The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is scheduled to release state funding allocations for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program by the end of June 2023. The allocations will be based on the latest version of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map released in late May 2023. Analyst Mike Conlow crunched the numbers and came up with updated BEAD state allocation estimates based on the new map and following the formula detailed in the rules for the BEAD program. Funding is based, in large part, on the percentage of unserved locations in the state in relation to all unserved locations in the US. Individual states are expected to receive anywhere between $108 million (for Delaware) and $3.5 billion (for Texas), according to Conlow’s estimates. Approximately half of the states saw their funding estimate increase from Conlow’s previous estimates, based on the previous version of the FCC broadband map released in November 2022. That version of the map was based on a location database released to service providers and state agencies in mid-2022, to which service providers added availability data as of June 30, 2022. Conlow notes that change from the first version of the map are driven primarily by two causes. First, some states made successful challenges to the original data that removed some filings from providers and made the locations unserved. Second, fewer locations were claimed as served by the larger providers. 

Over more than a decade, states have invested billions of dollars to extend broadband service to areas without high-speed internet. But now states are increasingly grappling with how to identify and connect unserved homes and businesses that are just out of reach of nearby last-mile infrastructure—the segment of a broadband network that connects a local internet service provider (ISP) to a customer—in areas that are otherwise served. Eight states—California, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia—have sought to address this problem using line extension programs. These programs can provide not only a highly accurate mechanism for identifying these scattered unserved locations at the address level but also grants to cover the construction expenses of connecting those properties. California and Indiana are leveraging state-funded line extension models, while the remaining six states are leveraging federal funding opportunities to extend broadband network lines, driven largely by federal funding available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Overall, these programs offer state leaders a way to connect residents who live near existing broadband infrastructure but still need the final stretch of a network to get online. As these nascent programs review applications and make award decisions, the outcomes of the early funded projects may determine whether states choose to continue investing in line extensions. As additional federal broadband funding becomes available in the coming months, these programs may provide states with another tool to close the digital divide.

Texas lawmakers passed a momentous bill that allocates $1.5 billion to expand internet availability across the state through the new Broadband Infrastructure Fund. If approved by voters in November, that money will be added to an undetermined amount of federal dollars the state will receive. That allocation is slated to be announced by June 30. Those funds will be distributed based on where the broadband maps show service is needed, which is primarily in rural areas where a lack of funds has essentially halted progress in development. However, there have been more than 2,200 challenges filed to the state’s map, according to data submitted to the state comptroller’s office. With billions of dollars on the line and 7 million Texans needing to be connected, broadband service providers and local officials are worried about how far that money can be stretched and whether it will go to the places that need it most. Connecting the entire state is going to take both a lot of time and more money than what was approved this session.

On June 5, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed into law HB1221, subjecting rural electric cooperatives to pole attachment regulation by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) if they provide broadband service. Specifically, the law mandates that if an electric cooperative provides broadband service “directly, through an affiliate, or pursuant to an agreement with a third party,” or if the cooperative accepts state or federal funding to expand broadband service to unserved areas in Florida, then the cooperative’s poles will be subject to the FPSC’s pole attachment regulations applicable to investor-owned electric utilities. State regulation of electric cooperatives fills a gap in federal law, which exempts electric cooperatives from federal pole attachment rules and leaves electric cooperatives largely free to impose unreasonable – and often anticompetitive – pole rates and conditions on broadband providers. Without regulations requiring nondiscriminatory pole access, cooperatives could (and sometimes do) favor their own broadband service by, among other things, imposing onerous rates and requirements on competing broadband providers that rely on attachments to the cooperatives’ poles. HB1221 also grants the FPSC access to an electric cooperative’s books and records to the extent necessary to enforce the pole attachment rules.

Phones at school are "a disaster," said Jonathan Haidt, the prominent social psychologist, making the case for phone-free schools. "Smartphones impede learning, stunt relationships, and lessen belonging," says Haidt. Teachers and administrators see "clear links between rising phone addiction and declining mental health, to say nothing of declining academic performance. Back in 2019, Haidt asked school leaders why they couldn't just ban phones during school hours. "They said too many parents would be upset if they could not reach their children during the school day," he said. However, parents may be more amenable to phone-free schools today, he argues, because they "now see the addiction and distraction these devices cause in their own children."