The FCC has taken a major step toward offering financial support for people struggling to pay broadband bills during the pandemic. If approved, the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program could provide $50 per month to millions of households, and more in tribal lands. The EBBP was created in the budget passed by Congress earlier this year, […]
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The new acting head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Jessica Rosenworcel has emerged from her first meeting in charge of America s telecoms regulator stressing urgency and the need to act at a “critical time.”
Her solution? To set up a series of new task forces, committees, and review teams to look at longstanding issues and get back to her in an unspecified time-frame with recommendations that the FCC might take forward. Not exactly dynamism in action.
Having been an FCC Commissioner for over a decade, save a seven-month break in 2017 due to partisan politics, there are few people more familiar with the issues that the agency faces than Rosenworcel.
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The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 includes billions of dollars to expand the deployment of broadband internet networks, consumer subsidies for service and equipment, as well as non-monetary provisions that could affect broadband service providers businesses.
The broadband provisions alone of the massive Appropriations Act are dense and raise many questions about how they will ultimately be implemented. In the meantime, we offer this summary of key provisions related to broadband network deployment.
Emergency Broadband Benefit Program
The Act establishes a temporary $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program that will reimburse participating providers up to $50 per month ($75 in tribal areas) for providing discounted broadband service to an eligible household. Under the terms of the legislation, the program will sunset six months after the Department of Health and Human Services declares the end