http://www.wired.com/2015/05/helping-poor-pay-broadband-good-us/
“Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC, shared a proposal last week urging the commission to update its Lifeline program, which currently provides a subsidy to qualified low-income households to help them pay their landline or mobile phone bills. The suggested updates would allow those households to use the same subsidy to help cover the cost of broadband—meaning more families could afford Internet at home.”
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0603/FCC-15-62A1.pdf
The FCC “..improves and expedites the effective competition process by adopting a rebuttable presumption that cable operators are subject to ‘Effective Competition’.”
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http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669739.pdf
A GAO study recommends the FCC take additional steps to evaluate its efforts to provide consumers with broadband performance information, including: conducting or commissioning research on the effectiveness of its efforts and making the results publicly available, and establishing performance goals and measures that allow the FCC to monitor and report on these efforts.
http://mountainx.com/news/digital-disconnect-some-buncombe-rural-residents-get-left-behind/
The Mountain Xpress examines the rural broadband needs and the gap between urban and rural areas.
Note: there are some factual errors in the story.
http://wraltechwire.com/north-carolina-sues-fcc-over-wilson-community-broadband-decision/14647645/
The State of North Carolina has filed a lawsuit against the FCC seeking to overturn the recent (Feb 2105) decision relating to preemption. The issue at hand is federal versus state rule.