The Biden administration and state governments are poised to open the tap for billions of federal dollars pouring into connectivity projects.

This year marks a milestone during which states will begin receiving payouts from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment fund. The BEAD program, as it’s known, is a $42.45 billion state-grant effort authorized by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aimed at ensuring every American has access to high-speed internet.

“I think the thing that makes BEAD more interesting in 2024 is the fact that funding is finally going to roll out the door,” Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, told us.

She emphasized that it’s a “most unusual” program because it’s overseen by the federal government but implemented state by state. Over the last two years, states have been tasked with setting up broadband offices if they didn’t already have one (most didn’t) and formulating connectivity plans that will eventually designate subgrantees to build out the needed infrastructure, she said. The state plans were due to the Commerce Department in late December, setting the stage for funding to flow and projects to commence.

Bloomfield said that “2024 is going to be big, because we’re going to see some of the states, in particular, that were a little bit faster out of the box with some of their state plans, getting some of their allocated funding, and starting to build their projects, which prioritize bringing broadband to those consumers who are completely unserved.”

Bloomfield expects participants to range from long-established providers to small businesses and startups. Indeed, Cornell University and Pew researchers found that past broadband grants typically benefited regional providers over national ISPs.

“If you’ve ever thought you wanted to start a broadband company, now might be the time to do it,” she quipped.

Keep reading here.—KG

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Golden State residents will be the first in the nation to receive a new category of alerts flagging missing Black teens—but they probably won’t be the last.

The Ebony Alert system, which went live on Jan. 1, is designed to correct systemic flaws in how society identifies endangered Black teens, bill sponsor State Sen. Steven Bradford told us in an interview. The technology behind broadcast and mobile alerts has been around for decades, but it’s largely failed to address a subset of the population that missing-and-endangered alerts are intended to help.

“It came about by looking at the disparities in all the data that clearly identified African Americans, making up less than 13% of the state and the nation’s population, but almost 40% of the individuals who come up missing on a regular basis,” Bradford said.

He noted that Black teens are “constantly being miscategorized and identified as runaways, versus their white counterparts, who are often—[or] always—listed as missing or abducted. Very rarely do you see them listed as runaways.” Black minors are also more likely to be labeled as “juvenile prostitutes” than victims of human trafficking, he said, despite the high percentage of Black human trafficking victims.

This means that programs like the Amber Alert—which notifies people of a possible abduction through alerts on cell phones, transit billboards, and other means—can fail to catch a broad swath of endangered children and young adults.

Bradford said he saw the need for an alert that specifically elevates at-risk Black youth regardless of their circumstances.

Keep reading here.—KG

President Joe Biden recently signed a stopgap measure to get more 5G spectrum into the hands of businesses and consumers who need it, underscoring a longer-term hurdle to repurposing valuable communications airwaves.

The 5G Sale Act, enacted Dec. 20, temporarily authorized the Federal Communications Commission to finish distributing previously sold spectrum licenses that had been in limbo after the agency’s auction authority expired and Congress failed to renew it.

The law tied up a loose end that prevented tracts of wireless spectrum—necessary for carrying 5G signals and powering modern connectivity—from actually being handed over to buyers. During the last three decades, the FCC has conducted 100 auctions that put more than $233 billion into Treasury coffers with express permission from Congress—but that permission ran out in March.

“Louisiana’s job providers depend on wireless communications as they support rural economies. My 5G Sale Act will provide crucial broadband access by giving the FCC the authority to finish transferring previously auctioned spectrum to companies that offer 5G coverage,” bill sponsor Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement.

During a September Senate hearing, Kennedy pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on why the agency couldn’t dole out the sold licenses without an active auction authorization. Rosenworcel agreed the situation was “unfair” to the spectrum buyers, but said the statutory language that underpins the FCC’s mission and authority is ironclad, and that the agency couldn’t act until Congress renewed the authorization. Kennedy then floated the idea for his bill to “solve the immediate problem.”

He said that bill would be followed by another to renew the FCC’s full auction authority.

Keep reading here.—KG

Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

Don’t follow the algorithm: Hello! Tech Brew Editor Annie Saunders here. It’s the first week of the new year, so we’ll not get too serious. We’ll just have a think about something on the internet. Let’s talk about our algorithms.

I eschewed most social media in early 2016 for what I am sure are obvious reasons, but I’m still on Instagram. Apart from photographs and videos of my friends and family, all I want is posts about food and drink (all types—cakes to bake, stews to simmer, cocktails to mix, cookware to purchase); animals (largely cats and dogs, but for a large portion of 2023 I was being served a lot of posts about beavers and I didn’t hate it); craft projects (think sewing hacks, senseless little trinkets that can be made with household items); and memes curated by the writer Samantha Irby.

But we all know the algorithm doesn’t always give us what we want. I get a lot of ads for makeup I don’t wear and high heels I cannot wear, but that matters not to the algorithm.

Recently, the algorithm decided—and yes, I recognize I’m anthropomorphizing the algorithm here, but know that I know that the blame lies solely at the feet of Big Tech companies and advertisers—to show me a lot of posts of individuals using small cameras to remove earwax from inside their own ears. Not, like, at a doctor’s office. At home.

Now, I am sure it goes without saying, but this is horrifying to stumble across when you’re just happily thumbing through pics of soup and kittens.

Additionally—and I’m sure this also goes without saying!—it’s a super bad idea.

The Atlantic recently investigated this vile trend and spoke to some doctors who insisted that earwax removal is not a DIY project, no matter how many times you’re advertised an earwax-removal camera with an accompanying video of *shudders* earwax removal.

I don’t know if badly behaved algorithms are a fixable problem. In the meantime, don’t put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear—especially if you bought it on TikTok.