With approximately 15 percent of American households lacking access to high-speed Internet service in 2023,¹ a digital divide continues to persist in the United States. To bridge this digital divide, substantial public investments are underway to connect all Americans to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet services through a whole-of-government approach. Internet services are critical for daily communication, access to healthcare, education, and other services, and for full participation in the global economy. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plays a central role in accomplishing the ambitious yet necessary goal to connect all Americans to high-speed Internet.

The ACCESS BROADBAND Act, 2021² charged NTIA’s Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) with capturing data on federal broadband investments, including the number of United States residents receiving broadband services from Universal Service Fund (USF) programs or federal broadband support programs; and reporting on the local economic impact of broadband investments, including any impact on small businesses or jobs. OICG leads the annual process of requesting interagency broadband funding data to prepare the Federal Broadband Funding Report.

For the first time, this year's report not only will release a dashboard of major findings but will also include a comprehensive view of broadband investment data reported across the last three data collections -- reflecting broadband investments from FY 2020 to 2022. Past Federal Broadband Funding Reports included dashboards of selected charts, but this year's Federal Broadband Funding Report Dashboard allows Congress and the public to view trends across broadband funding types, purposes, agencies, and programs, as well as historical data on projected connections, where available.

The 2023 Federal Broadband Funding Report analyzes key findings from data collected from federal agencies related to their broadband investments in FY 2022, provides a summary of completed work on the data foundations for assessing the economic impact of broadband expansion, and offers recommendations for tracking future broadband investments and outcomes. To provide agencies the opportunity to demonstrate individual and programmatic broadband success stories, this report also includes Impact Illustrations, which are qualitative descriptions of programmatic impact. Voluntary data collected from digital inclusion programs, including Tribal data, are available in the Appendix of this report.

Funding Types

• Appropriated

  An agency is provided budget authority and can incur obligations for specified purposes.

• Obligated

  An agency has a legal liability to disburse obligated funds.

• Outlayed

  An agency has federal money paid out or spent, not just promised to be paid ("obligated"). For the purposes of this report, may also be referred to as “disbursed”.

Program Uses

• Planning, Data, and Mapping

  Grant or loan programs with funding for the planning of broadband initiatives (i.e., feasibility studies), or for capturing or plotting data on broadband deployment, availability, adoption, or usage. While these investments account for a relatively small portion of broadband funding, they help recipients assess and plan for broadband capabilities and support the efficient and effective use of funds.

• Infrastructure Deployment

  Funding for infrastructure development for high-speed transmission technologies, such as fiber, wireless, satellite, and cable.

• Digital Inclusion or Adoption

  Funding for activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of broadband Internet. This category includes Internet service subsidies; devices and equipment funding; public computer and Internet access funding; digital literacy, skills training, and workforce development training; telemedicine funding; and remote learning funding.