News

Now that the election has been settled, many in the broadband space are wondering what, if anything, will change with the incoming Trump administration. We have to entertain the possibility that BEAD will change substantially.

At their core, maps are about using data to tell a story. And we may be biased, but we love a good map about the Internet around here. Hexes, polygons, heat maps: they're all equally as good. Whether in service to educating the public, or making a policy point, or helping local leaders make more informed choices as they work for the collective good, maps can be a powerful tool. Come and join us on a journal during the month of November, as we build 30 maps about the Internet in 30 days.

Today, we unveil our updated list of the 16 states in the U.S. with preemption laws still in place that either prevent or restrict local municipalities from building and operating publicly-owned, locally-controlled networks. These states maintain these laws, despite the fact that wherever municipal broadband networks or other forms of community-owned networks operate, the service they deliver residents and businesses almost always offers faster connection speeds, more reliable service, and lower prices.

For many in the broadband and digital equity space, keeping up with “the maps” has been a long and arduous topic. Especially with the commencement of the BEAD program and state-level map challenges, we think it’s safe to say many feel frustrated or even horrified at what they find lurking within maps of Internet access. With Halloween upon us, we thought we'd take a short break from dwelling on such a tricky topic and instead offer you a treat.

Placerville, California will soon be a place with a municipally-owned open-access fiber network as the city of 10,000 looks to provide its residents and businesses with local choice and more affordable broadband service. Thanks to a $20.1 million award from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) Grant Program – a city that was once nicknamed “Hangtown” is now set to cut the noose of the ISP monopoly.

Montgomery County Maryland has been awarded the “Best Municipal or Public Connectivity Program,” honored as a 2024 Broadband Nation Award winner for its ongoing efforts to expand affordable broadband access and help bridge the digital divide. Montgomery Connects Program Director Mitsuko Herrera tells ILSR that the county just received a $10 million grant from the State of Maryland to expand FiberNet and MoCoNet’s free 300 Mbps offering to 1,547 low-income and affordable housing units at seven properties operated by the County’s Housing Opportunities Commission.

Timnath, Colorado officials have broken ground on a new $20 million fiber network that should dramatically expand affordable fiber access to the town of 7,100 residents. Working in partnership with the city of Loveland’s Pulse Fiber, the project has been several years in the making, and – as with most of the successful municipal operations in Colorado – was fueled by ongoing public frustration with the speed, availability, and cost of monopoly-dominated regional broadband access.

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.