The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) approved three grants totaling $26.45 Million to bring broadband to more than 4,000 underserved Vermont addresses. Of the $26.45 million, $9.1 million has been awarded to the Maple Broadband/Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT) partnership to expand fiber-optic broadband into parts of rural Addison County, including Bridport, Ferrisburgh, New Haven, Panton, Waltham, and Weybridge. The source of the grant funding is the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This project will extend WCVT’s fiber-to-the-home network to approximately 2,000 additional customers in parts of Addison County in the Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom service areas. The network can deliver symmetrical broadband speeds of up to 1 Gb to residents. An additional $8.35 million has been awarded to WCVT to start the first phase of their build-out to bring broadband to 1200 underserved addresses in towns that are not part of a CUD. WCVT is adding a full build-out in the town of Charlotte and a full build-out in the town of Bolton. WCVT will also begin partial build-out work in seven other towns. The remaining $9 million has been awarded to Southern Vermont Communications Union District (SoVT CUD). It is partnering with Consolidated Communications to bring broadband to 6,412 addresses across southern Vermont, 1300 of which are currently underserved.

For decades, municipal broadband operations have been subject to a minefield of restrictions and barriers designed to make the prospect of establishing or maintaining a community broadband network costly, difficult, and unsustainable. There are currently 17 states in total that have restrictive legislation against municipal broadband networks in the US. In the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has put states opposed to municipal broadband in an interesting position: since they are required to submit their grant plan for public comment before receiving funds, they will have to defend their stance on not giving these funds to municipal operators. Further, the NTIA has also included language that makes it possible for municipalities to ask for funding directly if their state denies it to them. If a state decides to go down this road, it will almost certainly delay the timeline for receiving funding at all. Some states are already beginning to signal that they will not allow community broadband to be eligible for this massive, once-in-a-generation funding initiative. This issue will undoubtedly spark a wider issue regarding federal mandates – something states are already heavily divided on.

Idaho Commerce hired Ramón S. Hobdey-Sánchez as the state’s new Broadband Program Manager. For over seven years, Ramón worked at the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) as a project manager in the Office of Governmental Affairs. His work at ITD has included consistent interactions with the public, local officials, Idaho Legislators, and the Governor’s Office. He has served as an ITD political and policy advisor for department strategy, and planning and has extensive experience with legislative presentations and managing an array of policy projects. Over the past 2 years, Ramón managed the state’s broadband rulemaking, which provided him with first-hand involvement and knowledge of broadband policy, infrastructure, and connectivity in Idaho. Ramón brings with him a deep understanding of recent Idaho broadband legislation, its stakeholders, and the Idaho Broadband Advisory Board. This background provides him with a solid foundation to continue the development and deployment of broadband across the state through the Idaho Broadband Advisory Board’s direction and guidance.

According to Dr. Karen Mossberger—a professor in the school of public affairs and director of the Center on Technology, Data and Society at Arizona State University—prosperity and income increases correlate with the number of broadband subscriptions in an area, whether it’s rural, urban, or suburban, across all demographics. Further still, “Broadband is important for participation in society,” said Mossberger. “It’s important for economic development as well as individual opportunities. Widespread digital access and skills may also represent human capital capacity and community because it provides access to information for education and job searches, skills for jobs and entrepreneurship, richer information networks and communities.” But broadband access varies across regions, states, and even towns. Angela Thi Bennett, digital equity director with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said “Higher education could really show up and support states in developing digital equity plans, help them think through how to measure success and impacts in communities, so we don’t just focus on outputs but outcomes we want to achieve to transform communities.” That’s why Mossberger and other experts want to see universities and colleges coordinate with NTIA to disperse the roughly $48 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding allotted toward programs that create greater digital equity. Post-secondary institutions could be instrumental in helping to coordinate and implement varied strategies. Ultimately, experts agreed that higher education institutions provide the anchor needed to access and implement these funds.

Identifying problems with Wi-Fi can be difficult, and people often just turn Wi-Fi off on their devices and instead use their cellular data connection. In doing so, they miss out on the potentially much higher throughput, and hence the faster Internet connection, that a Wi-Fi connection can provide. For several years, CableLabs has been working on a technology to achieve Wi-Fi that acts more like a cellular network. CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi uses a central controller to group multiple access points or APs (think routers) into one continuous network. The central controller detects which AP your device is closest to and connects your device to that AP. If you move—for example, getting up and walking to a different room—then the controller evaluates whether you would get the best experience by staying connected to the old AP or if your experience would be better by switching to a new one. If it’s the latter, the controller moves your device to the new AP without you even noticing. Instead of asking the phone to reconnect to a different AP, CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi moves the network itself to the new AP. This makes the transitions between APs seamless and transparent to the phone. The result is that your device will be consistently connected to the best available AP in your space. However, CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi is not yet available to end consumers.