Christopher Ali

Nov 14, 2024 | cnet.com | Joe Supan |Alan Davidson |Christopher Ali

You probably didn’t hear much talk about internet policy in political commercials or on debate stages this year. But the results of the 2024 election will have a reverberating impact on the state of the internet that could be felt for decades. “The good news about broadband policy is that it's fairly bipartisan,” Blair Levin, a former chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission and a telecom industry analyst at New Street Research, told CNET.

Nov 14, 2024 | cnet.com | Joe Supan |Christopher Ali |Blair Levin

As the dust starts to settle after the election, one person has remained a prominent presence in President-elect Donald Trump’s orbit. Elon Musk has reportedly been highly involved in Trump’s cabinet picks and chosen to lead a new advisory group called the “Department of Government Efficiency” along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk spent at least $132 million to secure the White House and Congress for Republicans.

Aug 28, 2024 | cnet.com | Joe Supan |Christopher Ali

In a major win for internet providers like Starlink, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Monday released much-anticipated guidance for how states can use Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funding on alternative technologies like low-Earth orbit satellites. While this news is far from set in stone, it could have major implications down the road for rural residents without any access to high-speed internet.

Jun 21, 2024 | cnet.com | Joe Supan |Christopher Ali |Shannon Sauer-Zavala

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) officially ended in May, though efforts in Congress continue to restart the program. This story was initially written in the months before the ACP closed. Kenneth Sigler has a difficult choice to make. For the past year, the 41-year-old small-business owner from Hernando, Mississippi, had been using the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program.

May 16, 2024 | benton.org | Christopher Ali

Thursday, May 16, 2024Digital BeatThe 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides $42.45 billion in grant funding to states via the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). IIJA also underscores that any state receiving these funds may not exclude local governments from applying to use these funds to build their own broadband networks. Yet, have laws that do exactly this.