USDA says Trump Administration Invests 4.6 Million Dollars in High-Speed Broadband in Rural Georgia

U.S. Department of Agriculture says Trump Administration Invests $4.6 Million in High-Speed Broadband in Rural Georgia | site |


ReConnect Funding to Connect 1,326 Rural Georgia Households to High-Speed Internet e-Connectivity


(Information contained in U.S. Department of Agriculture press release: January 7, 2021)

Claxton, Ga., Jan. 7, 2021 - - The Trump Administration today announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $4.6 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Georgia. This investment is part of the $550 million Congress allocated to the second round of the ReConnect Program. “The need for rural broadband has never been more apparent than it is now – as our nation manages the coronavirus national emergency. Access to telehealth services, remote learning for school children, and remote business operations all require access to broadband,” U.S. Secret...

Remarks Of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai To The Hispanic Telecom And Technology Partnership Digital Inclusion Summit | site |


(Information contained in Federal Communications Commission release: December 3, 2020)

REMARKS OF FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
TO THE HISPANIC TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS PARTNERSHIP
DIGITAL INCLUSION SUMMIT

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Hello everybody! Thank you to Alejandro and everyone at the Hispanic Telecom and Technology Partnership for inviting me to be a part of your first Digital Inclusion Summit. I look forward to today’s question and answer session. But before we get to that, I’ve been asked to deliver some brief remarks. I’d like to start off with a story. In November 2017, I visited Puerto Rico to survey the damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Although nearly two months had passed since the historic storms, the devastation was still u...

National Institute of Standards and Technology says Face Recognition Software Shows Improvement in Recognizing Masked Faces | site |


NIST says latest NIST test is the first to measure performance of software submitted after pandemic’s arrival.


(Information contained in National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] release: December 1, 2020)

A new study of face recognition technology created after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that some software developers have made demonstrable progress at recognizing masked faces.

The findings, produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), are detailed in a new report called Ongoing Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) Part 6B: Face Recognition Accuracy with Face Masks Using Post-COVID-19 Algorithms (NISTIR 8331). It is the agency’s first study that measures the performance of face recognition algorithms developed following the arrival...

Federal Communications Commission to Host Webinar on Virtual Volunteerism on Dec. 2 | site |




(Information contained in Federal Communications Commission [FCC] release: November 24, 2020)

The FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau will host a webinar on Virtual Volunteerism: leveraging broadband to match individual volunteers with nonprofit organizations and provide services. The free webinar will begin Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. ET.


Editor's note: The FCC Public Notice detailing the webinar may be viewed at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachme...C-368347A1.pdf or press HERE

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Federal Communications Commission Modernizes 5.9 GHz Band for WI-FI and Auto Safety | site |


New Plan Makes Additional Spectrum Available Immediately for Improved Indoor Wi-Fi Connectivity While Authorizing Market-Driven Transportation Safety Services


(Information contained in Federal Communications Commission [FCC] press release: released November 20, 2020) WASHINGTON, November 18, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted new rules for the 5.9 GHz band (5.850-5.925 GHz) to make new spectrum available for unlicensed uses, such as Wi-Fi, and improve automotive safety. Specifically, the new band plan designates the lower 45 megahertz (5.850-5.895 GHz) for unlicensed uses and the upper 30 megahertz (5.895-5.925 GHz) for enhanced automobile safety using Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology. Increasing the amount of spectrum available for unlicensed operations is critical for meeting our nation’s connectivity needs...

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Launches First-of-its-Kind Regulatory Clean-Up Initiative Utilizing AI | site |



(November 17, 2020) - - On November 17, 2020 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published the following information: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule as part of a new department-wide regulatory clean-up initiative, the first of its kind utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies, which will provide a foundation for future innovation across federal agencies. Under this initiative, HHS was able to run an automated process that identified specific locations in the CFR that warrant corrections, such as those with incorrect citations and outdated regulations that have gone unnoticed. The rule provides for the correction of nearly 100 citations, the removal of erroneous language, and correction of misspellings and typographical errors among HHS regula...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Awards $1.5 Million for Research to Reduce Exposures to Workplace Hazards through Robotic Technology | site |


Research projects will focus on robotics in the healthcare and manufacturing industries


(November 16, 2020) - - Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the following information:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $1.5 million over three years to the University of Illinois at Chicago and Worcester Polytechnic Institute to fund projects aimed at reducing workers’ exposures to hazards through the development and use of collaborative robots, or co-robots.

CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund studies of co-robots in the workplace through NSF’s National Robotics Initiative 2.0external icon. The Initiative supports research in the...

Federal Communications Commission Reaches $200 Million Settlement in Sprint Lifeline Investigation | site |



FCC says T-Mobile will pay $200 Million Civil Penalty to Resolve Sprint Lifeline Investigation

Largest Fixed-Amount Penalty To Be Paid in Commission History


(November 4, 2020) - - On November 4, 2020 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the following information:

WASHINGTON, November 4, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau today announced that T-Mobile will pay a $200 million penalty to the U.S. Treasury to resolve an investigation of its subsidiary Sprint’s compliance with the Commission’s rules regarding waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program for low-income consumers. The payment is the largest fixed-amount settlement the Commission has ever secured to resolve an investigation. The settlement comes after an Enforcement Bureau investigation into...

Remarks of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit | site |



(November 5, 2020) - - Today, November 5, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the following information:

REMARKS OF FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
AT THE DYNAMIC SPECTRUM ALLIANCE GLOBAL SUMMIT

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Thank you, Martha, for that introduction. It’s great to be with the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance—which, for the record, has to be the among the coolest names of any group I’ve spoken to. The “alliance” is the key. It’s so much better than the Dynamic Spectrum Association. Seriously, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance sounds like something from Star Wars. And you certainly fit the galactic bill; as Commander Tagge said in Episode IV, the Alliance “is too well equipped. They’re more dangerous than you realize!” Indeed. Anyway, I’m a little gun-shy...

Federal Communications Commission Reaffirms Successful Light-touch Regulatory Framework for Broadband Services | site |



After Court Upheld Vast Majority of Restoring Internet Freedom Order, FCC Reviews Three Remanded Issues and Finds No Basis to Change Its Approach


(October 27, 2020) - - Today, October 27, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published the following information:

WASHINGTON, October 27, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted an Order on Remand in response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s remand of three discrete issues for further consideration by the FCC regarding its 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. The court’s October 2019 ruling in Mozilla Corp. v. FCC affirmed the FCC’s decision to end its brief foray into heavy-handed utility-style regulation of the Internet under rules designed in the 1930s for the Ma Bell telephone monopoly and to restore the light-touch...