegate the operation of the USF to a third party.

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A bipartisan effort to push the Federal Communications Commission to expand internet access to rural areas will finally get a Senate hearing, two years after the bill was first introduced. The Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act has support in both the House and Senate and will get its day in the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday, May 11th, 2023. The bill — introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in the Senate and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) in the House — orders the FCC to determine ho

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a new dashboard highlighting federal investments in high-speed Internet programs. NTIA developed the dashboard to accompany the Federal Broadband Funding Report.

Studies exploring the relationship between technology in the classroom and students’ outcomes have yielded mixed results. We contribute to the debate by examining the effects of broadband subsidies to schools on school performance measures in Florida. Specifically, using a nearly universal panel of Florida schools in the period 2016-2019, we assess the effect of federal broadband subsidies to schools via the E-Rate program on school grades.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit joined the 5th Circuit in rejecting an attack on the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund (USF). The  USF is a critical means of reducing the cost of broadband and other telecommunications services for schools, hospitals and libraries, for low-income consumers, and for residents of rural America. The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, MediaJustice, and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance are intervenors supporting the FCC in this case.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed $8,778,527.39 in fines against 22 applicants in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I Auction (Auction 904) for apparently violating Commission requirements by defaulting on their bids between May 3, 2022, and December 16, 2022. Two applicants also failed to submit their audited financial paperwork, resulting in an additional monetary liability. The FCC provided clear guidance in its rules and notices on the monetary forfeitures associated with defaults in Auction 904.

When the Federal Communications Commission last updated the benchmark speeds for broadband, Barack Obama was president, Bruno Mars was at the top of the charts dancing through Uptown Funk, Fifty Shades of Grey [NSFW] was steaming up movie theaters, and the New England Patriots had just beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

The Federal Communications Commission is required by statute to assess the deployment of broadband across the US.  Although not explicitly required to do so, FCC uses its discretion to set a minimum fixed broadband speed that it uses as a benchmark.