WASHINGTON, April 26, 2024 – A New York state law requiring discounted internet service for low-income residents was upheld Friday by a federal appeals court panel. The ruling dealt a setback to Republicans, who want to preempt such laws, but also want a light-touch regulatory approach. Yet the court’s ruling placed in doubt whether the New York consumer protection law could survive under internet regulations adopted by the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. And the court’s opinion Friday suggested the FCC was now free to preempt the New York discounted internet law it just upheld ..read more

April 26, 2024— Connect Humanity, a non-profit aimed at connecting communities and non-profit organizations and advancing digital equity, announced a deal with Microsoft to expand broadband into Appalachian communities, according to a Tuesday press release.  Connect Humanity's Investing in Digital Equity Appalachia Fund aims to address the digital divide through targeted investments. Brian Vo, Connect Humanity's chief investment officer, said that the partnership with Microsoft facilities this. “With the right partners, it’s possible to build gold-standard internet in every rural an ..read more

April 26, 2024—Nokia has rolled out their first slate of products compliant with the Biden administration’s Build America, Buy America guidance, according to a Wednesday press release.  The products, which were produced at the company’s Wisconsin manufacturing facility with Sanmina, will assist the company in their goal to furnish BEAD applicants with technologies needed to help address digital access disparities, the company says.  The Build America, Buy America Act mandates that all infrastructure projects funded by federal dollars use iron, steel, manufactured products, and const ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2024 – Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, is aiming to introduce a bill that would restore the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction authority for five years, as well as provide funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program and the rip and replace program. The committee is planning to vote on the bill May 1. A discussion draft of the Spectrum and National Security Act was posted Thursday with the markup announcement.  In addition to reinstating the FCC’s auction authority until September 2029, the bill would allow the comm ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2024 – Problems with a major federal broadband subsidy program continue to mount, with broadband ISPs blaming unexpected cost hikes and permitting delays as high barriers that have made thousands of rural areas uneconomical to serve. The most recent case is Charter Communications in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission saying it would surrender locations in three states it won in the agency's multibillion dollar Rural Digital Opportunity Fund reverse auction held in 2020. Charter said it was returning “a very small percentage of census block groups (CBGs ..read more

The fact that so many low-income consumers and others in hard to serve areas are on the wrong side of the digital divide is a problem that members of WISPA – The Association for Broadband Without Boundaries – have been working to address for decades.  Our Association represents more than 600 small Internet Service Providers, that use fixed wireless, fiber optic, or other broadband technologies, to provide high speed, reliable broadband service to their local communities.  These communities are in sparsely populated, rural, exurban, and other areas that larger broadband companies cou ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to reinstate Obama-era net neutrality rules. In a win for consumer advocates, officials said the draft order’s no-throttling language was updated to clarify that speeding up traffic also violates the rule. Officials said there were no major changes from the draft order with respect to 5G network slicing or Universal Service Fund contributions, two contested issues before the agency. Net neutrality rules reclassify broadband as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, opening ISPs ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2024 – Comcast Corporation executives indicated Thursday that they anticipate continued declines in their customer bases for broadband, cable TV, and wireline voice services through the second quarter in part due to the termination of the Affordable Connectivity Program.  The media and technology conglomerate is urging Congress and the White House to renew funding for the program, which offers a $30 monthly discount on broadband bills for eligible low-income households. Full funding from the program is available only through April, with partial funding extending int ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2024 – AT&T added more fixed wireless broadband subscribers than expected in the first quarter of 2024, the company said in an earnings call Wednesday. The company added 110,000 subscribers to the AT&T Internet Air service it launched last year, ahead of the 77,000 analysts had expected and bringing the total to 203,000 connections. Fixed wireless broadband still isn’t as big a part of AT&T’s business as some of its competitors, like Verizon, which crossed the 2 million subscriber mark for its residential FWA service in the first quarter of this year. In line ..read more

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2024 – A Ukrainian-American organization is demanding an immediate investigation into the conduct of SpaceX's founder and primary shareholder Elon Musk to determine if the company's federal spectrum license status should be revoked. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America alleges in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday that Musk has used the company’s federal spectrum licenses to meddle in the Ukraine-Russia war, saying Musk is actively working to thwart U.S. foreign policy.  The nonprofit group is calling on the FCC to evaluate whether ..read more