After decades of redlining and broadband “digital discrimination” by the nation’s biggest telecom monopolies, the FCC finally began taking aim at the problem in 2023. Now the entirety of those efforts are poised to be dismantled, courtesy of the Trump administration’s broad, controversial frontal assault on discrimination reforms and civil rights.

The 2021 infrastructure bill set aside $42.5 billion to expand broadband into all unserved parts of the United States.

But it also tasked the FCC with crafting new rules taking aim at “digital discrimination.” On November 15th of 2023 the agency obliged, passing rules banning ISPs from broadband discrimination based on income, race, or religion.

Civil rights and digital equity activists were split on the potential impact of the rules, but they did agree on one thing: it was historic for federal policymakers to finally admit that telecom monopoly deployments had unfairly excluded many low income and minority neighborhoods from affordable, next-generation broadband access.

*In partnership with Broadband Breakfast, we occasionally republish each other's content. The following story by Broadband Breakfast Reporter Gabriel Dorner was originally published here.

The Affordable Connectivity Program ran out of money last May, creating an enduring hardship for economically challenged Americans who need the program to get or stay online, the National Lifeline Association’s Annual Consumer Survey found.

Americans who relied on the ACP have struggled to find work, balance their budgets, and access healthcare, according to the NaLA survey.

“Lifeline and the ACP bring affordable internet and phone service to the communities who need it most… Lawmakers must refund the ACP and fix the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program to ensure all American households have affordable access to essential communications,” NaLA said in a statement.

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The ACP provided benefits to 23 million low-income households at the time the program closed.

“I have read thousands of heartbreaking testimonies from consumers since ACP funding ran out,” NaLA Board Chairman David B. Dorwart said.

According to the report, 80 percent of survey respondents reported having an annual income below $20,000, 73 percent identified as unemployed, and only half reported having a checking or savings account.

Now that the lengthy legal beef has been settled and New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) is set to take effect this month, it marks a potentially pivotal moment in a national effort to address one of the biggest barriers to broadband adoption: 

Affordability.

The first-in-the-nation law requiring large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in New York to offer a $15/month plan for qualifying low-income households stands to benefit the approximately 1.7 million New Yorkers who had been enrolled in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Congress allowed to expire last spring.

With a new administration entering the White House – supported by GOP Congressional leaders who blocked previous ACP renewal efforts – the newly enacted ABA “paints a path that other states will look at,” as New Street Research analyst Blair Levin recently noted.

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“In a world where the federal government is subsidizing low-income households for $30 a month, states did not need to take action to address low-income broadband affordability,” Levin added. But now, without the ACP benefit, “states may try to assist low-income households to keep them connected.”

In the City of Sherwood, a mostly residential bedroom community 16 miles south of Portland, officials have been quietly cultivating a digital vineyard across Oregon’s “Gateway to Wine Country.”

As part of its on-going work to build out a citywide fiber network, Sherwood Broadband recently secured a $9 million grant from the Oregon Broadband Office Broadband Deployment Program (BDP) to continue expanding Sherwood’s municipally-owned network into neighboring rural communities just outside city limits.

The grant award is part of $132 million in federal Rescue Plan funds the state is doling out to an array of community-owned broadband initiatives for 16 projects across 17 counties.

Award winners include Beacon Broadband, a subsidiary of the Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative ($19.4 million); Jefferson County ($19.2 million); Douglas Fast Net, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Douglas Electric Cooperative ($8.5 million); the Idaho-based member-owned cooperative Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, which offers broadband service in Malheur County, OR ($18.9 million); and a handful of independent providers like Blue Mountain Networks ($6.5 million) and Ziply Fiber ($10.2 million), recently acquired by Bell Canada.

Digital inclusion advocates are bracing themselves for an uncertain year ahead.

As the incoming GOP regime takes aim at key aspects of the Digital Equity Act (DEA) and the BEAD (Broadband, Equity, Access, And Deployment) program, those working to bridge the digital divide have more questions than answers just as states are preparing to dole out federal grant money yet to be awarded to grant recipients.

One major question looming over both BEAD and the Digital Equity Act is whether a new Congress can leverage the Congressional Review Act – a tool Congress can use to overturn certain federal agency actions – to undermine the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law behind the national “Internet For All” initiative.

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“The Congressional Review Act only applies to things that were adopted in the last six months. I know that there were a number of things the FCC did to make sure that they were done and would be non-reviewable under the CRA and I suspect NTIA did that as well (with BEAD),” former FCC Chief of Staff and now New Street Research policy advisor Blair Levin said during our final Building For Digital Equity (B4DE) livestream of 2024.

In the wake of the election, and with potential major changes ahead for the national "Internet For All" effort, many in the broadband world are wondering: where do we go from here?

That's what the next Building For Digital Equity (#B4DE) livestream event seeks to answer, inviting you to wear your ugly sweater, join the free virtual gathering, and dive into what a post-Biden administration broadband world may look like.

Slated for December 16, 2024 from 3 to 4:15 PM ET, the "Reflect, Recharge, Reach Forward" themed livestream promises to offer penetrating insights and practical ideas on the way forward.

Registration is now open here.

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Co-hosted by Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the popular (and free) online event will feature two prominent figures in this space: NDIA Executive Director Angela Siefer and New Street Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin.