Despite a memo issued by the NTIA last summer that sought to discourage states from passing affordable broadband legislation similar to New York State’s Affordable Broadband Act, two dozen state lawmakers in Maryland have signed on to the Broadband Opportunity and Fairness Act, state legislation that seeks to address the single biggest barrier to Internet access anywhere: affordability.

HB-382, if passed, would require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in Maryland to offer low-cost Internet service plans to eligible low-income households.

Introduced by Delegate Kris Fair (D-3A, Frederick Co.), the bill now has 25 co-sponsors and is slated for a Feb. 12 legislative hearing before the House Economic Matters Committee. Companion legislation has yet to be filed in the Senate, though Delegate Fair’s office says they are in discussions with state Senators about advancing a bill through that chamber as well.

Stepping Up and 'Doing Something'

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a dramatic expansion of the state’s Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP), resulting in an additional $36 million cash infusion for the growing number of creative, community-owned and operated fiber expansion projects in the state.

According to a state announcement, the existing MIP program, launched in early 2024, has already funded more than $268 million in assorted open access fiber projects across the state. A state broadband office dashboard tracks all active municipal projects funded to date.

That includes efforts like the growing open access municipal fiber network in Dryden, New York, which has been steadily delivering affordable next-gen fiber to the long-underserved rural communities of Dryden and nearby Caroline (population 3,321).

New York State officials say the $268 million in MIP grant funding has funded active projects across 24 New York counties, resulting in more than 2,300 miles of new fiber optic infrastructure and 68 new wireless hubs serving more than 96,000 homes and businesses. Most of this funding was made possible by the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

The MIP program is part of New York state’s billion dollar ConnectALL Initiative, and was specifically designed to support municipal broadband projects proven to be a viable, and increasingly popular, way to bring affordable, high-quality Internet service to long-neglected U.S. communities.

By any measure, 2025 was a tough year in the grand project to extend fast, affordable, reliable broadband access to every home in the United States. The Digital Equity Act was abruptly cancelled, BEAD was restructured, small- and large-scale outages were common, and prices from the monopolies rose yet again.

But good things happened, too. In 2025, we saw seven new municipal broadband networks across the country that were lit up for service. As is usual, it was a mixture of partnerships, business models, and construction approaches to meet the unique challenges of a patchwork broadband landscape.

A Bountiful 2025 for Municipal Broadband

In California, the Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network launched (eventually covering 23 cities); it will eventually cover 72 community anchor institutions and almost 5,000 unserved locations across member cities with the help of state grants.

Cities and towns building or expanding locally owned broadband networks can face a complex and confusing legal landscape.

To help local leaders better understand those challenges, the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative are kicking off the new year with another one of their increasingly popular and informative webinars.

The free event, “Navigating the Legal Landscape of Community Broadband” is slated for Tuesday, January 20, from 12 to 1 p.m. ET.

Registration is now open here.

It will feature Sean Stokes and Casey Lide, attorneys with noted law firm Keller & Heckman. They have advised communities across the country on the legal, regulatory, and governance issues associated with community broadband projects.

The session will focus on the most pressing legal considerations facing both communities exploring broadband for the first time and networks that have already been built but are navigating next-stage challenges such as expansion, partnerships, and compliance.

“Too often, communities assume broadband challenges are primarily technical or financial, when in some instances legal and regulatory issues can determine whether a project succeeds or fails,” said Sean Stokes, partner at Keller & Heckman. 

“Our goal is to help communities understand where their legal authority comes from, what risks they should anticipate, and how thoughtful planning early on can prevent costly problems down the road.”

The webinar will cover a range of topics, including state laws that restrict or condition municipal broadband, governance and ownership models, partnerships with independent private Internet service providers, financing and funding compliance, regulatory and operational challenges, and litigation risks communities may face.

The city of Williston, Florida is joining the ranks of municipalities across the nation that are building their own fiber broadband networks with an eye on ubiquitous, affordable access. City leaders say they’re preparing to launch a city-owned $4.6 million fiber optic ISP to break the local telecom monopoly logjam and finally provide fast, affordable access to the local populace.

Earlier this year the Williston city council voted unanimously on a $4.6 million loan to help fund a Williston Fiber network that will reach all 3,433 local residents. Last December, the city held a city council meeting to finalize the arrangement, construction of which had technically started last summer.

“They’re excited,” Williston Mayor Charles Goodman tells local ABC affiliate WCJB. “People are just chomping at the bit, ready for it. I deal with phone calls every day. ‘When is it ready? When is it going to be here? They’re putting it in front of my house, can I hook it up now?’, you know these kinds of things.”

“What I tell them is we’re just building the project,” he added. “It’s still under construction. We’re hoping to have everything done by the end of the year.”

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Goodman has publicly expressed concern about the cost of the project, but local supporters, and all of the city council members, say the network is a necessary remedy to the lack of affordable, fast, and reliable broadband access, increasingly essential for online educational, health, employment, and other opportunities.

