News

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.”

On July 7 at 12 noon ET, the next installment in the joint webinar series from the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) will go live and showcase a new financing and governance model being put into real-world action that allows for communities to control their digital futures. The conversation will be grounded in two case studies — Kendall County and Lewiston — that illustrate what it actually takes to move a community fiber project from idea to operating network, using a creative “63-20” tax-exempt bond model championed by Pivot-Tech Development, which specializes in public-private partnerships for community-owned broadband networks.

California community leaders, activists, and a coalition of partners gathered earlier this month to celebrate the launch of a new broadband infrastructure project at Sequoia Courts and Sequoia Courts Terrace in Fresno, bringing free high-speed Internet access to more than 350 residents. The Fresno grant was for $471,000, with $1,000 or less per unit cost to build, according to details on the project included in a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) filing, which notes that the enterprise-grade wireless mesh network used in the project was more costly, but provided “flexibility and scalability for future expansion.”

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance today released its comprehensive 2026 census of Tribal Internet networks, finding that the number of active Tribal-owned and operated broadband networks has doubled since ILSR first conducted this research in 2020, while offering a new way to interact with these networks’ stories.

Trump Federal Communication Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has announced vague potential changes to the FCC’s E-Rate program that could harm program funding, effectiveness, and the overarching goal of bringing affordable Internet access to long-neglected schools and rural communities trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide. The reforms come as Carr also looks to make changes to the FCC’s broadband mapping efforts, something consumer groups say could harm the government’s ability to measure which communities need improved, affordable access, or suffer from a pronounced lack of broadband competition.

Today, the American Prospect published an analysis authored by our own Sean Gonsalves that examines how a recently filed bill in California aims to strip telecommunications oversight authority away from the California Public Utilities Commission and undermines the state's effort to make broadband more affordable.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams – a non-voting member of the New York City Council with the right to introduce and co-sponsor legislation – released a detailed “Get Connected” report calling “for the city to deliver high-speed, low-cost citywide municipal Internet service akin to a public utility.” The 53-page report lays the policy groundwork for what at least has the potential to become the Mamdani administration's signature infrastructure initiative.

Grays Harbor Public Utility District (PUD), a wholesale open access telecom utility in Washington state, will soon enter phase four of an ambitious fiber expansion project that will bring affordable next-gen broadband access to rural residents written off by the monopolies that were supposed to serve them. The PUD also says that Phase 4 of the PUD’s fiber internet expansion in south Elma, Porter and Cedarville will be reached later this Spring, bringing access to locals who have been waiting for years for faster, more reliable, and more affordable service.

The California State Assembly recently voted 67-1 to strip telecom oversight authority away from the CPUC and shift it to a more easily lobbied state legislature – and an as-yet-undefined state broadband office. The effort still has a long road before it’s formalized. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9, authored by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, D-Encinitas, now moves on to the California Senate, where it needs to secure a two-thirds vote before appearing on a statewide ballot before California voters.

UTOPIA Fiber says it deployed more than a million feet of fiber and conduit across Utah last year accumulating 67,000 total subscribers, as the collaborative open access fiber provider continues to make steady inroads in transforming the state’s broadband competition landscape. According to a new update by the organization, UTOPIA not only laid a million feet of fiber across Utah last year, the network continues to see steady subscriber growth and profitability.

In the marathon to bring universal high-speed Internet service to the most rural state in the nation, Vermont is heading into the last-mile stretch of the race with the finish line in sight. While federal grant programs from the American Rescue Plan Act and BEAD have been vital, advocates and community providers have long insisted that building the infrastructure is only half the battle. Getting people connected – and keeping them connected – requires tackling affordability head-on, as Vermont broadband leaders are doing with the state’s CUDs, demonstrating that community ownership and affordability can go hand in hand.

Leading members of the fiber industry descended on Orlando, Fla. this week for the Fiber Broadband Association's annual Fiber Connect conference to take stock of a national inflection point fueled by the federal BEAD program and the all-consuming rise of AI. Themed “Light Years Ahead,” the underlying take-away was that the buildout boom is far from over and the easy part is mostly behind us, according to numerous reports from those in attendance.

The city of Longmeadow, Massachusetts has failed to get a two-thirds voting majority necessary to move forward with its plan to deploy affordable fiber to every city resident. The vote comes after local telecom monopolies were caught funding an out of town dark money nonprofit to sow doubt about the benefits of the project in the minds of the local electorate.

Consumer and civil rights groups last week told the Trump administration that their proposed “reforms” of the FCC’s Lifeline program would undermine efforts to ensure equitable, affordable access to the internet for all Americans, and are based on lies about immigrant fraud. Joint comments to the FCC filed this month (first spotted by Light Reading) by consumer groups including Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) added to the chorus of criticism of the proposed changes, pointing out that the biggest abusers of the Lifeline program aren’t immigrants and poor minorities, but private companies.

Locals in Longmeadow, Massachusetts say they’re being bombarded with misleading mailers, texts, and phone calls from a telecom-industry linked group trying to mislead the public ahead of a key vote on the city’s plan to begin construction of a municipal broadband fiber network today. Longmeadow residents are voting today (May 12) on whether to approve an $8.6 million loan to construct the first phase of what will ultimately be a town-wide fiber broadband network.

The Okanogan County Electric Cooperative and the Okanogan County Public Utility District say they’re making steady progress on bringing affordable fiber broadband access to Okanogan County, a highly rural stretch of rugged land in Washington state on the border of Canada. The coalition is poised to bring next-generation fiber to as many as 1,366 peppered along the upper Methow Valley this year starting near Chewuch River and ending at Lost River. Many of these areas will be seeing fiber upgrades for the first time ever after years stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

In yet another bruising blow in the fight to ensure equitable access to high-speed Internet service, an appeals court struck down federal rules this week that aimed to combat digital redlining. Though the FCC had not exercised its anti-digital discrimination authority in a single instance, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that the FCC had exceeded its authority by even having a rule that threatened to impose liability on ISPs for “disparate impact,” instead of relying on instances of “disparate treatment.”

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved $3.29 million in grants aimed at dramatically shoring up digital training and public broadband access in communities across the state. All told, more than 18 new digital literacy projects and three expanded public broadband access projects will be funded, impacting more than 16,000 Californians.

The public-private partnership the city struck Arizona-based Wecom Fiber is expected to inject at least $100 million into local economy over five years while saving the city an estimated $18 million in capital expenses. The fiber network will ultimately pass 30,000 locations within Flagstaff city limits, but also connect 34 municipal facilities. Construction of the network began in April of 2025, and is poised to deliver more than 815 miles of new fiber across Coconino County.

Congressmembers Rob Menendez, Doris Matsui (CA-07), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), and Troy Carter, Sr. (LA-02) have introduced new legislation that would compel the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to re-establish the Communications Equity and Diversity Council. The Council had operated in some capacity since 2003 under multiple partisan administrations to make the communications sector more equitable and reduce digital discrimination, until FCC Chair Brendan Carr arbitrarily disbanded it in January 2025.