On May 21, Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, sent a letter on behalf of the organization to National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson. The letter followed up on a discussion about the implementation of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Bloomfield expressed some of the concerns that NTCA members have shared, "specifically, we believe several critical factors could have a disproportionate material impact upon small rural provider participation: (1) the size of project service areas; (2) the potentially rigid prescription of rates under the guise of affordability measures; (3) excessive weighting of matching funds; and (4) persistently incorrect broadband maps that may not be corrected in the limited time and through the limited vehicles available to correct them." 

Minnesota eliminated two laws that made it harder for cities and towns to build their own broadband networks. The state-imposed restrictions were repealed in an omnibus commerce policy bill signed on May 21 by Gov Tim Walz (D-MN). Minnesota was previously one of about 20 states that imposed significant restrictions on municipal broadband. The number can differ depending on who's counting because of disagreements over what counts as a significant restriction. But the list has gotten smaller in recent years because states including Arkansas, Colorado, and Washington repealed laws that hindered municipal broadband. The Minnesota bill struck down a requirement that municipal telecommunications networks be approved in an election with 65 percent of the vote. The Minnesota change "is a significant win for the people of Minnesota and highlights a positive trend—states are dropping misguided barriers to deploying public broadband as examples of successful community-owned networks proliferate across the country," said Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB).

Town by town, Vermont is getting connected thanks to communication union districts (CUDs) rolling out fiber cable. The Vermont Community Broadband Board says the work of the CUDs is moving the needle, with the vast majority of Vermonters getting access to fiber connection, something they say is a change from a year-and-a-half ago. Davis Brakeley calls his experience of trying to surf the web just over a year ago “the dark ages.” Brakeley is on the board of trustees of the Shard Villa Residential Care Home in Salisbury. Shard Villa has dozens of residents and employees looking to get online at any time for job requirements, connecting with family or telehealth. The county tapped into Maple Broadband, Addison County’s communication union district that began construction in October 2022. They’ve built fiber broadband access in more than 32 miles of Addison County, with another 68-mile build underway that would hook up more than 200 customers.

Some fixed wireless providers are deploying fiber broadband in some areas, as illustrated by Rise Broadband. The company has made fiber broadband available to 60,000 residences and businesses in south Texas and 5,000 in Illinois. Rise Broadband said that its fiber Internet services are available to 25 communities in Texas. The company is active in 15 other states. The service provider also recently said that it has completed a project that will bring fiber broadband at speeds as fast as 1 Gbps to the Illinois towns of Argenta, Forsyth, Latham, Maroa, Mt. Pulaski, Oreana, and Warrensburg. Rise said it was the first broadband option for Maroa.

Judging by the online comments, T-Mobile’s price increase didn’t go over well. That’s putting it mildly—and it’s also no surprise. People generally don’t like to be told their monthly bills are increasing. But in T-Mobile’s case, customers are seething because T-Mobile is raising prices on plans that were offered with “guarantees” they wouldn’t go up, such as T-Mobile One plans. A T-Mobile spokesperson said customers who have Price Lock are still covered under that guarantee. Other than that, T-Mobile wasn’t sharing details about which plans are affected but it was notifying customers to let them know if they were included in the rate hikes, which ranged from $2 to $5/line per month.