Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Uniti submitted its second quarterly report regarding the status of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund milestone compliance for locations in several states. The company reported on how many new locations in each state were reached with service in the second quarter of 2026:

Safelink Internet submitted a quarterly report regarding its progress toward the 20 percent interim service milestone for its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund authorization in Nevada, Study Area Code 559032. Safelink has deployed and verified qualifying voice and broadband service to 296 locations in its Nevada RDOF service area, approximately 10.86 percent of the locations required by the milestone.

Skylark Broadband submitted its First Quarterly Compliance Report as subject to Tier 4 non-compliance status under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program for SAC 499029 in the state of New Mexico. Skylark has no newly deployed, geocoded broadband locations to report. Skylark’s total obligation under RDOF for SAC 499029 is 940 broadband serviceable locations, with a 40 percent interim milestone requiring certification of 376 deployed locations by March 1, 2026.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has appointed four public safety, technology, and business leaders to the Board of the First Responder Network Authority. The four new members selected by Secretary Lutnick for the FirstNet Authority Board are: • Mayor Mary Boyd of Comanche (TX).

The AWS-3 reauction closed at $3.57 billion, and the number is inflated. Strip out EchoStar, which bid to raise prices rather than to win, and the auction raises about $2.0 billion. EchoStar walked away with two trivial licenses in Guam. Its purpose was never to win spectrum; it was to push the clearing price past the roughly $2.9 billion that erased its own default penalty, and Verizon and T-Mobile paid the difference. That is the story of this auction.

The Federal Trade Commission is now under stronger presidential control—with no more opportunity for partisan dissent—following the Supreme Court's decision that President Trump can fire its members. Any realistic chance the agency in charge of consumer protection, kids' online safety, tech competition, and fighting deceptive and unfair practices will have any Democrats during this administration is effectively gone. The FTC will keep doing its job as outlined by the law.

President Trump is redefining what it means to be a U.S. ally in the AI era. For the White House, it's now about how partners can help the U.S. win the AI race. For decades, shared values and security interests have underpinned alliances with Europe and other partners around the world. Under President Trump, that's no longer enough. As AI becomes central to economic and military power, frontier AI models, chips and infrastructure are turning into new instruments of American influence.

A few weeks after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr called for a broad review of the 30-year-old federal E-rate program, the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking June 26 that floated the idea of ending the program. Education leaders and experts on the digital divide have since weighed in, arguing that would be a grave mistake.

Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults support banning anyone under the age of 16 from using social media sites, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The survey comes as governments around the world weigh new restrictions on teens’ use of social media. About one-in-five adults oppose banning those under 16 from using social media. And roughly a quarter are unsure, according to the survey conducted May 26-June 1, 2026.

On November 13, 2025, a bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission officials filed a Petition for Special Relief with the Commission seeking a repeal of the FCC’s news distortion policy and subsequently filed a petition for mandamus with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to compel action by the FCC on such petition.