The Treasury Department has issued its Final Rule regarding the use of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) established under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The Final Rule significantly expands ARPA recipients’ flexibility to use the funds for broadband infrastructure projects.
Under the Interim Final Rule, eligible broadband infrastructure investments were limited
Part 4 of the Keller and Heckman Infrastructure Act Series
This is our 4th entry on the major provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“the IIJA” or “the Act”), which allocates $65 billion to support various broadband initiatives. We previously examined the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) Program and
This entry highlights the current rural broadband funding opportunity presented by the $1.15 billion “ReConnect” program administered by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS).[1] Under the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for its third round of Reconnect funding (ReConnect III), the RUS will be awarding loans and grants to construct, improve,
Last week, the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) filed a Petition for Rulemaking; Alternatively, Petition for Notice of Inquiry (Petition) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) asking the Commission to take a more active role in regulating Next Generation 911 (NG911) deployments throughout the country.
In particular, the Petition asks the
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) entered into Consent Decrees with eight Covered 911 Service Providers for failing to timely file their required 911 reliability certification in 2020.
The Rules
As background, the FCC adopted rules in 2013 aimed at improving 911 network reliability. The rules require Covered 911 Service Providers (“Providers”) to
Last week, the House Energy & Commerce Committee released its portion of the Budget Reconciliation Act. This includes a $10 billion appropriation for Next Generation 911 (NG911) grant programs.
A summary of the appropriation is below.
The proposed Section appropriates $10 billion for:
At its Open Meeting on April 22, the FCC adopted a Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on proposed rules changes to 911 outage reporting. The proposed rules aim to help 911 call centers maintain emergency services and inform the public when to use alternatives to calling 911.
Customer Notification
One of the biggest
President Biden has now signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R 1319, “Act”) into law. As many are aware, the $1.9 trillion package includes $7.17 billion for an Emergency Connectivity Fund to enable remote learning, for which the FCC is to issue rules within 60 days of the Act’s enactment. This blog entry
Local governments committed to supporting their citizens most adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic should be encouraging the broadband providers serving their communities to take the necessary steps in the next several weeks to establish eligibility to participate in the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. This Program is administered by the Federal Communications
A federal court decision last week will allow California to enforce its own net neutrality rules. As other states follow suit, the desire for a more uniform approach could lead to federal legislation clarifying the scope of FCC regulatory authority over broadband Internet access service.
On February 23, Judge John Mendez of the U.S. District
