*The following story was originally published here by Broadband Breakfast.

Tribal broadband is not simply a faster connection. For tribal nations, panelists said Wednesday, durable infrastructure can preserve language, extend health care and education, support economic development and strengthen sovereignty, but only when tribes control the choices shaping their networks.

That connection between culture and infrastructure emerged during a Broadband Breakfast Live Online discussion on tribal broadband and adoption. 

The conversation ranged from fiber and satellites to open-access networks, spectrum rights, data sovereignty and the cost of helping residents get online.

“We want our members to learn the language. We want other people to learn the language,” said Rob Griffin, tribal broadband director for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “But to do so, we have to have good infrastructure.”

The Choctaw Nation began pursuing fiber after encountering a school limited to satellite internet, Griffin said. It has since received $110 million in grants and is building 1,000 miles of fiber alongside fixed wireless connections. Such networks can support language programs, remote work, testing and telehealth for decades.

Infrastructure and sovereignty

Federal investment has helped accelerate tribal deployments. Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (and co-founder of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp), said his organization is tracking about 190 tribal networks, including roughly 100 already operating. (Check out ILSR's in-depth Tribal networks tracker and interactive map here).

As Digital Inclusion Week 2026 kicks off October 4-10, the Building for Digital Equity webinar series returns with a timely question: with federal support for digital equity work in retreat, what does it actually take to keep this work alive, growing, and reaching people at the local level?

On October 8 at 3 pm ET the hour-long livestream — titled “Sustain, Empower, Evolve: Planting Local Seeds for Digital Equity” — will be co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the latest in the popular on-going webinar series, sponsored by UTOPIA Fiber.

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Registration for the event is now open here.

It will open with a policy update on where Digital Equity Act funding actually stands, what’s moving, and what’s stalled.

From there, the show turns to the ground-level with a special spotlight on building wireless connectivity for tiny-home communities in Seattle that will uniquely engage the audience in a case-study exploring how local expertise is harnessed, coordinating a cadre of local volunteers, and facing down the challenges of sustainability.

The livestream closes with a forward-looking conversation focused on how digital inclusion work is evolving in practice as front-line workers speak to how funding models and digital navigators are adapting.

Sixty-three years ago this August, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history. 

At the heart of King’s “dream” speech — "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed" – was a vision for a society built, not on making peace with inequality, but on its structural dismantling, where equity is not just aspirational, but foundational.

On Wednesday, August 19 at 3pm ET, just eight days before the anniversary of King’s speech, the on-going webinar series hosted by the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) returns to pose a pointed question to the digital inclusion community: what is our dream for digital equity — and what kind of ecosystems do we need to, at last, build a “Beloved (connected) Community?”

Registration is now open here.

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The live-streamed webinar — "Normalcy, Never Again" — takes its name from the spirit of King's August 28, 1963 address and will serve as a rallying point to reaffirm that the digital equity movement will not accept business as usual or be managed into irrelevance, even if the face of a federal government actively dismantling the programs and protections that were supposed to close the digital divide.

It will bring together a roster of voices from the front lines of the digital equity fight — including advocates, educators, librarians, healthcare providers, and community broadband builders doing the unglamorous, essential work of getting people connected. 

For years, the conventional playbook for communities stuck with slow, expensive Internet service has been to wait. Wait for the incumbent cable or phone company to upgrade connections, wait for a federal grant, wait for someone else to solve the problem. 

Now, a growing number of communities have decided they are done waiting.

And on July 7 at 12 noon ET, the next installment in a joint webinar series from the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) will showcase a new financing model being put into action that allows for communities to control their digital futures.

The free, one-hour live webinar to be broadcast on ILSR's YouTube channel — "Control + Shift + ALTernative: Building Community-Owned Fiber" — will go behind the scenes of two real-world community fiber projects to tease out the practical lessons that other communities can learn from.

Registration for the webinar is now open here.

The webinar will be moderated by Gigi Sohn, one of the country's foremost telecommunications policy experts and head of AAPB, and Sean Gonsalves, Senior Writer and Associate Director for Communications with ILSR's Community Broadband Networks Initiative.

Together they will lead a conversation with four practitioners who have been in the trenches of community broadband development: Jim Cannon, CEO of Pivot-Tech; Scott Corbitt, General Manager of the Port of Lewiston; Christina Burns, Kendall County Administrator; and Chris Perlitz, Managing Director at Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc.

With tax day as a backdrop, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) convened its quarterly Building for Digital Equity (B4DE) 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.

What set yesterday's B4DE apart was its featured focus on how the emergence of AI hyperscale data centers are impacting communities and how communities can fight for a better deal.

The Data Center Boom — and Its Costs

MediaJustice Senior Campaign Lead Brandon Forester and Jordana Barton-García, Connect Humanity Director of the Texas Rio Grande Valley Broadband Coalition, heated up the afternoon’s fireside chat with an unflinching look at the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.

Forester was direct about what's really driving the surge: “The only idea they have left is scale” and warned that data center developers often arrive in communities – particularly in the South –  promising economic benefits that rarely deliver. “They just need your space, they need your resources, and they need you just to let them do what they want to do,” he said.

