News

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.

Local government organizations are voicing their strong opposition to the American Broadband Deployment Act, an industry friendly proposal being cooked up in the House that would take public rights of way management and property decisions away from state, local, and tribal governments through federal preemption and industry-friendly defaults. The American Broadband Deployment Act (HR 2289) saw initial approval by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee last January. It’s being presented by telecom companies as a way to dramatically streamline government broadband permitting and regulation, something they insist will speed up the deployment of fast, affordable broadband access.

Roanoke Cooperative’s Fybe has been awarded $2.4 million in state funds to expand affordable access to high speed Internet to 826 locations across eight predominantly rural North Carolina counties. Fybe, the cooperative's fiber business, will receive $2.4 million through the state’s Stop-Gap Solutions program to connect 826 locations across Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties. The fiber expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

The remote islands of San Juan County, Washington are increasingly being served with next-generation fiber and wireless thanks to Rock Island Communications, a locally-owned Internet subsidiary of the Orcas Power & Light Cooperative. RIC is celebrating a decade of what it calls “remarkable growth” for the tall task of remote island deployments to the county of 18,000. The subsidiary says it just reached 7,000 subscribers across San Juan County, and that its annual revenue has grown dramatically during the last decade – from approximately $1.8 million in 2015 to more than $12.3 million in 2025.

Join us for our very first episode of Unbuffered Live! at our new time, on Tuesday, April 28th at 2pm ET. Host Christopher Mitchell will be joined by guests Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting), Heather Mills (ITG) and Drew Garner (Benton Institute for Broadband and Society) to talk about the intersections of tech, Internet access, and policy.

With tax day as a backdrop, the ILSR Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance convened its quarterly Building for Digital Equity livestream yesterday that shined a light on how public dollars and tax policy intersect with digital equity. The event – an ongoing series sponsored by UTOPIA Fiber – brought together community organizers, policy experts, and local government leaders on the frontlines of working to expand opportunities for those being left in the digital dust – with a special focus on how the emergence of AI hyperscale data centers are impacting communities and how communities can fight for a better deal.

A laptop and a low-cost Internet connection opened the door of opportunity for a first-generation college graduate. It wasn’t just about getting online – it was about unlocking access to everything that comes with it. When that door closes for millions, the consequences ripple far beyond a single household. It impacts who gets educational and work opportunities, and the ability to meaningfully participate in modern life.

The Illinois Legislature has taken several major legal steps to not only improve broadband affordability in The Prairie State, but empower local cooperatives to expand affordable, reliable fiber access to state residents. Illinois State Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) recently introduced Senate Bill 3612, which would amend the state’s Utilities Act to require that large private telecoms in the state provide affordable, fast broadband access to low-income state residents.

After five and a half years and 124 shows, we’re saying goodbye to Connect This!, where we've spent time with you, our wonderful audience, talking about building and managing networks, competition in the marketplace, creating clear and effective marketing campaigns, state and federal infrastructure grant programs, dark money campaigns, local broadband champions, affordability, digital skills, and more. Keep in touch with us via Unbuffered, our new show.

On Thursday, the California Department of Technology (CDT) announced that after five years of planning, building, and promising access, the state’s $3.2 billion Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative (MMBI) is now operational. The high-speed network connected the last mile to the state’s first customer, the Bishop Paiute Tribe, a Native American community in Inyo County.

Pennsylvania’s Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) says it’s making steady inroads in expanding affordable fiber access throughout rural Bradford and Wyoming Counties. The cooperative recently passed a notable milestone: the cooperative just wrapped up a project that delivered 100 miles of new fiber-optic cable to pass roughly 1,300 previously-unserved and underserved homes and businesses in rural Bradford and Wyoming counties for the first time ever.

The Trump administration continues to give muddled guidance in terms of the whopping $21 billion in “non-deployment” funds states should have at their disposal from the “savings” created by unwelcome changes to the federal BEAD program. As part of that retooling, the Trump administration demanded that states prioritize the cheapest – but not necessarily the best, most future proof, or reliable – broadband options, a direct nod to lobbying pressure from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite providers like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink, and Jeff Bezos’ Leo (previously project Kuiper).

Lenoir City, Tennessee officials say they’re making steady progress on their goal to deliver affordable fiber well beyond the Southern city of 12,998. Under the collaborative umbrella of the Lenoir City Utilities Board (LCUB) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), officials say they’re leveraging century-old experience in rural electrification to help bridge the digital divide across Knox and Loudon counties.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has been fighting to restore a $2.75 billion federal digital equity program, but the lawsuit over the Trump administration’s suspension of grants may come to a pause. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) filed a motion to put its lawsuit suing President Donald Trump on hold, because there is a similar case further along that would control the outcome.

A new speed analysis published by Ookla finds that municipal broadband providers consistently leave their private Internet service provider (ISP) competition in the dust. “Small Towns, Big Speeds: How Some Municipal Broadband Providers Outperform Their ISP Peers” examined speed test data that included some of the largest municipal networks in the U.S. from December 2024 through December 2025 and compared their performance to each other and to their privately-owned ISP competitors.

As Americans file their taxes this Tax Day, digital equity leaders across the nation will gather for a timely exploration of how public dollars are being used to strengthen communities – and how local advocates can negotiate better deals as AI data centers rapidly expand. Co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the next Building for Digital Equity livestream – “Local Dollars, Local Solutions: Digital Equity Tax Money & How to Negotiate Better AI Data Center Deals” – promises to offer insights from frontline forces working to ensure broadband and technology investments serve public needs rather than distant corporate interests.