Internet/Broadband

The Oregon Broadband Office has completed a draft Five-Year Action Plan and wants to hear your feedback.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) released Vermont’s Draft BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) Five-Year Action Plan and Draft BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 1 and wants your comments.

In October 2022, I wrote a blog about a bipartisan attempt to exempt broadband grant funding from being taxable income. Unfortunately, Congress has still not moved this legislation forward.

Build a buffer is Shelby Pardy’s advice to operators thinking of participating in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Pardy, an analyst for Vantage Point Solutions, points out this is more than budgeting extra dollars for inflationary pressures.

This booklet shows the job opportunities in your rural telecommunications company. These positions are not from a specific company and titles vary from company to company, but the job titles and descriptions provide an idea of the various roles at a rural telecommunications company. Often positions at telecommunications companies can allow a person to remain in their rural community. Typically, companies are willing to train new employees to develop skills needed for the industry.

The Vermont Department of Public Service is seeking input from the public regarding the telecommunications facilities siting process (as established under 30 V.S.A. §248a). The goal is to conduct a study that ensures that the siting process is done in a manner that is transparent, fair, and responsive to the needs of the community, while also considering the development and expansion of telecommunications infrastructure in the state.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board has approved amendments totaling approximately $20 million to increase broadband grant funding for two communications union districts (CUDs). CUDs are groups of towns in the state that work together to obtain broadband buildouts to unserved areas within the CUD. The decision to up the funding was made via vote of the VCBB on July 18, 2023. Maple Broadband will receive $2.1 million more for its buildouts and NEK Broadband will receive $17.9 million more for its buildouts.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) exists to help Americans of all stripes get and stay connected to America’s Excellent Internet. But for millions around the country, Internet access and a device alone aren’t enough to close the digital divide. Digital skills and tech support services offered through a trusted community organization is critical to solving this puzzle—just ask US Army veteran Bobby Jenks. After leaving the service as a decorated peacetime soldier, Bobby worked as a truck driver for 20 years until an accident left him unable to continue his trucking career.

In July 2023, the Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office released the state's draft Digital Equity Plan. The state outlines how it will work to bring broadband to its residents–and the opportunities that come with high-speed internet access.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an order to provide an up-to-$75 monthly broadband benefit for subscribers living in qualifying high-cost areas through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), as directed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Infrastructure Act specified that the $75 monthly benefit would support providers that can demonstrate that the standard $30 monthly benefit would cause them to experience “particularized economic hardship” such that they would be unable to maintain part or all of their broadband network in a high-cost area.