Forester pushed back on the idea that data centers generate meaningful local tax revenue, noting how in Prince George's County, Maryland, where he lives, the projected annual return from a single data center amounts to roughly $6 million after state tax breaks, which are a fraction of what communities are led to expect.

Barton-García emphasized how communities have more power than they realize – but only if they act early. Her core message: get to the negotiating table before the deal is done.

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, lured with tax breaks.

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 (B4DE) livestream promises to offer insights from frontline forces working to ensure broadband and technology investments serve public needs rather than distant corporate interests.

With the series sponsored by UTOPIA Fiber, the upcoming B4DE livestream – “Local Dollars, Local Solutions: Digital Equity Tax Money & How to Negotiate Better AI Data Center Deals” – is slated for April 15 at 3 p.m. ET and will bring together national policy experts, local leaders, and community advocates working in the trenches of digital inclusion.

Registration is now open here.

“Tax day should serve as a reminder that public money should work for the public,” organizers said. 

“Communities are asking how to use their tax dollars to expand access to the Internet, digital skills, and devices – and how to effectively negotiate, or in some cases, stop data center developers from harming or extracting wealth from cities and towns without public benefit.”

The agenda for the free event will include a brief framing conversation before kicking things off with a creative segment highlighting the power of artistic collaboration and community storytelling, underscoring how digital access supports cultural expression and civic life.

Closing the digital divide where it's most dense – inside multi-family housing – took center screen during yesterday's webinar hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB).

Co-host and AAPB Executive Director Gigi Sohn framed the discussion as a new way of thinking about universal broadband access. 

"If you want to connect a community, we can’t just think street by street. We have to also think floor by floor, building by building," Sohn said. 

"Apartment complexes, public housing, condos, and mobile home parks contain some of the largest concentrations of unserved and underserved households in the country. These buildings should be cost-efficient to serve, but in reality they often present some of the toughest barriers – from wiring challenges and access restrictions to exclusive provider agreements and outdated policies."

The webinar, "High-Density, High Impact: Connecting Apartment Buildings, Public Housing and Multi-Dwelling Units," featured Cleveland-based DigitalC CEO Joshua Edmonds; REVinternet founder and CEO Brendan Kelly; and Anna Read, a Principal with the national consulting firm HR&A.

The conversation ranged from why MDU's matter to the business and technical realities of providing Internet access to those who live in them; as well how federal and state policies have helped or hindered the push to ensure everyone has the ability to meaningfully participate in a digital world.

Watch the webinar in its entirety below:

Today at 12pm ET/11am CT, ILSR and the American Association of Public Broadband co-host an event aimed at tackling the digital divide in a realm rife with both challenges and opportunities: apartments, public housing, and multi-dwelling units. 

Co-hosted by AAPB’s Gigi Sohn and ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks’ Associate Director for Communications Sean Gonsalves, they will be joined by Cleveland-based DigitalC CEO Joshua Edmonds; REVinternet founder and CEO Brendan Kelly; and Anna Read, a Principal with the national consulting firm HR&A who previously worked on broadband funding at the U.S. Treasury Department and also with several states in establishing programs to help connect public housing residents.

This event is free to register.

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it sought to foster innovation and competition in telecommunications markets, expand the definition of universal service, and modernize regulatory structures for the digital age. Three decades later, architects of the ‘96 Act say it achieved many of those goals, but numerous legal challenges following its passage reshaped how key provisions were implemented.

“Litigation shaped so much of what the Act eventually became,” said Mignon Clyburn, a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, speaking Thursday among a panel of former FCC regulators, legal counsel, and policy advisors who helped shape and defend the landmark telecom law.

Gathered for an event organized by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society marking the law’s 30th anniversary, the event reflected on both the spirit and letter of the landmark legislation which has shaped much of the modern Internet in the United States. The first major overhaul of telecommunications law in more than 60 years, the ‘96 Act required the FCC to conduct more than 80 separate rulemakings addressing everything from appropriate pricing, to interconnection rules and the unbundling of incumbent telephone networks.

On paper, it’s cheaper to connect densely-clustered residences. But, as many as 4.3 million households inside apartment, condo, and mobile-home complexes do not have Internet access – either because the service is unaffordable or because the building has antiquated wiring.

Given the importance of Internet access for meaningful participation in a digital economy – and because universal access to high-speed Internet has cascading community benefits that not only save subscribers and municipalities money, but also improve health outcomes – more cities and towns are looking to ensure high-performance Internet access is available in what industry insiders call “multi-dwelling units” (MDUs).

Next week, the increasingly popular webinar series hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks initiative and the American Association of Public Broadband (AAPB) will dive into the challenge head-on with a focus on how local communities can better serve the places where the largest numbers of disconnected Americans are clustered.

The free webinar – “High-Density, High Impact: Connecting Apartment Buildings, Public Housing and Multi-Dwelling Units” – is slated for March 19 from noon to 1 pm ET.

Registration is now open here.

“Most of the federal government’s funding focus for building new networks is targeted at sparsely populated rural areas. But the fact is: apartment buildings – especially those living in public housing in urban and suburban settings – represent large concentrations of unconnected or underconnected households,” AAPB Executive Director Gigi Sohn said.