Two dozen California cities are making progress bringing affordable fiber to 16,500 new locations in the Golden State. The collaborative middle mile project, dubbed the Gateway Cities Council of Governments' (GCCOG) Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network Project, could revolutionize connectivity for a broad swath of Californians long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

While the project should be transformative, questions remain if the project will reach the full potential of its original 2021 vision after some significant revisions were made to California’s expansion plans in the summer of 2023.  

The $104 million broadband infrastructure project is leveraging money from the California Department of Technology’s Middle Mile Broadband Initiative and the California Public Utilities Commission’s Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA).

Both are part of a broader $6 billion California “Broadband For All” initiative aimed at boosting broadband competition and driving down broadband access costs statewide. The initiative in turn was enabled by 2021 federal infrastructure and COVID relief legislation resulting in a generational flood of historic broadband subsidies.

All told, the $104 million Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network Project aims to connect 24 cities, 4,254 unserved locations, and as many as 16,500 locations with 74 miles of next-generation gigabit-capable fiber. The network will also bring faster fiber connectivity to 72 anchor institutions and public safety entities scattered across Southeast California.

The end of the year may be winding down, but the digital equity community is gearing up for one last big Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) gathering.

“Digital Equity Unwrapped” – a special livestream bringing together advocates and broadband-for-all leaders who spent 2025 pushing for a more connected and inclusive nation – is slated for Wednesday, December 17, beginning at 3 pm ET.

Registration is available here.

Co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the final #B4DE of the year will open with a look ahead at Net Inclusion 2026, coming to Chicago this February.

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A special gift-wrapped part of the #B4DE line-up will feature Kyla Williams Tate, who will share original poetry grounded in digital equity, reminding us that connectivity isn’t just about infrastructure – but about the human networks that do the work.

Then, attention will turn to a major focus of 2025 for digital equity proponents: fighting for affordability. For that, Lindsey Skolnik of the California Alliance for Digital Equity (CADE) will take center screen to discuss California’s push for statewide affordable broadband legislation.

In the last two months of the Biden administration, nearly $500 million in grants were announced to support Tribal broadband projects. From Alaska to Virginia, 55 Tribal nations were poised to improve Internet access and advance digital sovereignty in their communities.

As President Trump took office, more than a hundred applicants still awaited word on their proposals, with nearly $500 million still available in the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).

Then, silence. Ten months of silence.

In early November, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) sent a letter to NTIA officials asking about the TBCP. The program was established with two appropriations totaling nearly $3 billion. The first round of TBCP grants rolled out throughout 2022 and 2023, totalling nearly $100 million in use and adoption funding and over $1.7 billion in planning or infrastructure funding.

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The $500 million announced at the end of the Biden administration was part of round two of the program, for which applications were due in March 2024. With about $1 billion available, only about half of the funding in round two had been allocated.

What was happening, the Senators asked, with the rest of that funding? There were other questions too.

For years, it’s been known as “America’s first Gig City,” thanks to its city-owned fiber network. 

That same infrastructure has positioned Chattanooga to potentially become the nation’s first “Quantum City,” according to a new economic impact analysis showing EPB Fiber and the utility's smart-grid systems has generated $5.3 billion in net community benefits for Hamilton County since 2011. 

The city is now poised to enter the Quantum realm.

The research builds on an earlier 10‑year return‑on‑investment analysis – published in August 2020 – that showed the city’s publicly-owned fiber network had delivered $2.69 billion in value over its first decade. 

The new follow-up study – From Gig City to Quantum City: The Value of Fiber Optic Infrastructure in Hamilton County, TN 2011-2035 – expands the time horizon and finds that over 15 years the total community benefit has grown to $5.3 billion, illuminating how the long‑term value of municipal broadband can really pay-off.

A Massive Economic Boost

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Conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the study finds that the municipal fiber network has dramatically reshaped the regional economy, supporting 10,420 jobs from 2011 to 2024 – about 31 percent of all net new jobs created locally over the past decade.

The return on investment has been extraordinary: the network has delivered 6.4 times the value of its original $396 million investment, the study indicates.

A new study shows that the now expired Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which offered a $30/month discount for 23 million eligible households to pay for home Internet service, helped low-income Americans get better access to jobs, with particularly strong effects for women.

The ACP program ended in May 2024 – thanks to GOP Congressional leaders blocking efforts to allocate additional money when the fund was depleted. Still, the study remains relevant as affordability advocates continue to look for ways to fund a similar program in the future.

Led by Hernan Galperin, Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the research combines ACP administrative records with data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS). In doing so, the study’s authors found that access to affordable, high-speed Internet improves employment outcomes by enabling remote work and greater labor market participation.

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With millions of Americans who rely on remote work to balance jobs with caregiving responsibilities, the study indicates that the ACP appeared to be a key enabler.