Universal Broadband

s election day quickly approaches, access to the internet is more important than ever. Yet, 17% of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) don’t have access to reliable high-speed internet at home. For communities without broadband, engaging in the voting process becomes more difficult and could deter voter participation. Digital devices are the most common way Americans get their news, with a large majority of U.S. adults (86%) saying they “at least sometimes” get their news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Minnesota, allowing the state to request access to more than $12 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. 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. Minnesota will use the $12,033,288 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Connecticut, allowing the state to request access to more than $9 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. 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. Connecticut will use the $9,183,114 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel spoke at the National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention on October 29, 2024. She highlighted some of the important work of the FCC's Office of Native Affairs and Policy, including the new "Missing and Endangered Persons" or MEP alert code. She also highlighted the newly announced Tribal Library E-Rate Advocacy Program, or TLEAP. "We are going to save Indigenous women and girls with our new missing and endangered persons alert code.

Copper Valley Telecom (CVT) plans to deploy gigabit fiber-to-the-home broadband service to the village of Tatitlek (AK) and surrounding communities of the Chugach Census Area of Alaska. The project on the southern coast of the state in the Prince William Sound area is being financed with a $16.5 million grant from the U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the creation of the Tribal Library E-Rate Advocacy Program (T-LEAP), which builds on the Commission’s Tribal Libraries Pilot Program. Through this new, permanent program, interested Tribal libraries will have the opportunity to sign up throughout the year for one-on-one assistance to start learning about and working on the E-Rate application process.

There has been a lot of chatter in the broadband industry recently, particularly as the election approaches, about whether the speed with which Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding is rolling out is too slow. But Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, said the timeline doesn’t bother her too much. “There’s been enough money flowing into the system that I’m not concerned that it’s taken three years.” Bloomfield named two primary reasons why the BEAD funding process so far has been worth the time spent.

For Nevada, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program will essentially be the third and final phase of a plan to make high-speed service available to everyone in the state, explained Brian Mitchell, broadband director for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT). That final phase will be funded not only through the $417 million in BEAD funding coming to the state but also through other sources. Phase Three of the three-phase High-Speed Nevada initiative aims to make high-speed broadband available to the 53,000 unserv

As states begin to receive their allocations from the $42 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment or BEAD program, Florida is leading the way in preparing the workforce needed for new high-speed internet networks. State officials were quick to convene industry stakeholders as part of their broadband planning process last year, and the state’s BEAD proposal has an unusually detailed section on workforce readiness.

The House Oversight Committee recently decided to investigate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision in 2022 to deny Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to Starlink. The timing of this announcement clearly has political overtones since it was announced as Elon Musk took the stage at a campaign event with one of the presidential candidates. RDOF was awarded using a reverse auction, where the provider willing to take the lowest amount of subsidy winning the funding.