NTIA awarded nearly $5 million in additional tribal broadband connectivity program grants Wednesday. The latest round of funding will support "planning for future high-speed Internet infrastructure projects or promoting Internet use and adoption," said a news release. The agency said it will release a second notice of funding opportunity for additional program funding "in the next few months."

The FCC Wireline Bureau extended the service and equipment delivery deadlines for Emergency Connectivity Fund recipients, in an order Friday in docket 21-93. The bureau extended the service delivery deadline by 14 months for requests from first- and second-window applicants with a funding commitment decision letter, or revised funding commitment decision letters that were dated on or after July 1, 2022. The bureau also extended by 180 days the service delivery date for equipment funding requests with either letter dated on or after Jan. 1. The service delivery deadline for applicants from the third filing window was extended from Dec. 31 to June 30, 2024. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and Consortium for School Networking sought an extension in a petition filed in April (see 2304050075).

ZP Better Together launched a campaign Thursday urging the FCC to ensure video relay service users have "equal telecommunications rights." The #StandWithTheDeafCommunity campaign wants action on "geolocating for emergency services and having one phone number for both texting and calling," the video relay service provider said in a news release. It also launched a documentary film that highlights the "critical role that deaf and hard of hearing individuals play in shaping society and underscores the urgent need for communication equity."

The FCC committed more than $24 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Fund support Wednesday. The new funding will support 55 schools, five libraries, and one consortium from all three application windows, the agency said in a news release.

FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Debra Jordan advised public safety agencies Tuesday to get ready as hurricane and wildfire seasons approach. Jordan noted the work the FCC did to improve the delivery of outage information to public safety answering points (see 2211170051), update wireless priority service (WPS), government emergency telecommunications service (GETS) and other rules (see 2205190057) and the “many recent” commission “actions to make the nation’s emergency alerting systems a stronger tool for public safety officials to warn and protect their communities.” Everyone should “prepare now for communicating during emergencies, especially when the power is out,” Jordan said.

Policymakers should "take prompt steps to close loopholes that permit duplicate grants targeting a single area," wrote Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a blog Monday. Long noted the FCC has until May 15 to release a broadband funding map highlighting areas where federal subsidies have been allocated for infrastructure deployment, saying "effective interagency coordination is essential" to ensuring funds are "used wisely." The broadband funding map and oversight efforts "will be hamstrung" until the Biden administration, Congress and agencies responsible for distributing federal subsidies act "to align program eligibility requirements so as to prevent overlapping grants targeting a single location due to technical variations buried in the fine print," Long said. A "key fact that many do not appreciate" is that "inconsistent eligibility requirements adopted by different programs" will open the door to "a single location receiving funding from multiple sources," he said.

NTIA released a new online tool and two reports highlighting federal investments in broadband programs Monday. The reports, mandated by the Access Broadband Act, include a description of the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth's work, how many households were served by universal service programs or federal broadband support, and a "framework to guide future estimates of the economic impact of broadband deployment efforts," said a news release. The reports "show how federal agencies across the Biden-Harris Administration are working together to target funding through the Internet for All initiative and close the digital divide,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson: “We will provide high-speed internet service to everyone by focusing on access, affordability and equity.” The report's findings included a substantial increase of $11.8 billion in investments from FY 2020 to FY 2021. More funding also went to digital inclusion or adoption efforts compared to infrastructure deployment and mapping. "This Broadband shift in outlays represents a change in priorities to connect underserved communities but also part of the maturation cycle as broadband investments begin to impact communities and economic activity," per the report. The dashboard includes spending data from 13 agencies and funding by program at the state level. It also reports tribal broadband funding for the first time. The dashboard showed tribal entities residing in Oklahoma received a "significant concentration" of funding, about 59.3% of total tribal broadband funding.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments by June 5, replies by June 20, on the Communication Service for the Deaf's petition for declaratory ruling that direct video calling services are eligible for Telecom Relay Service Fund support, said a public notice Friday in docket 03-123.

NTIA is "eager" to get its funding through the broadband, equity, access and deployment program out the door and has been working closely with stakeholders to ensure the FCC's broadband map "includes the most high-quality data as possible," the agency said Thursday. NTIA still anticipates making its allocation announcements by June 30. The agency noted the current map shows 8 million of the 113 million broadband serviceable locations as unserved: "Due to the size of the data set, it would take an outsized increase or decrease in the number of unserved locations within an eligible entity relative to the national total to have a significant impact on the final BEAD allocations."

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC's USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor, in an opinion published Thursday in case 21-3886. A three-judge panel heard oral argument in March and is the second court to deny a challenge from the group (see 2303240049). "Congress provided the FCC with a detailed statutory framework regarding universal service," wrote Judge Karen Nelson Moore, saying Section 254 of the Communications Act "does not violate the nondelegation doctrine." The opinion also cited the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s "subordination to the FCC and its assistance with fact gathering and ministerial support" wasn't a "private-nondelegation doctrine violation." Competitive Carriers Association, NTCA and USTelecom welcomed the ruling in a joint statement: "We believe that other courts considering similar challenges should come to the same conclusion.” Consumers' Research didn't comment.