Legislation

The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) will match town Local Fiscal Recovery American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund contributions dedicated to broadband in an expanded town match program as part of the VCBB’s Act 71 Broadband Construction Grant Program. To be matched, the funds must be pledged to the Communications Union District (CUD) serving the town or to an eligible provider committing to build out to all underserved locations in a community if the town is not a member of a CUD.

There’s a story Republicans tell about the politics of rural America, one aimed at both rural people and the rest of us. It goes like this: 'Those coastal urban elitist Democrats look down their noses at you, but the GOP has got your back. They hate you; we love you. They ignore you; we’re working for you. Whatever you do, don’t even think about voting for a Democrat.' That story pervades our discussion of the rural-urban divide in US politics. But it’s fundamentally false. The reality is complex.

The Ending Platform Monopolies Act (H.R. 3825) would restrict some business activities for large online platforms. Specifically, the bill would prohibit large online platforms from using their platforms to sell goods and services from other lines of business that the platform owns and operates; requires business users to purchase products or services from the platform to obtain access to or preferred placement on the platform, or operating lines of business that create of interest. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the following effects:

An explosive report from nonprofit journalism outlet The Markup analyzed data on internet speeds and pricing in 38 US cities and found that AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink all disproportionately offered lower-income and less-white neighborhoods slower internet for the same price that nearby whiter, wealthier neighborhoods paid for faster speeds.

Back in April, Illinois enacted legislation, the Broadband Infrastructure Advancement Act (P.A. 102-0699), that requires overarching procedures to make use of coming federal monies to support broadband deployment projects.

How can policymakers best estimate Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) eligibility and participation rates? The key finding here is that using 200% of the Federal Poverty Level as the only eligibility criteria significantly undercounts eligible households and therefore inflates participation rates. Further, the undercount varies significantly across states (which we hypothesize is linked to whether states expanded Medicaid eligibility after 2010).

Officials from Washington County (PA) are pressing ahead with an ambitious internet access expansion plan by earmarking up to $50 million to connect 5,000 homes, schools, and businesses. The project, which is the latest phase of a plan to connect all of the county, will unfold over six to nine months, leverage additional capital funds from vendors, and target poorly served areas for service, including the eight municipalities comprising the McGuffey School District, which is the most underserved school system in the county. Altogether, 700 miles of fiber optic cable will be strung in the la

New federal programs and resources through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act  provide an unprecedented opportunity to build on the existing infrastructure and expertise of our nation’s libraries to inform state digital equity plans and accelerate broadband adoption and skills building for all nationwide. Libraries provide:

The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) was established by Act 71 (2021), legislation relating to accelerated community broadband deployment, to coordinate, facilitate, support, and accelerate the development and implementation of universal community broadband solutions. The board develops policies and programs to accelerate community efforts that advance the state’s goal of achieving universal access to reliable, high-quality, affordable, fixed broadband achieving speeds of at least 100 Mbps symmetrical. On October 26, the U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission rejected dozens of requests from broadband providers to keep confidential the method that the providers use to identify broadband coverage areas. This was prompted by the FCC requiring each provider to explain to the agency how it determined broadband coverage areas in the latest round of gathering data for the FCC broadband maps.