News

Among the burgeoning number of Tribal networks being built across Indian Country, a new fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network spanning the Southern Ute Indian Reservation is unique. When service was lit up in Ignacio, Colorado in May, the network became the only open access network owned by a Tribal government, providing its residents with a choice between two different Internet Service Providers (ISP) offering lightning-fast connection speeds.

Frustrated by years of substandard broadband service from regional telecom monopolies, Kendall County, Illinois has entered into a public-private partnership with Pivot-Tech to bring a combination of fixed wireless and fiber to county residents. Kendall County officials tell ILSR that the full cost of the network, which will include private investment from Pivot-Tech, is expected to ultimately be $67 million, serving more than 13,000 locations county wide.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, ILSR celebrates the growing number of Tribal nations exercising digital sovereignty by building Tribally-owned broadband networks. Our freshly updated Indigenous Networks map and census highlights the burgeoning Tribal broadband movement, offering a window into this critical work across Indian Country. Our updates underscore how much has changed since 2020 when ILSR first undertook research on Tribal networks.

The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) is seeking proposals to help design and construct a major 536-mile fiber middle network that should dramatically improve affordable fiber access across vast swaths of the Pine Tree State. The RFP process closed on September 30 and partner selection will be completed by late October. Designs will be completed and presented to MCA in early 2025, and from that point construction is expected to take around two years to complete.

The American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) has launched a mentorship program that will pair communities interested in building publicly-owned, locally controlled broadband networks with cities and towns that have successfully done so. The AAPB mentorship program is the second major tool that the national nonprofit organization has created this year to assist communities in advancing a model that typically leads to lower prices, faster speeds, and more reliable service for end-users.

As Digital Inclusion Week 2024 swings into action, frontline digital inclusion practitioners from across the nation will come together for a timely Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) livestream event today that focuses on “Coalition Building for Success.” The keynote speaker for the third #B4DE will be Georgia Savage, Deputy Director of #OaklandUndivided, who helped lead the way to securing $38.5 million in grant funding last week that will expand broadband infrastructure and distribute Internet-connected devices to thousands of low-income households across East and West Oakland, California.

The Central Alabama Electric Cooperative and the Farmers Telecommunications Corp. were among winners in Alabama's latest round of grant funding awards to expand broadband access.

In the face of nationwide labor shortages, Vermont state broadband officials launch two apprenticeship programs to beef up its broadband workforce to help build out fiber networks across the state. Earlier this week, the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) announced the launch of a new Fiber Optic Apprenticeship Program officials say will put “participants to work right away, allowing them to learn on the job and earn a paycheck from the start.”

Choptank Electric Cooperative says the Denton, Maryland-based co-op is making significant progress on efforts to deliver fiber access to largely underserved residents of the Old Line State. The cooperative says it has passed more than 13,000 locations statewide.

ILSR Community Broadband Networks (CBN) team has kicked off a new initiative deep in the heart of Texas we are calling the Digital Opportunity Lab. the Digital Opportunity Lab is a customizable hands-on program designed to support digital equity coalitions and community leaders amid a national effort to unlock the social and economic benefits of broadband for all.

Indio, California has been awarded a $9 million state grant the city will use to expand affordable broadband access. An incorporated city located in Riverside County and home to 92,000 residents, the city will use the grant to deliver gigabit-capable fiber to 479 unserved locations and an estimated 3,632 unserved local residents.

A California telecom and electrical cooperative says the state’s ongoing last-mile broadband grant program will help deploy affordable fiber to multiple communities across four heavily unserved and underserved California counties. The cooperative says it’s poised to receive roughly $67 million in FFA grants to expand affordable broadband to roughly 6,600 unserved and underserved locations across Sierra, Plumas, Lassen, and Nevada Counties.

BEAD will help build the physical networks necessary to connect the millions of households that still lack access to high-speed Internet service, but will it make a difference if if financially-strapped subscribers still can’t afford a plan? BEAD's low-cost plan requirement sought to ease concerns about affordability, triggering debates between industry leaders and federal and state officials over how BEAD addresses, or not, the affordability crisis.

The Oklahoma Broadband Office (OBO) and ecoLINK Fiber Services recently announced the commencement of two different broadband expansion efforts that aim to bring affordable fiber to unserved homes and businesses in the rural northeastern corner of the Sooner State. A commencement celebration of the project launch was held in the town of Slick in Creek County.

The North Carolina nonprofit telephone cooperative FOCUS Broadband nabbed $5.4 million in grant funding to extend its fiber network to unserved portions of Chowan and Perquimans counties. Of the total $5.4 million in total state funding, FOCUS says that $1.9 million will be used to expand high-speed Internet service to over 300 addresses in Chowan County, with $3.4 million of the funds being utilized to bring high-speed Internet service to an additional 588 addresses in Perquimans County.

Today we release a complete redesign of our longstanding Community Networks Map. It shows where municipal networks are located across the United States and how they are bringing new, more affordable service and competition to communities around the country, including networks operated by over 400 municipally owned Internet service providers covering more than 700 communities. A third of those networks provide high-speed Internet access to nearly every address in the communities where they are located.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board this week unanimously approved the creation of a new “long drop program” to bring fiber service to low income households. The new program will use $2.5 million in leftover federal Rescue Plan funds to subsidize the cost of connecting low-income households in high-cost locations.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced that the District is poised to use $61.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to “support the construction of community facilities” and expand affordable broadband to underserved communities.

With Digital Inclusion Week 2024 only a month away, registration is open for the next Building for Digital Equity livestream event on October 7. The theme will be “Coalition Building for Success” and will bring together hundreds of frontline digital inclusion practitioners from across the nation to delve into how coalitions are finding success in pushing the digital equity movement forward

Harrison County, Texas officials say they’re poised to use the county’s remaining Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to strike a fiber expansion partnership with Etex Communications, a subsidiary of the locally-owned Etex Telephone Cooperative. The Harrison County Commissioners Court says it’s putting the finishing touches on a $4.5 million public-public partnership with Etex that will help deliver fiber access to the Western end of the heavily underserved Texas county with the help of $1.5 million in federal ARPA funds.