Karl Bode

Chicopee Electric Light (CEL) has chosen Sertex Broadband Solutions to help the Massachusetts-based municipal utility expand access to affordable fiber across the city of 55,000.

Two dozen California cities are making progress bringing affordable fiber to 16,500 new locations in the Golden State. The collaborative middle mile project, dubbed the Gateway Cities Council of Governments' (GCCOG) Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network Project, could revolutionize connectivity for a broad swath of Californians long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Traverse City, Michigan’s public, community-owned utility, Traverse City Light and Power (TCL&P), is putting the finishing touches on its $14 million plan to deliver affordable fiber to the community of 15,424. With build out estimates significantly lower than initial projections, the utility is finalizing an additional $1 million in loans to fund the recently started build.

Antelope Valley, California officials are hoping to leverage California’s historic recent round of broadband grant programs to deliver affordable fiber access to a significant swath of long-underserved southern California desert communities. According to Antelope Valley officials, they’ve applied for a $24.3 million California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Broadband Infrastructure grant to help them deliver symmetrical 10 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON) technology to 988 total households, most of which would be seeing affordable fiber access for the first time ever.

Fort Collins, Colorado’s popular Connexion municipal broadband network has unveiled SmartHome, a new network management app that can help the ISPs customers better manage the security and bandwidth-consumption of their home networks. SmartHome lets users see every connected device, set parental controls, prioritize bandwidth for work or entertainment, and guard against online threats through integrated security services like ExperienceIQ and ProtectIQ.

U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) have introduced a bill that would reauthorize the USDA’s ReConnect Loan and Grant program and expand the program to include Communications Union Districts. According to the announcement, the reauthorization would set a baseline of 100 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream and 100 Mbps upstream for broadband grants, up from the program’s dated 25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream current standard.

Decorah, Iowa has launched a public private partnership with West Union Trenching to deploy a modern fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network that passes every household in the city. The project is the culmination of decades of planning and frustration at the lack of affordable, next-generation broadband in the city of 7,500.

The Trump FCC has announced that it's taking formal steps to weaken or eliminate the rules as part of the agency’s broad, frontal assault on consumer protections. On October 30, the The Trump FCC under Brendan Carr voted in favor of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to eliminate or weaken the rules; especially requirements that ISPs transparently detail itemized fees buried in their advertised prices.

Superior, Wisconsin’s community-owned open access fiber network has gone live in its first two deployment neighborhoods, as the city works toward providing affordable next-generation fiber access to the city’s long under-served community of 26,000. The city’s open access network means that multiple broadband providers can compete over the same shared infrastructure and so far two independent ISPs are offering retail service to residents.

Conexon Connect, the ISP arm of fiber broadband builder Conexon, says it has completed its new fiber build in Cairo, Georgia in close collaboration with Grady Electrical Membership Corporation (EMC). It’s Connexon Connect’s seventh completed broadband fiber to the home project in Georgia and twelfth completed broadband network overall since the ISP was created in 2021.

The Trump administration's illegal “termination” of the 2021 Digital Equity Act continues to have devastating real world impacts on everything from affordable broadband access to protecting Americans from skyrocketing online scams. Earlier this month the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) also filed a lawsuit against the government, stating that “the administration’s unilateral decision to end the statutory program and terminate grant funding is unconstitutional and violates the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches as outlined in the Constitution.”

Critics say Fidium’s goal isn’t honest competition, but a bid to try to put the popular local municipal broadband network on shaky financial ground. Last fall Fidium, which had again completely ignored calls from the town for better service for years, began sending mailers out to locals, promising them broadband at speeds below what the town was offering.

Innovative digital equity nonprofit DigitalC is enjoying new momentum for its plans to expand fixed wireless broadband access in the city thanks to a $500,000 cash infusion from tech giant Google. According to an announcement by the nonprofit, the donation includes next-generation Fixed Wireless Access (ngFWA) equipment from Tarana, which will allow DigitalC to expand its Canopy home broadband service – which provides symmetrical 100 megabit per second (Mbps) at $18 a month – to even more neighborhoods in Ohio.

California lawmakers approved new legislation letting renters opt out of bulk-billing arrangements that force them to pay for Internet service from a specific provider. Lawmakers say they didn’t ban the practice for fear of undermining some of the more beneficial aspects of bulk billing, which can make deployments more financially tenable for smaller providers.

The Trump FCC has voted to kill two different programs that helped bring free Wi-Fi to school kids in underserved poor and rural U.S. communities. It’s the latest casualty of an administration that has been taking a brutal hatchet to FCC consumer protection and affordability initiatives, many of which were developed over decades – with popular bipartisan support.

The Maine Connectivity Authority has chosen Sertex Broadband Solutions to help build and manage a massive portion of the state’s 536-mile middle mile fiber network known as MOOSE Net. Sertex will engineer and construct a 450-mile segment of MOOSE NET on the back of a $30 million grant. The effort is expected to dramatically improve affordable broadband connectivity for 11,000 homes and businesses as well as 200 community anchor institutions, including rural Maine schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities.

