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Oregon Picks New BEAD Winners After Four Bidders Retreat
The Oregon Broadband Office has announced the preliminary awardees selected to assume BEAD projects that were voluntarily declined by their original awardees. The new awardees include a municipal broadband provider and an electric cooperative. According to an OBO announcement, four of the state’s original BEAD awardees declined a total of 15 projects prior to the state’s June 10 Notice of Intent to Award acceptance deadline.
Broadband Communities Names Its 2026 Provider of the Year Shortlist — and It's Not the Usual Suspects
Eight community and independently-owned networks are in the running for this year’s Broadband Provider of the Year Award. The winners will be revealed live during a special awards ceremony at the end of Day 1 at this year’s summit, which will be held on August 26 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
Indiana Awards $250,000 In New Internet Access Grants
While the grant amounts are relatively small, they’re a big deal to the small independent providers and member-owned cooperatives who received them. The grant awards have been made possible by the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), featuring $250,749 in new Internet access grants that will connect 63 new locations across 21 counties in The Hoosier State.
IN OUR VIEW: Statement on Federal Court Decision to Reinstate Digital Equity Act Grant Funding
Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), issues statement in response to yesterday’s federal court ruling that Digital Equity Act programs should resume.
AT&T vs California: The Life-and-Death Battle Over Landline Service
California residents are engaged in a protracted, ugly battle with telecom giant AT&T over their ability to receive life-saving communications during an emergency. The battle comes as the telecom monopoly attempts to eliminate most meaningful oversight of the company’s communications networks, actively putting human lives – and state rights – at risk.
California Greenlights Another $18.2 Million For Affordable Broadband
California and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) continue to heavily invest in state efforts to expand affordable Internet access, and bolster digital equity, inclusion, and education programs to ensure freshly-connected communities are able to make the most of it. According to a new announcement by the CPUC, the agency has freshly approved $14.7 million in California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account funding for four fiber-optic broadband projects in rural Northern California.
Rural Cooperatives Frustrated With NTIA BEAD Changes
Earlier this month rural electric and broadband cooperatives gathered in Washington, DC, for their fifth-annual Broadband Leadership Summit. The topic du jour was broadly unpopular changes made by the NTIA to the Broadband, Equity, Deployment, and Access program (BEAD) created by the 2021 infrastructure bill. Cooperatives attending the event expressed concerns at a number of cumbersome new bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the NTIA. Most prominently discussed was the NTIA’s decision to impose new pole attachment regulations on cooperatives that have historically been exempt.
Beyond the Fiber: Vermont's Community Network Model Aims to Improve Lives One Hub at a Time
New Community Technology Center expands digital access, remote work, telehealth, education, and high-speed Internet opportunities in rural Vermont. The initiative, funded on the back on a $2.9 million USDA Community Connect Grant, includes 2 gig symmetrical fiber connectivity to five different hubs: one in the town clerk’s office, one in the town garage, fire department, with the fifth hub located inside the Ryegate Library, in the town neighboring Groton.
Lawmakers Press Trump Admin To Stop Waffling On BEAD ‘Non Deployment Funds’
Lawmakers are pushing the Trump administration to stop being murky on whether states will be able to access tens of billions in “non-deployment funds” mandated by Congress that have been temporarily hijacked by the administration’s unpopular changes to a once-in-a-lifetime federal grant program to expand high-speed Internet access. Representative April McClain Delaney (D-MD) is the latest politician to send a letter to the Trump NTIA asking for competent guidance on what will happen to the estimated $21 billion in “non deployment funds” suddenly stuck in limbo.
Digital Equity Act Program Can Proceed Without Race Criteria, Trump Attorneys Say
The administration urged the court to rule immediately in NDIA v. Trump, while plaintiffs disputed whether the issue can be resolved at this stage. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Bates, Commerce Department attorney Patrick Butler argued that a statutory provision identifying certain racial and ethnic groups as “covered populations” could be severed from the law if found unconstitutional, allowing the rest of the program to move forward without considering race.
Glades Electric Cooperative Completes New Fiber Network
Moore Haven, Florida-based Glades Electric Cooperative has completed a long-planned fiber broadband network into largely unserved parts of the Sunshine State. The 1,600-mile network, built in conjunction with Conexon Connect, now spans Glades, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee counties, and the vast majority of the cooperative’s electrical footprint.
In The Verge: Elon Musk and the plot to hijack America’s broadband
Today, The Verge published an in-depth piece authored by our own Sean Gonsalves and ILSR contributor Karl Bode that examines the BEAD program from its inception to the boondoggle its become. The piece details how the once-in-a-generation program meant to solve America’s digital divide has devolved into “a flaming mess.”