Federal Communications Commission published a press release on 1 May 2019 that highlights the progress made to narrow the digital divide in America which was reported in the revised draft of the 2019 Broadband Deployment Report provided by the Wireline Competition Bureau. This was done "by removing barriers to infrastructure investment, promoting competition, and providing efficient, effective support for rural broadband expansion through our Universal Service Fund programs," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The report shows that progress has been made to improve higher-speed services and fixed terrestrial broadband connection particularly in rural areas that were lagging in the past. For example, the number of Americans who did not have access to fixed terrestrial broadband connection was declined from 26.1 million Americans at the end of 2016 to 21.3 million at the end of 2017. The FFC pointed out that approximately 4.3 million Americans in rural area were served by the high-speed connections.