News

EMPOWER Broadband, a subsidiary of Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative, is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to waive financing requirements attached to the provider’s takeover of thousands of subsidized broadband locations from RiverStreet Networks. It’s a move the cooperative says will save it millions of dollars in errant additional penalties and puts a spotlight on the ongoing challenges facing a program that has long been criticized for dysfunction and mismanagement.

In the latest episode of the Building for Digital Equity Podcast, ILSR's Digital Equity Coordinator Jordan Pittman sits down with advocates from the Reproductive Health Initiative for Telehealth Equity and Solutions (RHITES) to discuss the importance of addressing barriers to telehealth.

On July 24, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-7 that the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional. The decision throws a whole raft of federal broadband programs - including those which help schools pay for connectivity, those which help homes pay for home Internet access, and more - into a state of uncertainty.

Central Virginia Electric Cooperative’s (CVEC) Firefly Broadband subsidiary has been awarded a new $12.2 million grant from the state of Virginia. The award will help fund a major update to an already massive effort to extend affordable broadband to vast swaths of rural Virginia. The $12.2 million in Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI) grant funding will be used to help fund a broader $48.6 million partnership with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Dominion Energy, and county governments.

A new report published today by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) reveals how the sovereignty of Tribal Nations and their own efforts to solve connectivity challenges on Tribal lands can be undermined by the poor design and maze of bureaucracy associated with some federal broadband programs.

Consumer Reports’ latest survey of the most popular ISPs in America is once again dominated by smaller providers and community-owned and operated broadband networks. The magazine’s semi-paywalled report measured the opinions of 48,000 readers on a 100 point scale across four criteria: value for money, connection reliability, customer service, and speed.

Imperial, Lassen, and Plumas Counties are among the first recipients of California’s $2 billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA). The cities of Oakland, Fremont, and San Francisco have also been awarded significant state awards. All told, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) awarded 11 FFA grants totaling over $86.6 million.

Vermont CUD Northwest Fiberworx (NWFX) has received a $20.2 million infusion in state American Rescue Plan Act dollars to extend affordable fiber broadband into long-underserved regions of the Green Mountain State. Its latest build will connect 3,800 unserved and underserved households in Franklin and Grand Isle counties in the Northwest part of the state.

As states gear up to administer federal BEAD funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law, a handful of states are already making significant investments in municipal broadband using federal Rescue Plan dollars. California, Maine, Vermont, and New York have each established grant programs that center municipal broadband projects (mostly fiber builds) – with New York being the most recent state to announce more than $70 million in awards through its ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program (MIP).

The call for applications for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Marjorie and Charles Benton Opportunity Fund is open. Deadline is August 31.

The towns of Dryden and Caroline, New York have been awarded a new $8.9 million broadband grant courtesy of the New York State ConnectALL program to help deliver affordable fiber Internet service to residents of both towns. Launched two years ago, Dryden officials have told ISLR they’re making steady inroads on municipally-owned fiber deployment to the town of 14,500. Now they’re looking to expand the popular local broadband network further into the town of nearby Caroline.

The word is out: what began as a three-day intensive learning experience focused on building and running Tribal Internet networks has become a can’t-miss gathering of broadband-minded Tribal leaders coming together to “shore up historic disparities in connectivity in Indian Country.” The Associated Press shined a spotlight on the most recent bootcamp, which last month was once again convened at the southern California ranch of TBB co-founder Matthew Rantanen.

After a three year "Herculean effort," trucks are rolling into Lamoille County to officially kick-off construction of a community-owned network bringing locals fiber for the first time ever, in public-private partnership with Consolidated Communications. Phase 1 will connect 4,170 addresses by the end of 2024 with Phase 2 slated to be finished by 2025.

In recent months a growing list of additional providers have been added to the list of RDOF defaults. Meanwhile, the FCC says the sooner the mess created by widespread defaults is cleaned up, the sooner regions can ensure they’re well positioned to receive what could be a generational outpouring of financial assistance.

The City of Centennial, Colorado is making steady inroads bringing affordable fiber Internet service to the city of 106,000, leveraging its city-owned fiber backbone and a partnership with the Charlottesville, VA.-based fiber provider Ting. Voter-approved efforts to get out from under the thumb of regional monopolies have driven a surge of competition in the city, most recently exemplified by Ting’s continued delivery of affordable gigabit fiber.

Experts express concern that federal support for municipal broadband is limited, prompting uncertainty about future funding and operational sustainability. At a Fiber for Breakfast event Wednesday, Tyler Cooper, editor-in-chief of Broadband Now, said that Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants are less promising for municipal broadband deployments despite initial promises.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania is in the final steps of shutting down the city’s fledgling municipal broadband network as it pivots to a new public private fiber deployment partnership with Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel). Late last year city officials announced they’d selected Shentel with an eye on ensuring uniform broadband availability to the city of 57,000.

State broadband officials in Massachusetts have announced over $45 million in grant awards from the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Gap Networks Program with the lion’s share going to Verizon, leaving some local officials scratching their heads. One municipal network received just over $750,000.

This week’s episode features a conversation with Walter Gabino Rendon, Chief Program Officer at the STEM Alliance, who shares insights into the organization's efforts to bridge the digital divide in Westchester County, New York.

Cooperatives and Tennessee municipal broadband projects have nabbed a respectable chunk of Tennessee's latest round of middle and last mile broadband grants. Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) recently announced the state had awarded more than $162.7 million in broadband and digital opportunity grants, funded primarily via federal COVID relief legislation.