Mike Conlow

Nov 21, 2024 | benton.org | Mike Conlow

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently released the 5th version of the National Broadband Map, with data as of June 2024. At a high level, the trend continues of fewer and fewer unserved and underserved locations: in the previous version, 8.8 million locations were unserved or unserved. Now, with six months more data, we’re down to 7.5 million locations needing better broadband service. That’s an 15 percent decrease over one six-month period.

Jul 10, 2024 | benton.org | Mike Conlow

As all of us have focused on the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to bring fixed broadband to rural areas, the Federal Communications Commission has quietly moved another program forward: the proposed “5G Fund for Rural America”, a program that could be as large as $9 billion. As of March 2024, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated to colleagues a draft order that would restart the 5G Fund.

May 29, 2024 | benton.org | Mike Conlow

The Federal Communications Commission recently released the 4th version of the National Broadband Map, with data as of December 2023. At a high level, the trend continues of fewer and fewer unserved and underserved locations: in the previous version, 10.1 million locations were unserved or unserved. Now, with six months more data, we’re down to 8.8 million locations needing better broadband service. That’s an 11% decrease over one six-month period.

Apr 5, 2024 | benton.org | Mike Conlow

We all have eclipse on the brain, so I thought it’d be fun to look at some eclipse broadband stats. In the path of totality, 8% of locations are either unserved or underserved according to the NTIA definition of reliable broadband. That’s just over 1 million locations out of 11.9 million locations in the path of totality in total. If the path of totality were a state, it would be ranked 19th in terms of access to broadband.

Jan 29, 2024 | benton.org | Mike Conlow

Cartesian and ACA Connects released the 4th version of their estimate for how far the BEAD money will go, finding that we can reach “at least 71 percent of eligible locations” with fiber with the estimated $61 billion is available (BEAD + provider matching) to reach the remaining 10.1 million unserved and underserved locations.