Tennessee

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter announced that the state will award $101.6 million in funding as part of the second round of broadband and digital opportunity grants. These investments will provide last-mile broadband access and digital opportunity programs to more than 97,000 Tennesseans across 75 counties.

More than a million residents in the southeastern U.S. started the week without fixed broadband and plenty more without cell phone service after Hurricane Helene brought never-before-seen levels of flooding to the valleys of Appalachia. Some operators on the extent of the damage and anticipated timelines for recovery:

The effects of Hurricane Helene are still impacting the southeastern U.S., with widespread cell service outages in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, days after the Category 4 storm made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region.

Tennessee’s digital skills policies are making the state a leader as full-blown implementation of the federal Digital Equity Act begins.

Brightspeed has been awarded more than $213 million in local, state, and federal grants to deploy fiber broadband networks in 12 states.

United Communications snagged a cool $7.98 million through Tennessee's Middle Mile Buildout program. The local provider will use that money to lay down 267 miles of fiber to rural communities across 10 counties.

Brightspeed launched a high-speed internet service that it hopes to reach 160,000 homes and small businesses in Johnson City, Elizabethton, Kingsport, and other surrounding communities in Tennessee. Brightspeed, which is headquartered in Charlotte (NC), is currently the nation’s fourth-largest fiber broadband builder. The company is looking to fill a need in a market where one in 10 Tennessee residents do not have access to high-speed internet. Brightspeed was one of the recipients of $162.7 million in state broadband grants that were announced by Gov.

Broadband provider United Communications and majority owner Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) are partnering to expand the scope of a major fiber buildout that they undertook in 2023. They are expanding a fiber build in Williamson County, Tennessee. Construction in that county was initially designed to reach 2,800 addresses but the new target is 8,000 locations. Funding for the initial stage of the Williamson County project came through Project UNITE, an initiative consisting of United, MTE and Duck River Electric Membership Corporation.

In a step toward transforming Memphis (TN) into the nation's most digitally-equitable large city, Mayor Paul Young (D) broke ground on Memphis' first citywide fiber network. Memphis' median fixed broadband speeds currently rank among the slowest of any major US cities and less than 25 percent of residents have access to superior fiber internet. The citywide infrastructure being designed, built, financed, and managed by Blue Suede Networks, is being designed to pass 85 percent of Memphis' business and residential premises, including 85 percent in low-income communities.

Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart McWhorter announced that Tennessee will award $162.7 million in broadband and digital opportunity grants. In total, these investments will provide broadband access and digital opportunity programs to more than 236,000 Tennesseans across 92 counties. With this announcement, TNECD has invested more than $715 million to expand the state’s broadband infrastructure, connecting more than 689,000 Tennesseans across 275,000 residential and business locations.