Level of Government

There’s a common complaint among high school students across the country, and it has nothing to do with curfews or allowances: Internet filters are preventing them from doing online research at school. School districts must block obscene or harmful images to qualify for federally-subsidized internet access under the Children’s Internet Protection Act, passed by Congress nearly 25 years ago. But the records, from 16 districts across 11 states, show they go much further. Some of the censorship inhibits students’ ability to do basic research on sites like Wikipedia and Quora.

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022, is supposed to promote investment in chip manufacturing plants, help ease supply chain woes and bring skilled manufacturing jobs back to the United States. 5G wireless chips will be part of that wider picture. Doug Kirkpatrick, former chief scientist at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said, “There has been a general concern that the United States is falling behind in terms of chip production and technology.

After Puerto Rico obtained a $127 million disbursement from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring fixed connectivity to 100% of Puerto Rico's households, $334 million was added from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Development (BEAD) program, which will be used mainly for telecommunications resiliency.

Ohio has “very competitive” and “aggressive” broadband providers, which bodes well for the state’s goal of making broadband available statewide, said Peter Voderberg, chief for BroadbandOhio. He points to the fact that the state received applications requesting a total of $780 million when it made $77 million available for rural broadband deployments using funding from the federal Capital Projects Fund.  Voderberg has an extensive history working within Ohio’s state government and was serving as a policy advisor to Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) before establishing BroadbandOhio, ironically a

To receive Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding, broadband providers will have to sign a contract with a state broadband office. The grant contract is the most important document in the grant process because it specifically defines what a grant winner must do to fulfill the grant and how they will be reimbursed. The grant contract is going to define a lot of important things:

The Mississippi broadband office is responding to allegations raised by a legal organization that claims the state is failing to conduct equitable local coordination and outreach with underrepresented communities in preparation of allocating $1.2 billion to expand broadband infrastructure.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced that RiverStreet Communications of North Carolina has notified the FCC that it will not fulfill its commitment to offer voice and broadband service to certain census block groups (CBGs) within its Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction supported service area in North Carolina. In addition, Cebridge Telecom LA and Cable One VoIP LLC d/b/a Sparklight have notified the FCC of their decisions to withdraw from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support program in all the CBGs covered by their authorized win

When Dorothy Burrell’s lupus flares, she has days she can’t walk or get out of bed.

According to the 2022 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, "digital discrimination" involves determining who gets broadband access “based on income level, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” As an example, some neighborhoods in cities get faster broadband speeds than those in poorer neighborhoods, creating a two-tiered effect. Nationally, the Federal Communications Commission has been empowered by Congress to handle digital discrimination complaints, which provides some remedy for those who find themselves on this new wrong side of the digital divide.

It may seem as though the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) has been talking about the lack of adequate Rip and Replace funding for years—and it has been. But now things are really starting to hit the fan. Congress created the Rip and Replace program in 2020 to get Chinese components out of US wireless networks, but the funding fell $3 billion short of what’s needed to finish the job.