FCC

It’s a push the FCC and USDA have promoted for years, connecting rural America up to broadband service, allowing producers and others in small towns or wide open locations to compete on the international market.  However, a study released last week by Broadband Now Research shows the number of Americans without broadband is moving in the wrong direction.  The stud...

USDA and the FCC are working to get broadband service to Americans across the country.  But the number of Americans without internet service at all may surprise you.   A report issued by BroadbandNow Research says the number of Americans that are without internet service is 43 million.  That’s ...

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission approved a rural broadband funding initiative.  The new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will help finance the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in rural America.  Through a two-phase reverse auction mechanism, the FCC will direct up to $20.4 billion...

Earlier this week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai presented his colleagues with final rules to launch the new $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.  Chairman Pai says the fund would “target rural areas across the country where residents currently lack access to adequate broadband.”  The rul...

The Federal Communications Commission approved an order late last week to help better identify gaps in broadband coverage throughout rural America.  The agency will identify those gaps with a new data collection process.  The Commission had previously established a new process to gather data for broadband deployment maps.   ...

The Federal Communications Commission approved an order late last week to help better identify gaps in broadband coverage throughout rural America.  The agency will identify those gaps with a new data collection process.  The Commission had previously established a new process to gather data for broadband deployment maps.   Ho...

It’s not a luxury, but a necessity.   That was the message Ag lawmakers and witnesses told a recent Congressional hearing on rural broadband expansion.  The need to expand rural broadband service is unique is Washington D.C. as one of th...

Thanks to the capital budget approved last week, over $21 million will be available to a variety of agencies looking to make high-speed internet available in rural portions of Washington.  Over the next two years, the state’s Public Works department plans to loan $14.44 million...

Last week, the president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau told lawmakers in Washington D.C. that changes are needed to the mapping process that determines federal broadband funding.  During a Senate hearing, Mississippi farmer Mike McCormick, told the committee that FCC maps that determine broadband funding are flawed.  ...

A host of agriculture groups are applauding the Senate Commerce Committee for pushing the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018 forward in the legislative process.   The American Farm Bureau says the bill would create a task force designed to focus in on the connectivity and technology needs of modern farmers, who are too often without connectivity in the fields and on the ranches where t