News

ILSR publishes new piece in Tribal Business News on how the future of tribal broadband has quietly but fundamentally shifted over the last few months. A recent announcement by the Trump administration upended the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, canceling over $160 million in announced grants and leaving nothing but questions about the hundreds of millions of dollars remaining in the program.

Lamoille FiberNet's $24 million public-private partnership with Fidium Fiber to deliver fiber broadband access to nearly every deliverable address in Lamoille County has been completed. The collaboration resulted in the deployment of 550 miles of fiber, resulting in gigabit-capable next-generation broadband access being made available to 5,000 unserved or underserved addresses across the county.

In 2025, we saw seven new municipal broadband networks across the country that were lit up for service. As is usual, it was a mixture of partnerships, business models, and construction approaches to meet the unique challenges of a patchwork broadband landscape.

Kitsap Public Utility District continues to expand its popular open access fiber network, bringing affordable next-generation broadband access to island locals. An updated KPUD case study indicates that the existing network is currently comprised of more than 900 miles of fiber, with 21 new distribution nodes coming online early 2026. That node expansion is being heavily aided by $6.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

The free event, featuring Keller & Heckman attorneys Sean Stokes and Casey Lide, will focus on the most pressing legal considerations facing community broadband projects, partnerships, and compliance. The discussion will be moderated by Sean Gonsalves of ILSR and Gigi Sohn, executive director of AAPB, who will guide the conversation designed to draw out practical insights for local governments, utilities, cooperatives, and broadband advocates.

The city of Williston, Florida is joining the ranks of municipalities across the nation that are building their own fiber broadband networks with an eye on ubiquitous, affordable access. City leaders say they’re preparing to launch a city-owned $4.6 million fiber optic ISP to break the local telecom monopoly logjam and finally provide fast, affordable access to the local populace.

Alton, Illinois officials say they’ve struck an expanded agreement with AltonWorks, a company built specifically to revitalize the city and deal with residents’ longstanding frustration at the lack of affordable, next-generation broadband access. Altonworks is partnering with i3 Broadband, which broke ground on a new $25 million FiberNet project. FiberNet is projected to reach 94 percent of the city's residents with fiber broadband speeds up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps).

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.

“Digital Equity Unwrapped” – a special livestream bringing together advocates and broadband-for-all leaders who spent 2025 pushing for a more connected and inclusive nation – is slated for next Wednesday, December 17, beginning at 3 pm ET. Attendees will have screen-side seating for a virtual fireside chat with NDIA executive director Angela Siefer and American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) executive director Gigi Sohn, two leaders who have shaped national conversations around broadband, digital inclusion, and local power.

With nearly $500 million still available in the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, recent announcements from the Trump Administration about how the program will move forward raised more questions than it answered, and only seemed to confirm many of the fears Tribal leaders had about the direction of the program. The announcement raised fears that NTIA may decrease investment in future-proof technologies, throw up hurdles for Tribal nations still wrestling with bad data, force Tribes to accept subpar solutions through the BEAD program, and weaken Tribal consent requirements.

Since 2011, a new study finds that Chattanooga's city-owned fiber network has generated $5.3 billion in net community benefits for Hamilton County. Conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the study finds that the municipal fiber network has dramatically reshaped the regional economy, supporting 10,420 jobs from 2011 to 2024 – about 31 percent of all net new jobs created locally over the past decade.

A new study shows that the now expired Affordable Connectivity Program helped low-income Americans get better access to jobs, with particularly strong effects for women. The ACP program ended in May 2024 – thanks to GOP Congressional leaders blocking efforts to allocate additional money when the fund was depleted. Still, the study remains relevant as affordability advocates continue to look for ways to fund a similar program in the future.

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.

A city utility manager, an economist, and a fiber technologist walk into a virtual webinar … And what followed was a deep dive into why delaying investment in smart city infrastructure is increasingly costly. Panelists emphasized how “smart cities” are built on fiber networks and what city investments in the gold-standard of Internet connectivity can do to boost economic development while improving the quality of life for local residents and businesses.

The Commerce Department has approved 18 final spending plans under its $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. One state, Louisiana, had access to its funding, according to the agency. NTIA approval is one of the last steps before states and territories can start signing contracts and projects can get underway. Louisiana had gone through the remaining reviews and had access to its BEAD deployment funding Tuesday, NTIA said.

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.

The Pueblo of Jemez Tribal community was honored with a Project Excellence Award for its efforts to build-out a fiber network to reach hundreds of Tribal households, government buildings and businesses. Since January of 2024, JNET has been constructing its fiber-to-the home (FTTH) network, building-out more than 45 miles of fiber to date. More than 40 homes have already been lit up for service with the project expected to be finished in 2026.