Universal Broadband

Across North Carolina, 25,825 households and 862 businesses in 33 counties will get high-speed internet thanks to nearly $80 million in additional Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants, Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC) announced. These latest grant awards add to the more than $269 million total awarded in 2022 to connect 117,405 households and businesses. As part of the federally-funded GREAT grant eligibility requirements, all internet service provider applicants must participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

The state of Tennessee will begin accepting applications in September 2023 for $185 million in grant funding for broadband deployments in unserved and underserved areas.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will regularly post Digital Equity plans on this website. If you’re unsure about when your state’s digital equity plan will be available for public comment, we recommend bookmarking the link and checking it frequently. The public comment period is a mandatory step in the State Digital Equity Plan process that solicits a public response and comments on the draft plan. To know when to expect your

As state and local officials gear up to build fiber networks through Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and other programs, opportunities abound for leveraging various funding to demonstrate how to get the most economic and societal benefits out of their networks, according to US Ignite Co-founder and CEONick Maynard. “Our mission is to help support underserved communities by helping them with their main challenges, but also through economic development or startup and research commercialization challenges,” said Maynard. Going into its second decade of operation, US Ignite curr

Broadband experts are condemning an amendment to Ohio’s latest budget bill that restricts fixed wireless access (FWA) grants with claims that it could curb the state’s efforts to bridge the digital divide. Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) signed the bill without vetoing the amendment which means FWA grants from the state will now only be considered in “extremely high-cost” areas of Ohio. Mike Wendy of the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association (WISPA) said Ohio State Senator Rob McColley (R-OH) proposed the amendment to the budget bill, “ostensibly grounded in his belief that only fiber

President Biden’s economic agenda—Bidenomics—is growing the American economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. And if most South Carolina Republican Members of Congress had their way, the state would have lost out on over $2.6 billion in infrastructure funding and nearly $1 billion in funding for high-speed internet for South Carolina. Nearly $1 billion in funds were awarded to South Carolina to deliver affordable, high-speed internet to every South Carolinian under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), using Made in America material.

FOCUS Broadband has completed work to bring fiber optic high-speed internet to rural communities near Magnolia, Rose Hill, and Teachey (NC). These projects were made possible through two grants totaling more than $2.5 million dollars awarded in 2020 through North Carolina's Growing Rural Economies through Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program as well as the Special Supplementary Round of the GREAT Grant Program. FOCUS Broadband contributed more than $1 million dollars in matching funds to bring service to these rural areas in Duplin County.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) seeks to void a Virginia bill streamlining railroad crossing requests for broadband providers, claiming it shifts permitting power from the railroad owners to broadband providers. The law, which took effect on July 1, caps railroad crossing fees at $2,000 per crossing and requires broadband providers to reimburse railroad companies no more than $5,00

President Joe Biden announced that his administration would spend more than $42 billion to expand high-speed internet access across the US. The White House estimates the program will help over 8.5 million households and small businesses.

As they begin a comprehensive effort to convince the country that “Bidenomics” is working, President Joe Biden and his allies are gleefully needling Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for celebrating Alabama’s receipt of federal funds to expand rural access to high-speed internet, money that came from a bill President Biden signed and Sen Tuberville, like most Republicans, voted against. It’s not an uncommon story these days; the administration is spreading a huge amount of federal funding around the cou