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 Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will host a four-day Tribal Broadband Bootcamp on the Tribe's Marquette campus in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in August. It will be the second held in the Great Lakes region, designed primarily for members of 36 federally recognized Tribes across Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Participants will be reimbursed for travel costs, room and board, and meals.

ILSR publishes new piece in The American Prospect on how the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" cuts food assistance benefits to households that pay for internet access.

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.

ILSR publishes new piece in ProMarket on the continuing consolidation of telecommunication markets and why municipal broadband is a better option.

If you missed our Building for Digital Equity “Wired for Freedom” Livestream, you can watch it in its entirety here. The second UTOPIA Fiber-sponsored event of the year, hosted in partnership with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), brought together community-based digital inclusion practitioners and policy experts to talk about the road ahead for expanding broadband access amid a rapidly shifting political landscape.

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.

On Tuesday, July 1, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and National Digital Inclusion Alliance will present the next Building For Digital Equity event - Wired For Freedom: Digital Access and the American Dream. It will run from 3:00 - 4:15 ET.

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.

Maine Connectivity Authority President Andrew Butcher leads five-day “Driving Connections” tour to highlight broadband infrastructure investments the state has made to bring high-speed Internet access to 86,000 homes and businesses over the past several years and rally support for future work. The first stop on the tour is today, at the Woodstock Library, where Butcher and his team will meet with the town’s librarian, the town manager, and a digital navigator to hear how the state broadband office can continue to support community-based digital inclusion work in western Maine.

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.