Ian Doescher

The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) Program, which announced a second round of broadband grants for $701.9 million earlier in 2025, has updated its list of grantees to include seven new awards. The awards now cover more than 76,000 locations in Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Carson, Coleman, Colorado, Edwards, Falls, Fannin, Irion, Karnes, Kenedy, Liberty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Roberts, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.

Stephen Cox was enjoying retirement in Florida when the opportunity to become Indiana’s broadband director arose. Like Michael Jordan, Cox is back better than ever after his initial retirement. Unlike Michael Jordan, he did not have big shoes to fill—when he came back to Indiana, the state broadband office was just Cox and one other person. Cox said the $868 million Indiana received for their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program broadband expansion is “right in the ballpark” of what the state wanted.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has rescinded a memorandum that would have put a pause on all federal grant funds, creating significant confusion.

Joshua Breitbart, Senior Vice President of New York’s Empire State Development, has spent most of his career working on broadband projects of one kind or another. In early 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced the formation of the Empire State Development ConnectALL initiative in her “State of the State” address.

The Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology (OSIT) is ready to submit the Final Proposal for the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA). The Final Proposal will include the provisional winners of Nevada’s first round of BEAD funding.

North Dakota has the potential to be the first state in the country to bring a fiber connection to 100% of their broadband service locations. Brian Newby, the State Broadband Program Director, said North Dakota is in this position thanks to their forward-thinking providers: “The state had nothing to do with it.” Newby said a provider-led push led to the current reality in which North Dakota enjoys broad fiber coverage. “They went out on a limb as a group and borrowed money to do this over the years.

“We have worked really hard within the confines we’ve been given to create one of the most competitive, free-market-based, business-friendly (or business-encouraging) types of programs,” said Arkansas broadband director Glen Howie. Howie said Arkansas’ broadband funding program is flexibly designed, allowing providers to use census block groups (CBGs) to align their project footprints, while accounting for their financial modeling. Before Howie joined the Arkansas State Broadband Office, providers were able to draw their own project footprints and submit their designs to the state.

There has been a lot of chatter in the broadband industry recently, particularly as the election approaches, about whether the speed with which Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding is rolling out is too slow. But Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, said the timeline doesn’t bother her too much. “There’s been enough money flowing into the system that I’m not concerned that it’s taken three years.” Bloomfield named two primary reasons why the BEAD funding process so far has been worth the time spent.

“You are walking on a street and generative AI can tell you, ‘I just found a great restaurant that aligns with your tastes, and you haven’t eaten Italian in a month!’” That’s an example that Kaveh Vahdat—Founder and CEO at RiseAngle and Founder and President at RiseOpp—used to describe the future with artificial intelligence. RiseAngle is a game-creation platform and RiseOpp is a fractional marketing agency, both powered by generative AI.

When it comes to connectivity, Connecticut (pun intended) is in the enviable situation of having 99 percent of its locations already powered by broadband. But statewide usage statistics—from the American Community Survey and providers’ adoption data—showed that only about 87 percent of its locations actually subscribe to internet.