The Healey-Driscoll administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s (MassTech) Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) announced $22,260,701 in grants to upgrade internet access for 15,793 affordable housing units across 54 communities in Massachusetts. MBI provided the awards through the Residential Retrofit Program, an initiative that works with housing operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to upgrade broadband infrastructure in public and affordable housing properties.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced an investment of $48 million in Completing Access to Broadband program projects to connect 14,514 households and businesses in 22 counties to high-speed internet.

Kinetic and Thomas County (GA) announced the completion of a nearly $13.3 million fiber optic expansion project. The Thomas County project has been generously funded through a combination of more than $6.8 million from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund and a county match of $1.3 million. To complete the project, Kinetic invested $5.1 million of its own funds to bolster Thomas County’s digital infrastructure and ensure that residents have access to reliable, fast internet services.

Clallam County (WA) and Astound announced a partnership to bring high-speed fiber internet connectivity to a large unserved and underserved rural area of the county that generally extends along and parallel to the approximately 15-mile State Route 112 Highway corridor, beginning just west of Port Angeles. Once complete, the project will provide more than 1,500 homes with access to Astound’s fiber-to-the-home network, delivering symmetrical speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second. This $22.2 million partnership is backed by a combination of funding source.

More than $53 million in middle-mile broadband expansion grants were recommended for approval by the Oklahoma Broadband Governing Board. The Oklahoma middle-mile projects, recommended for approval by the Grants Review Committee, are funded by the American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Several additional projects were recommended for approval “should funding become available.”

The state of Texas has awarded Lyte Fiber LLC $57.8 million to provide broadband to 6,750 unserved and underserved homes and businesses in Marion and Navarro counties. The Navarro County grant—which represents $43.3 million of the total—was a recent award. The awards were made by the state’s Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas II Program, which is overseen by the Comptroller’s Broadband Development Office.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a historic $40 million investment in internet connectivity, announcing the New Jersey Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Equity Pilot Program grant awardees.

TEK Collaborative Founder and Director Jeff Williams started the nonprofit in 2021 to refurbish and distribute desktop computers and laptops to those in need and expand digital equity across Massachusetts.

The Trump administration further embraced the theory that the deadly Covid-19 pandemic emanated from a lab in China, updating the government’s main websites about the virus to detail that argument.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced more than $41 million in Completing Access to Broadband program projects to connect 11,816 households and businesses in 17 counties to high-speed internet. These projects will be funded by more than $29 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and nearly $12.5 million from the selected broadband providers. The CAB program’s procurement process creates a partnership between counties and NCDIT to identify areas that need access, solicit proposals from prequalified internet serv