The telephone cooperative-owned Paul Bunyan Communications in Northern Minnesota recently announced it was giving a $3.6 million profit windfall back to local community members. It’s the fourth such payout to local subscribers in the last seven years. For distributions of $150 or less, a credit was applied to subscriber’s bills. For sums greater than $150, the cooperative mailed checks out to locals.

Vermont’s Otter Creek Communications Union District not only recently finished its major fiber deployment, CUD leaders say the project came in significantly under budget, saving Vermont state leaders more than $3 million in taxpayer dollars. That money will now be redirected toward efforts to make access more affordable for state residents.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is poised to include new broadband affordability requirements as part of the state’s looming approval of Verizon’s massive $20 billion merger with Frontier Communications, even as some consumer advocacy groups worry the changes may not go quite far enough to hold Verizon accountable. The CPUC’s Public Advocates Office has struck a partial settlement with Verizon that the state hopes will take some of the sting out of the telecom industry’s latest consolidation spree.

Michigan-based Thumb Electric Cooperative says its ongoing fiber deployment has hit a new milestone: its 4000th connected broadband subscriber. The cooperative’s latest customer, Verona Hills Golf Course in Huron County, Michigan, comes three years after the cooperative joined the growing trend of expanding into broadband access.

The first installment of an ongoing series we are calling Connected Complex looks at how states, local communities, and Internet service providers are working to address the often complex challenges involved in bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units. In Massachusetts, state leaders have announced a new $31.5 million investment to bring reliable, high-speed Internet access to residents in affordable and public housing statewide by helping to update long outdated wiring in multiple-dwelling-units, many of which were built before the advent of the Internet.

Vineland, New Jersey officials say they’ve secured a $3.7 million grant from the state that will help expand fiber and wireless broadband access to the city of 62,000. Local officials are hopeful the grant is just the beginning steps toward dramatic expansion of affordable access.

Officials in Bountiful, Utah say they’ve completed the city’s $48 million open access fiber network a year ahead of schedule, bringing fast, affordable broadband access to the Salt Lake City suburb of 45,000. The city of Bountiful owns the network while UTOPIA designed, built and manages the network and takes a share of the revenue.

Syracuse, NY officials say the city’s community-owned broadband network Surge Link continues to dramatically expand two years after the network first launched, bringing affordable broadband access to the city of 145,000 – with a particular eye on helping the city’s disadvantaged. A recent update from the city states that the network now serves more than 9,200 households in Syracuse.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors recently announced that it has approved a list of new affordable housing sites that are eligible to receive free Internet for one year. According to the county, 556 low-income Sonoma County households across 10 different housing locations should qualify for the free broadband service.

The early story coming out of states like Tennessee, Colorado, and Texas, where state leaders are being forced to dramatically revamp billions of dollars in Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant planning, is a move away from future-proof fiber networks toward slower, more expensive satellite options that don’t seem likely to fix U.S. broadband woes. In all three states the changes have introduced new delays and lowered last mile quality control standards. But an early look at the revamped bidding process in all three states shows that millions of dollars are likely being redirected away from locally-owned fiber networks to billionaire-owned low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite broadband options insufficient to the task.

The Town of Dryden just signed up their 400th customer and continue to make steady progress expanding the popular network into rural enclaves in and around Dryden long deemed “unprofitable” by regional telecom monopolies. The first year and a half of operations focused on building the core fiber ring around the city. They’ve since shifted to the time-consuming task of extending last mile fiber access out to rural unserved and underserved homes in Dryden and nearby Caroline.

Isle au Haut has completed its municipally-owned fiber network with ample help from locals – and federal and state grants. After a decade of planning, several dozen residents of the island (with a summer population of around 300) recently celebrated a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 28, alongside build partners that included the Island Institute, Axiom Technologies, and Hawkeye Fiber Optics.

The Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC) says it has officially launched the construction of a major new residential fiber expansion project that should dramatically improve affordable fiber access across major swaths of Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana. According to an announcement by the co-op, mainline construction of the extended network technically started last April in the Haviland and Latty substation area, and extended during the month of June to the Roselm substation area.

From inaccurate broadband mapping data and an over-reliability on industry-provided coverage claims, to inconsistent broadband definitions and patchwork federal oversight, a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts examined decades of U.S. broadband policy, and data analysis and found plenty of room for improvement. Pew’s analysis of U.S. broadband data collection found numerous areas of concern that have been repeatedly brought up by researchers over the last few decades.

Hudson, Ohio officials are now accepting bids on a promising new fiber-to-the-home network that should dramatically improve affordable, next-generation broadband access in the city of 23,000. It’s just the latest effort by a city that has been exploring the option of municipal broadband infrastructure for more than a decade.

The FCC’s Universal Service Fund has survived a Supreme Court challenge by a right wing activist nonprofit, but the program – which for decades has helped extend broadband to underserved rural homes and schools – still faces a precarious immediate future. It is a peculiar political story, given that the rural regions that overwhelmingly vote for Republicans are now seeing Republicans try to dismantle a program that has been crucial for rural investment and development.

