FCC
FCC Launches Emergency Broadband Benefit Program
The Emergency Broadband Benefit is designed to help economically disadvantaged households get reliable broadband at a subsidized rate.
FCC
Matthew Johnson: Digital Divide Solution is Right Here with Lifeline. Why is No One Paying Attention?
Over the past year, COVID-19 has upended lives and livelihoods and revealed the troubling breadth and scope of the digital divide. Despite the positive turn the pandemic is taking, millions remain unemployed and struggle to pay rent and put food on the table. They cannot afford basic broadband to ap
BBLO
Strong Demand for Emergency Broadband Benefit Means All Funds Will Be Spent
March 15, 2021 – Demand for the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program of is likely to strong, said Jodie Griffin, deputy division chief in the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau at, said during Wednesday’s Broadband Breakfast Live event. Griffin said she saw t
FCC
Federal Communications Commission Seeking Black Hires, Geoffrey Starks Says
March 13, 2021 – Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Wednesday that he is making recruiting from historically black colleges and universities a priority as Black Americans increasingly fall in low-income demographics. Speaking at a Wednesday forum on combatting systemic inequali
FCC
FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel, Advocacy Groups Applaud Congress Passing Stimulus Bill With Broadband
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2021—The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 passed the House on Wednesday, paving the way for its signing by President Joe Biden. The $1.9-trillion bill passed the Senate with amendments on March 6 and returned to the House, where it passed by a vote of 220-211. The stimulus pack
FRN
The $3.2 Billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program: What’s In It, How to Get It?
March 5, 2021 – Just shy of the 60-day deadline set by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission adopted an order on February 25, detailing how the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program would work. The $3.2 billion program was part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 that passed C
Cybersecurity
What You Need To Know About the More-Than-$7 Billion Emergency Connectivity Fund
March 5, 2021 – The Senate on Thursday voted to begin debate on the $7.6 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, which is part of the House-passed $1.9-trillion coronavirus stimulus bill. Most of the 591-page bill adheres closely to what President Biden called for in his relief proposal in January 2021
FCC
Federal Communications Commission Releases Proposed Rules Regarding Emergency Broadband Benefit
February 22, 2021 – Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, on Monday released proposed rules governing the implementation of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. If adopted by the agency, the program would unleash $3.2 billion of federal initiative for q
FCC
Democrats Want Biden to Drop Net Neutrality Suit Against States, AT&T and Digital Divide, Cornell’s Broadband Program
January 15, 2021 –Representative Anna Eshoo, D-California, led a group of Democratic members in the House of Representatives in writing a letter urging the incoming attorney general, Merrick Garland, to withdraw the Department of Justice from the lawsuit currently filed against California for the st
Lifeline
Removing Roadblocks on Bridge Over Digital Divide: Explaining the Affordable, Accessible Internet for All Act
While the bulk of the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All (AAIA) Act proposes to invest $100 billion to expand broadband access in unserved and underserved parts of the country, the legislation also looks to build an essential bridge across the digital divide that goes beyond new infrastructure.
FCC
Global Divisions Over 5G, Zuckerberg Says Advertisers Will Return, Lifeline Program Underutilized
The effort to expedite the production of 5G connective technology is pulling the world apart, WIRED reported. Telecom companies in the United States and abroad have long looked at 5G technology as having the potential to connect disparate ends of the world more quickly and efficiently than ever, but
FCC
Republican Communications Commissioners Decline to Support Additional Broadband Funding, Also Blast Big Tech
June 24, 2020 — The Federal Communications Commission needs increased funding of an unknown amount for its broadband subsidy projects, said Comissioners Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr in a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing Wednesday. When Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D
FSF
Broadband Roundup: Economic Benefits of 5G, Lifeline Process Streamlined for Tribes, Maine’s Effort to Protect User Privacy
5G is an important driver of economic growth, wrote James Prieger, a professor of economic and public policy at Pepperdine University, in a report for the Free State Foundation Monday. Investments in 5G networks contribute directly to national GDP, creating jobs, accelerating business practices, and
FCC
Historically Black Colleges Urge Additional Funding to Close Broadband Gap
Panelists at an FCC roundtable on Monday stressed the importance of narrowing the digital divide that makes distance learning difficult for some students from historically black colleges and universities. The roundtable, hosted by FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and moderated by David Johns of the
COVID
Coronavirus Roundup: Legislators, FCC Commissioner Seek More Attention to Lifeline, Microsoft Promotes Library Wi-Fi
Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Reps. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., along with 140 colleagues in both the House and Senate, urged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to work directly with the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human
FCC
Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Urges Multiple Solutions to the Homework Gap
April 22, 2020—In order to curb the homework gap in the age of coronavirus, Congress must not focus on providing one particular broadband technology but instead should employ “whatever works,” Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday. Speaking in a webinar hosted by the I
