The Aloha State was not prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic's stay-at-home/work-from-home orders. The immediate halt to most in-person interaction resulted in disruptions to business, education, healthcare, the provision of other essential services, and social functions—demonstrating Hawaiʻi’s vulnerabilities, which were exacerbated by inadequate digital infrastructure. As a result, providing equitable access to broadband, improving digital literacy, and effectively applying digital tools in essential sectors are now among the state’s most pressing challenges.

The Department of the Treasury approved $115.5 million for high-speed internet projects in Hawaii under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund. The state will invest $101.7 million of the award in the Hawaii Subsea Middle Mile Program designed to address the unique subsea cable infrastructure that’s needed to provide connectivity between the islands to ensure they have reliable, high-speed internet access.

Focus Broadband has completed the final stages of a project in Brunswick County (NC). Residents and businesses in the communities of Northwest and Sandy Creek now can access gigabit speed service. Focus Broadband was awarded $1.4 million to provide high-speed Internet to more than 1,000 addresses in Brunswick County in North Carolina’s special supplementary round of the Growing Rural Economies through Access to Technology (GREAT) program.

Fourteen Maine counties and 73 communities will benefit from $20 million in grant funding from the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) as part of its Reach Me Line Extension Program that will expand reliable, fast and affordable internet.

Delivering broadband to a state as large and diverse as California is complicated. Regions and communities vary by levels of competition, historic investment, and the need for subsidies to incentivize infrastructure deployment and broadband adoption. While broadband infrastructure and increasing adoption have helped power California’s fiscal health and well-being for decades, access to this essential service remains uneven.

Verizon is bringing internet to Maryland residents as it deploys high-speed, fiber optic broadband internet service across the state. Nearly 4,000 new households and businesses in Charles, Garrett, Cecil, Howard, St. Mary’s and Washington County will have access to Verizon’s Fios network as part of one of the biggest upgrades in our history.

A years-long debate slowed progress in the Keystone State, but in September 2022, Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) announced that $500 million from the American Rescue Plan Act will go to local governments to invest in infrastructure, including broadband, accelerating the Commonwealth's efforts to close the digital divide.

Treasury approved $540.2 million for high-speed internet projects in California under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF)—the largest single-infusion of broadband funding to a state under CPF. California will use its funding to connect approximately 127,000 homes and businesses to affordable, high-speed internet. California’s Last Mile Broadband Expansion grant program is a new competitive grant program designed to provide internet access to areas of the state currently lacking access to reliable broadband at speeds of 25/3 Mbps.

The Federal Communications Commission is committing over $2.5 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country.

Consolidated Communications will bring Fidium fiber internet to 22,000 rural Maine homes and businesses as part of the Connect Maine Partnership, supported by a $18.3 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This project will bolster Consolidated’s ongoing work to build fiber-to-the-premises broadband networks to more than 70% of the Company’s service area by 2025.