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With uncertainty swirling around the future of BEAD and Digital Equity Act programs, the next Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) live stream is shaping up to be perhaps the most monumental one to date. “Charting the Course: Adapting to Policy Shifts While Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize” promises to bring hundreds of digital inclusion practitioners together to offer insights on how communities continue to move forward at a time when the programs established to do so have been tossed into disarray.

If the cloud of uncertainty suddenly hovering over federal broadband funding programs is lifted, four Tribal co mmunities in Alaska can fully celebrate an NTIA grant that will help bring state-of-the-art fiber connectivity to their homes on Kodiak Island just off the south coast of Alaska. Old Harbor Native Corporation will undertake the project, named Project Nunapet for an Alutiiq word meaning “our lands,” in partnership with Alaska Communications.

The 68,000 survey responses highlighted a critical need for Lifeline and ACP programs. Americans who relied on the ACP have struggled to find work, balance their budgets, and access healthcare, according to the NaLA survey.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled plans to improve public safety, housing, and the overall livability of the Big Apple, which includes $6 million in new funding to expand the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) “Neighborhood Internet” network. But the effort still remains a far cry from the bolder, bigger, “master plan” initiative scrapped by the Adams administration in 2022.

In Virginia, a partnership with a local private ISP and several nearby cooperatives to finally expand affordable fiber into long unserved portions of eight predominantly rural Virginia counties doesn’t appear to be working out all that well for Augusta County. All Points Broadband originally claimed it would have 267 miles of new fiber optic cable installed in Augusta County by the end of the 2024 calendar year. That hasn’t happened yet, and nobody appears to know why.

Now that the lengthy legal beef has been settled and New York’s Affordable Broadband Act is set to take effect this month, it marks a potentially pivotal moment for other states to follow and improve upon in addressing one of the biggest barriers to broadband adoption: affordability.

The doldrums of winter are upon us, which means that to counter the cold nights and grey skies we get another round of the American Council of Learned Society's Leading Edge Fellowship program.

Wadsworth, Ohio officials say they’re making steady progress on the expansion of a city-owned broadband network that’s extending affordable fiber connectivity to the city’s nearly 25,000 residents. Originally a coaxial-based network, the city now says it’s in the process of delivering Wi-Fi to many city residents while they go block-by-block removing older coaxial cable and upgrading residents to more future-proof fiber optic connectivity.

Sherwood Broadband recently secured a $9 million grant from the Oregon Broadband Office Broadband Deployment Program to continue expanding Sherwood’s municipally-owned network. The grant award is part of $132 million in federal Rescue Plan funds the state is doling out to an array of community-owned broadband initiatives for 16 projects across 17 counties.

Conexon Connect has completed its first fiber to the home project in Florida, a 2,000-mile network launched in partnership with Escambia River Electric Cooperative (EREC). Conexon noted that this was the sixth fiber project they’ve completed nationwide with fiber Internet access being delivered to 12,000 EREC members.

In the Northeastern part of Oklahoma, the OBO says it has partnered with several providers on fiber expansion, including a $1.4 million grant doled out to BOLT Fiber, a subsidiary of Northeast Rural Services, which is a division of Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative. The cooperative’s pricing – especially gigabit – is notably lower than what’s seen in many U.S. coastal urban markets, where a lack of competition among regional monopolies has driven up the cost of access while driving down service reach, speed, and overall quality.

New York State officials have unveiled the first round of broadband deployment grants made possible by the state’s $100 million Affordable Housing Connectivity Program (AHCP). The plan aims to drive affordable fiber and cheap Wi-Fi to low-income state residents trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.

In one of the most rural parts of the U.S., North Dakota is close to being the first state in the nation where every home and business has - or will soon have - access to fiber service, the gold standard of Internet connectivity. State broadband office claims $130 million from the infrastructure law will be enough to reach all of its broadband serviceable locations with fiber.

The City of Baltimore is using $2 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to bring fiber to 12 new city apartment buildings. It’s the latest effort in the city’s attempt to bridge the digital divide and bring affordable Internet access to long-marginalized communities.

Digital inclusion advocates are bracing themselves for an uncertain year ahead, as the incoming GOP regime takes aim at key aspects of the Digital Equity Act and the BEAD program. New Street Research policy advisor Blair Leven and NDIA's Angela Siefer offer insights on what to expect.

A growing number of ISPs in states like Minnesota say they may not participate in the BEAD program. A number of Minnesota ISPs are still bristling at BEAD’s requirements, according to Brent Christensen, president and CEO of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance, an organization that represents 70 ISPs across the North Star State.

North Carolina’s Roanoke Cooperative continues to make steady progress with expansion of its Fybe last mile fiber network within The Tar Heel State. Cooperative officials tell ILSR that the cooperative and a coalition of organizations across North Carolina have major expansion plans in the works, starting with a fiber build in Halifax County, population 47,298.

States wary about the restrictions and delays with looming federal broadband grants are poised to put significant taxpayer resources into Starlink and other low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. The problem: such services often aren’t affordable, raise environmental questions, and may struggle to keep pace with consumer capacity demand.

ILSR's Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance invite you to wear your ugly sweater and dive into what a post-Biden administration broadband world may look like. The final B4DE of the 2024 of the year features two prominent figures in this space: NDIA Executive Director Angela Siefer and New Street Policy Advisor Blair Levin.

The Boulder, Colorado city council has voted unanimously in favor of striking a $9 million deal with Nebraska based ALLO Communications that should ultimately provide fast fiber access to most of the city’s 330,000 residents. As per the deal, ALLO will provide broadband service to 80 percent of the city by 2028 and 97 percent of the city by 2030.