Texas

While city and state governments may move slowly, a nonprofit organization has the agility to convene people, test ideas, and work faster.

Infrastructure provider Zayo has been awarded $27.8 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to expand critical middle-mile infrastructure and help deliver equitable Internet access across Dallas County. The project will enable local internet service providers (ISPs) to extend high-speed internet to areas most in need, including approximately 24,000 households in Dallas County that currently lack home internet access, and serve as a catalyst for future economic growth and innovation in the region. Zayo’s new middle-mile fiber network in Dallas County will directly address

Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks joined Rep Marc Veasey (D-TX) at Lady Bird Johnson Middle School to discuss the important role of student connectivity and the FCC’s efforts to expand internet access. Established in 1996, the FCC’S E-Rate program helps schools and libraries to obtain broadband. The FCC has recently taken steps to modernize this program to ensure it addresses the changing connectivity needs of students.

Fiber provider FiberLight has been selected to build a 10 Gbps fiber network for the Region 16 Education Services Center (ESC) in the Panhandle area of Texas. The project is part of the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program, which gives discounts to eligible schools and libraries to make internet access and telecommunications services more affordable to eligible schools and libraries. For this E-rate project, FiberLight will provide technical assets and expertise to the region, which will generate $10 million as part of its 22% of the E-Rate program.

In a deal that will focus on networking in Texas, Highline has acquired Liberty-based Internet Management Services (IMS). The combined company plans to expand its footprint in the southeast region of the state. Highline traces its roots back more than 125 years and has been involved in fiber deployments for 27 years. In addition to Texas, it is active in Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, and Nebraska. Its networks provide 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber connections within its footprint.

The state of Texas has begun accepting applications for nearly $730 million in broadband funding. Applications are due by August 26, 2024. Applicants can request funding for any of 24 counties. Funding targets the two neediest counties in each of the state’s 12 economic regions.

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

Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season to hit the U.S, spiraled 80 mile per hour winds through Houston, Texas, and is now heading northeast and beyond. More than 2 million people in Texas are without power. There are reports of outages on the AT&T and Verizon cellular networks in Texas in the wake of storm, as well as disruptions to Internet service providers such as Xfinity. Here’s what’s going on with the big three mobile operators:

I’m here today to urge you—city officials, business leaders, educators, digital equity advocates and city residents—to consider moving forward on building a city-wide, city-owned broadband network.  I was asked by a Texas Public Radio reporter a few days ago whether now was the right time, and I said—it’s past time. If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it was that affordable, high speed broadband Internet access is essential for full participation in our society, our economy, our education and health care systems, and our democracy.

An unexpected volunteer, a geographic information system (GIS) mapping expert helped a rural community in Texas establish its broadband connection. Bernie South is the GIS volunteer who mapped the data using information from the Census, school district hotpost addresses and areas of growth in the county. South began volunteering with Bastrop County Cares during the pandemic to vaccinate people, he said.