New York State is approaching universal broadband through both access and adoption—and recognizes that affordability is a key barrier to adoption. In January 2022, Gov. Hochul unveiled ConnectALL, a $1 billion public-private initiative to deliver affordable broadband to millions of New Yorkers and transform the state's digital infrastructure through new investments. The initiative includes: 

• Statewide Digital Equity Plan and grant program to support New Yorkers' use of the internet to participate in our society, democracy, and economy.
• Rural Broadband Grant Program for areas that lack broadband infrastructure. 
• Local Connectivity Planning and 21st Century Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program for municipalities, non-profits, and other entities to construct open and accessible public broadband infrastructure.
• Affordable Housing Connectivity Program, a partnership with New York Homes and Community Renewal to retrofit affordable housing with broadband installations as part of the agency's overall housing plan.
• Connectivity Innovation Grant Program to develop creative broadband solutions and ensure New York is a global leader in pioneering future breakthroughs.
• Led by the Department of Public Service, to promote the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which can provide eligible New Yorkers a discount of up to $30 a month toward internet service and up to $100 for a new computer or another connected device. In October 2022, Gov. Hochul announced that one million qualifying New York households had enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program. New York was then one of the leading states in the nation for ACP enrollment with 30 percent of eligible households taking advantage of this federal benefit. Eligible New York households were saving more than $360 million annually.
• Broadband Assessment Program and Interactive Map, administered by the New York State Department of Public Service. In October 2022, New York's ConnectALL Office submitted over 31,000 addresses to the Federal Communications Commission under the Broadband Data Collection challenge process. The 31,798 records in the State's challenge are all among the 138,598 addresses identified as unserved or underserved by the Department of Public Service's (DPS) Broadband Assessment Program and include evidence that they meet the FCC's definition for inclusion in the federal map. 
• Streamline Broadband Construction by eliminating fees, removing outdated regulations, and leveraging existing state assets.

Thousands of East Texans are part of a petition challenging the accuracy of the Texas Broadband Development Map that shows internet availability and speeds across the state.  A disproportionate number of Texans without broadband are in rural areas such as Deep East Texas, where a low population density makes it less profitable for companies to establish broadband infrastructure. According to the state map, the vast majority of Texans already have access to broadband — defined as high-speed internet that delivers download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second, or Mbps, and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps. But in East Texas, the petitioners say, broadband access is unreliable. Two East Texas lawmakers have filed bills that also would expand who is eligible to receive grant funding from the state’s broadband development office. If passed, much of East Texas could qualify for funding. In their petition to the state broadband development office, which is tasked with expanding broadband access to underserved areas of the state, the Deep East Texas Council of Governments said their 11-county region, which includes about 350,000 residents, is “chronically unserved” when it comes to broadband. The council also submitted its own challenge to the Federal Communications Commission after finding that 27% of East Texans the council interviewed could not find their home on the federal map. 

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently ordered a series of public hearings to investigate the quality of service on the CenturyLink copper networks. The hearings were prompted by a complaint filed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The complaint listed the failures of CenturyLink to meet state service standards due to the deterioration of the copper network. CWA also noted that CenturyLink is planning to eliminate half of the remaining technicians who work on copper. Proceedings like this one feel like the last gasp of regulators trying to score points by beating up on the companies that still operate copper networks. The poor condition of the networks is due in large part to the decades-long lack of maintenance and repairs. We know this is the case because copper networks of a similar age are still operating much better in Europe. The big operators like CenturyLink, Frontier, Verizon, and AT&T stopped caring about copper networks back in the 1990s, and the networks have been in a steady decline since then. We’re now reduced to watching the last death throes of copper networks, and it’s not pretty.

Elon Musk and more than 1,000 tech researchers and executives have called for a six-month “pause” on the development of advanced artificial intelligence systems such as OpenAI’s GPT to halt what they call a “dangerous” arms race.  An open letter by the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit campaign group, had been signed by more than 1,100 individuals from across academia and the tech industry within hours of its publication. “Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” the letter reads. The accelerating pace of development and public deployment has worried some AI researchers and tech ethicists about the potential impact on employment, public discourse, and — ultimately — humanity’s ability to keep up. The letter urged the creation of shared safety protocols that are audited by independent experts to “ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt”.

Comcast’s new Pacific Northwest Region is investing $280 million in 2023 to offer multi-gigabit Internet speeds to more than four million locations, expand broadband and video services to more than 60,000 additional homes and businesses, and provide donations and in-kind services to communities throughout Oregon and Washington. The investment will significantly expand and evolve the availability of the Xfinity 10G Network across the Pacific Northwest in 2023. Once complete, these homes and businesses will have the foundational next-generation network in place to introduce new multi-gigabit Internet options. Further, our fiber-rich network improvements will offer Oregon and Washington's customers upload speeds up to 10 times faster than the fastest they have now. The first phase of our network enhancements is happening now and initially will offer a maximum download speed of 2 Gbps, combined with upload speeds up to 200 Mbps, which is five to 10 times faster than our existing upload speeds. Comcast expects that 40 percent of the company’s network in the Pacific Northwest will offer multi-gig Internet speeds by the end of 2023.

Lumen Technologies is hoping to grease the wheels on its fiber build in 2023 after pressing pause on its work late in 2022 and is aiming to exit the year having achieved a quarterly build pace that will allow it to exceed 500,000 new passings in 2024. The operator was originally planning to reach 1.5 million to 2 million locations this year as part of a plan to expand its footprint to 12 million locations over the coming years. But in February 2023, Lumen slashed its overall target to between 8 million and 10 million locations and said it would only reach 500,000 new locations in 2023. Maxine Moreau, president of Lumen’s Mass Markets business, said the reduction in its target was not only designed to ensure better quality passings but also to account for the higher build costs it began to see in 2022. Work on its fiber expansion has now resumed and Moreau said the operator is already seeing improvements in unit yields from its construction division. It has also made headway in a battle against long permitting processes and contractor capacity constraints which previously hampered its build pace. She added it expects “2024 to be a higher build enablement year than 2023,” though did not provide a concrete target for next year.