Close to a 1,000 broadband-minded registrants attended a listening session on how to spend an estimated $21 billion in “non-deployment” funds states should have at their disposal from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Hosted by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, the online listening session featured about 50 selected speakers. Most of those who spoke advocated using the money to tackle the array of non-infrastructure barriers to expand broadband (affordability, device distribution, and digital skills programs)—made all the more urgent in light of the Trump administration’s sudden “termination” of the Digital Equity Act last year. Though it runs counter to the bipartisan infrastructure law that established the program, a handful of speakers actually suggested the funds simply be returned to the U.S. Treasury, presumably to “save taxpayer dollars.”

Source link