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A consortium established by Gov Rick Snyder (R-MI) has come up with a wide range of recommendations for increasing broadband availability in the state, which currently ranks 30th among the 50 states in broadband availability and 34th on broadband adoption.

Broadband is a critical element of a new approach to rural higher education that aims to combine the best of on-line and in-class teaching techniques to address what some people call rural “higher education deserts.” By using broadband in rural higher education deserts, in combination with brick-and-mortar higher education centers, some states are finding ways of enabling local residents to earn college degrees.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the conclusion of the Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF-II) auction, which offered $1.98 billion in funding for rural broadband. The bidding began July 24th. The FCC will issue a public notice in a few business days outlining the results. Winning bidders have agreed to provide broadband service at the lowest cost in unserved and underserved areas in 20 states, formerly served by larger price cap carriers (although those same carriers could conceivably be the auction winner).

Google is seeking industry support for a new Google Fiber vision for a passive optical network (PON) fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architecture that would increase the distance between the central office and the customer, said Claudio DeSanti, architect for Google. The Google SuperPON architecture would support up to 1,024 customers over distances up to 50 kilometers– a substantial change from today’s architecture that supports up to 64 customers over distances of up to 20 kilometers. The goal would be to minimize the amount of fiber required to support FTTH and the associated labor.

Individual service providers will be able to apply for loans, grants or a combination of the two in the upcoming $600 million US Department of Agriculture rural broadband pilot program, said Jannine Miller, senior advisor for rural infrastructure for the USDA. Traditionally, USDA has administered separate broadband loan and grant programs and has not had “the ability to package a loan and grant together – now we do with the rural broadband pilot program,” said Miller.

More than three-quarters (82.4%) of K-12 schools in areas served by rural telecommunication companies are connected to the internet over fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure, according to a new survey of rural telco members of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association. The NTCA rural anchor institution fiber connectivity report also found that 75.9% of hospitals and medical clinics and 63.9% of public libraries in respondents’ serving areas are FTTP-connected.

Being a major metropolitan area usually means having top-tier infrastructure, access to technology and other advantages, but that isn’t the case when it comes to mobile network performance, according to a study of the worst and best mobile wireless cities released by RootMetrics.

Best Mobile Wireless Cities: Topping the rankings was Knoxville (TN), the nation’s 73rd ranked metro area in terms of population, followed by St. Louis (MO) (20th in population), Minneapolis (MN) (16th in pop), Allentown (PA) (60th in pop), and Fort Wayne (IN) (118 in pop).

A new report from the American Action Forum questions the economic impact of rural broadband.