California lawmakers’ efforts to pass a new law mandating affordable broadband access is at risk of being destroyed by industry lobbying. California insiders say the changes are so dramatic they may wind up making broadband affordability in the state worse – undermining years of digital equity activism and discarding a rare opportunity to bridge the digital divide.

Empower Broadband, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virginia-based Mecklenburg Electrical Cooperative, says it has successfully deployed affordable fiber access to more than 7,500 subscribers across long-neglected and underserved portions of the Old Dominion state. Like many cooperatives, Mecklenburg and Empower are leveraging generations-old experiences at rural electrification to migrate into the broadband business.

Baltimore city leaders have issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a partner willing to help the city’s ongoing efforts to expand affordable broadband access to marginalized city residents. According to the RFP, the city’s latest efforts would help bring affordable, high-speed Internet to over 4,100 new housing units spread across eight different public housing communities.

The remote West Texas city of Monahans has spent the last decade taking matters into their own hands and now the city’s 7,500 residents are headed for the right side of the digital divide. The city’s network build is in partnership with Hosted America, which is acting as the first last mile ISP serving residents.

Clallam County, Washington and Astound Broadband have begun construction on a major new joint partnership that will bring affordable fiber access to more than 1,500 homes across the largely rural Northwestern part of The Evergreen State. The deployment is a joint collaboration between The Public Utility District (PUD) No. 1 of Clallam County, Astound Broadband, and the Northwest Open Access Network (NOANet), a nonprofit coalition developed by regional Washington Communications Utility Districts (CUD) to bring more reliable, affordable fiber access to neglected rural Washington communities.

Trump administration changes to the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program are poised to introduce years of potential new delays to the already slow-moving program, potentially undermining the program’s goal of bringing universal broadband access to mostly rural communities. Worse, the looming changes would eliminate efforts to ensure taxpayer-funded broadband is affordable for low-income Americans, while driving billions in new subsidies to the world’s richest man and Trump mega donor Elon Musk.

Oregon’s Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative just connected its 5,000th customer, marking a major milestone in the Oregon cooperative’s five-year-effort to bring affordable fiber access to rural state residents long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide. The recent celebration of the milestone featured a homeowner whose recent fiber connection came 80 years after the same cooperative first connected the home for electrical service.

Congressional Republicans are moving forward on a plan to kill a popular Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program providing free Wi-Fi to schoolchildren. Critics of the repeal say it’s a “cruel” effort that will undermine initiatives to bridge the affordability and access gap for families long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The Trump administration’s dismantling of a popular broadband grant program has been greeted with disgust and anger by those working to bridge the digital divide, leaving many states' planned broadband expansions in limbo, and affordable broadband advocates contemplating potential legal action. The unprecedented choice to destroy digital skills training and broadband adoption programs created by an act of Congress is seeing escalating pushback by a growing coalition of frustrated lawmakers and state broadband offices.

NextLight's locally-funded Internet Assistance Program is currently helping 14 percent more city subscribers than the federal Affordable Connectivity Program did at its peak. At the time the ACP was discontinued, 906 NextLight customers were receiving the federal discount. As of April 2025, NextLight’s own assistance program is helping 1,034 customers – a 14 percent increase in one year.

Construction crews have begun work on Fort Bragg’s long-awaited municipal fiber network, which will ultimately bring affordable fiber to the California city of 7,000. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $17 million. Of that, $10 million will be paid for by a Federal Funding Account (FFA) grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)

Grays Harbor PUD says it’s getting to work leveraging a $7 million grant from the Washington State Broadband Office to expand affordable fiber access in the South Elma, Porter, and Cedarville areas of the Evergreen State. Grays Harbor PUD was one of 16 Washington utilities chosen by the Washington State Broadband Office to receive grant funding during awards first announced back in 2023.

Timnath, Colorado's new municipal network has announced they’ve lit up their very first subscriber in partnership with the city of Loveland’s Pulse Fiber municipal broadband network. Inspired by Pulse, the Town of Timnath entered into an intergovernmental revenue-sharing agreement with Loveland’s ISP in August of 2023. Tinmath receives 25 percent of the network’s gross income, with an expected 2 to 6 percent return on capital investment over 20 to 30 years. The network is expected to be paid off in 25 years.

The City of Baltimore is making steady progress with several grant-fueled initiatives to deliver fiber and wireless to city apartment complexes to further expand affordable access. The city is putting the finishing touches on a Request for Proposal (RFP) to strike a new public-private-partnership with an as-yet-unselected broadband provider.

Vermont’s Otter Creek Communications Utility District (CUD) says it has completed its ambitious fiber deployment, bringing affordable access to more than 6,000 homes and businesses in the Rutland County region of the Green Mountain State. Otter Creek CUD leveraged grant funding to form a public-private partnership with Consolidated Communications.

Superior, Wisconsin officials say they’re getting very close to lighting up the first subscribers of a city-owned fiber network that will finally bring affordable, next-generation fiber access to the city’s long under-served community of 26,000. The city maintains that its ultimate goal is to connect every last city resident. Phase 1 of the network deployment is expected to cost $6.25 million, buoyed heavily by grants made possible by the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).