The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) awarded 18 grants to recipient organizations, who will together launch the National Digital Navigator Corps. The grants are part of support from Google.org, which will go toward hiring community-based digital navigators alongside programmatic and technical support to further develop NDIA’s digital navigator model for rural and Tribal communities. The grants, which total more than $6.6 million, are for two-and-a-half-year periods and range between $320,540 and $389,840 each, depending on the need and proposal. Seven of the grantees are Tribal-led organizations and an additional three will serve Tribal communities. NDIA is partnering closely with AMERIND Critical Infrastructure to engage and support Tribal members of the National Digital Navigator Corps.

Frontier Communications and Windstream have collectively raked in more than $210 million worth of broadband grants across nine states thus far in 2022, as the operators look to boost their fiber expansion plans with government support. Frontier has won grants in seven states: California, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin. It scored what appeared to be its largest award of the year in North Carolina, snagging $9.7 million to cover more than 4,600 locations across three counties. The operator also bagged nearly $7.5 million in Wisconsin to cover about 15,200 locations across five counties. Other winnings included $2.2 million in Indiana to serve 474 locations across four counties; $1.7 million to reach just under 3,000 locations in West Virginia; $818,962 to connect parts of Bedford County, Pennsylvania; and $560,463 to cover 94 locations in Harrison and Jefferson Counties in Ohio.

Windstream, which is pursuing its own residential fiber expansion, is also seeing success in the state grant world. The operator has picked up wins in several of the same states as Frontier, including North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In North Carolina, it won awards to cover locations in two counties, though the state did not release the funding totals granted. In Ohio, it snagged several awards totaling more than $6.5 million. Grants across three counties in Pennsylvania totaled around half a million dollars. Beyond these, Windstream also bagged a major win in Georgia early in the year, scoring $171 million to reach more than 80,000 locations across 18 counties. It also won more than $11.5 million in Iowa.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to come out with the first version of its new broadband map in mid-November. However, National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Alan Davidson indicated his agency won’t use the first rendering to divvy up broadband support. Davidson explained that while the NTIA is eager to get money from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program out the door quickly, “we need to do this accurately.” That means waiting until the FCC's new map has gone through at least one full challenge process. On September 12, the FCC is set to kick off its first challenge process for the underlying location fabric – or grid of serviceable locations – being used for its new map. That process will initially be open to operators and government entities before expanding to include individual challenges from the public once the initial coverage map is released in November. An FCC representative stated that the second version of the fabric is expected to be released in December and will be the basis for the second collection of coverage data from broadband providers. The submission window for the second coverage data collection will be open from December 31, 2022 to March 1, 2023. The timeframe assumes the challenge process goes smoothly and that potential variables like lawsuits don’t spring up, as there are concerns from players across the industry regarding the scale of the FCC's task and its timeframe. 

The pandemic created a sense of urgency about bringing internet access to more people and empowering them to use technology as a necessity of modern life. As with any structural problem, closing the online gap will require technical, financial, social and personal changes, both large and small. 4-H, the 120-year-old youth development organization, now taps young people interested in technology to help solve problems in their communities and to teach digital skills. The organization said that 325 teens were involved in Tech Changemakers program during the past school year and reached 37,000 adults. More programs are planned for the coming school year. 4-H program recognizes that internet access is necessary but not sufficient to empower digital citizens. The program shows that bringing more people online in America can be profound both for those trying to learn and for those with digital skills.

In 2019, Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) laid out a goal of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload broadband deployed to population centers of 500 or more by 2022. Approaching the end of 2022 and the time Arkansas set to achieve its original broadband goals, the state has received new funds through the US Department of Treasury's Capital Projects Fund to help achieve universal connectivity. The April 2022 Arkansas Broadband Master Plan, compiled by the Broadband Development Group (BDG), reported that 100,000 of these homes will be covered under current federal funding programs. To connect the remaining 110,000 homes, BDG estimated it will cost $550 million. The Master Plan recommends that Arkansas fund this through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) grants as well as through the Arkansas Rural Connect Program. On August 30, 2022, The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Capital Projects Fund awards for five states including $47.5 million in broadband infrastructure funding for the un- and underserved in Arkansas. This funding will go right into the Arkansas Rural Connect Program to support its efforts to close the state's digital divide. With the Capital Projects Fund support, Arkansas is aiming to provide 5,500 locations with reliable internet of at least 100/20 Mbps but with the goal of achieving 100/100 Mbps symmetrical service. Each provider funded by the program is also required to participate in the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program.