broadband

The demand for reliable and affordable broadband service has skyrocketed in the last year as Americans began relying on the internet for telework, distancing learning, and telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many Americans – both urban and rural – have lacked either access or sufficient connection strength during the health crisis. […]

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., are introducing legislation that will provide up to $15 billion in matching grants to increase access to broadband services in areas of the United States that are unserved by broadband meeting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) minimum definition of that service. […]

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Members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology agreed at a Feb. 17 hearing that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the “equity gap” in broadband access, and called for both expanding service access in rural areas of the United States, and creating more affordable service access in urban areas of the country. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to gather additional data on how its program that helps ensure universal access to broadband service in rural, remote, and other areas of the country is working, and data to help drive decisions on effective use of available funds, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said. […]

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The Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 27 voted to approve action to “reduce regulatory barriers to 5G deployment by further streamlining the state and local government review process for modifications to existing wireless infrastructure that involve excavation and deployment beyond existing site boundaries.” […]

Weeks after the Department of Defense (DoD) asked industry for information regarding how the department could “own and operate 5G networks for domestic operations,” several top Republican senators sent a letter to the White House this week urging the President to “remain on the free-market path” in the 5G wireless race. […]

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FCC

Fifteen Democratic Senators penned a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on August 20, pushing Chairman Ajit Pai to increase funding for and improve transparency about rural healthcare operations. […]

State Department

A rule change prohibiting Federal use of telecommunications services and equipment from companies that pose national security risks – such as China-based Huawei and ZTE – will cost $11 billion to implement and $2 billion each subsequent year, according to a July 14 Federal Register announcement from the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and NASA. […]

Both the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Commerce are progressing ahead on rural broadband agency priority goals (APG) as a part of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) with some help from emergency funds in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. […]

FCC

The Federal government has worked to expand access to broadband across the U.S. through large investments in the sector and can continue expanding access in rural areas by improving data and broadband access maps. […]

White House
Rural broadband

Rep. G. K. Butterfield, D-N.C., introduced the Expanding Opportunities for Broadband Deployment Act on June 11 to increase access to and accelerate deployment of broadband services across the United States. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the Department of Defense (DoD) and the United State Air Force Warfare Center are partnering on a 5G prototype to be deployed for both defense and civilian use at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada early next year. […]

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, believes that the Federal government needs to help state and local governments figure out how to bridge the digital divide as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates a need to expand broadband to areas that don’t have it and to provide better services. […]

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FCC
White House
FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today approved final rules for a program that will funnel $20.4 billion over ten years to communications service providers to extend fast broadband services to unserved and underserved areas of the U.S. […]

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United Kingdom authorities said today they will allow communications service providers to use in their networks a limited amount of equipment made by “high risk vendors,” and impose restrictions on more extensive use of equipment from those firms. […]

The recent approval by the House of Representatives of two bills to improve the Federal government’s efforts to assemble and maintain accurate nationwide broadband service maps is adding weight to an ongoing push by the Federal Communications Commission to do the same in order to direct funding and other regulatory help to bringing more broadband options to underserved areas. […]

The Federal Communications Commission announced appointments to its Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force that will work on strategies to advance broadband communications deployment on agricultural land and promote precision agriculture. […]

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The Department of Agriculture (USDA) made its first investment under its ReConnect pilot program to support broadband availability, offering $2.85 million to a local service provider in Tennessee, the department announced October 18. […]

Two bills introduced in the House aim to improve the accuracy of the oft-maligned Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband availability map by changing reporting requirements and allowing community groups access to funds to do their own reporting. […]

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