News

Florida’s state broadband office is doling out $144 million in grants to 58 different broadband expansion projects across 41 Florida counties.

Earlier this month, a new Colorado bill was introduced that, if passed, would rid the state of a law designed to protect monopoly Internet service providers (ISPs) from competition.

In the second episode of our new Building for Digital Equity podcast, Gina Birch talks about how she trained digital navigators at the Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center in Cleveland to help enroll eligible households into the Affordable Connectivity Program, and why working with trusted messengers and organizations is key

The White House, in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Commerce Department, has kicked off a major push to get more of the estimated 52 million eligible households across the nation to take advantage of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Lewis County, Washington and the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) are making progress with their plan to deploy an open access fiber network that should dramatically boost broadband competition—and lower prices—county wide by 2026.

Summit County, Ohio says it’s making progress on a $75 million, 125-mile fiber-optic ring made possible courtesy of American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Our new podcast series – Building for Digital Equity – debuts today with an insightful conversation with Margaret “Meg” Kaufer, President of the STEM Alliance in Westchester County, New York.

New York City has scrapped its plan to build a promising open access fiber network. Not only did that stark reversal leave many partner ISPs high and dry after years of planning, some local community-run ISPs now say the city is forcing them to remove existing free service to affordable housing developments.

City Cast Las Vegas recently aired back-to-back podcast episodes about Internet access in the region. We wanted to share why we think these are well done and should serve as good lessons for others covering these issues.

Digital equity advocates rode into San Antonio, Texas for Net Inclusion 2023 to kick-off the largest gathering of the annual conference to date.

Last August, we launched the first version of our Affordable Connectivity Program dashboard. Now, two versions later, we're back with a 2.0 version of the dashboard. It still tracks everything it did before, but adds a mobile version, a Congressional District Map, and a more nuanced, complete predictive model to calculate how long the fund will last.

Net Inclusion 2023 begins tomorrow in sunny San Antonio, Texas. Join us to watch panels and breakout sessions planned for the all the diverse challenges and opportunities that make up the arena of digital equity and inclusion today, from skills training, to device access, to cost, to use in higher education, medicine, and aging in place.

Join us on Wednesday, March 1st at 7:30pm ET for a very special episode of the show, live from Net Inclusion 2023 in San Antonio, Texas. Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) will be joined by Kim McKinley (UTOPIA Fiber), Angela Siefer (National Digital Inclusion Alliance), Autumn Evans (City of Detroit), and ILSR's DeAnne Cuellar, and in front of a live audience at The Friendly Spot Icehouse.

Profile on the people behind Project Waves, a non-profit organization founded in 2018 to bring broadband to mostly low-income households in Baltimore City.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced it has awarded $63 million through its ReConnect Program to expand access to high-speed Internet service in rural parts of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Mississippi.

West Des Moines, Iowa is making steady progress on a $60 million open access fiber-optic conduit system to expedite the delivery of affordable fiber citywide.

Ziply Fiber has been increasingly active across Washington State, helping municipalities expand access to affordable, open access fiber networks.

After years of consideration and planning, Waterloo, Iowa is finally moving quickly forward with its plan to build a citywide municipal fiber network.

Joining nearly a thousand digital inclusion practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and researchers from across the nation, ILSR’s entire Community Broadband Networks (CBN) team will be in San Antonio, Texas at the end of this month for Net Inclusion 2023.

It’s not too late to register for our first Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) livestream event of the year. This Thursday, Feb. 16, from 2-3 pm CST/3-4 pm ET, ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative will kick off our Building for Digital Equity series.