Local/Municipal

Will a big flurry of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants encounter any big bottlenecks that will slow down the implementation of grant construction? My response is yes, but maybe not the bottlenecks most people expect. I expect some of the following:

Downtown Lexington’s (KY) Gatton Park on the Town Branch will have free public Wi-Fi provided by fiber-internet provider Kinetic in a nearly $1 million, multi-year deal to be the park’s exclusive Wi-Fi provider. Kinetic will install and sustain Wi-Fi gateways (modems/routers) throughout the park enablin

Using our devices comes naturally for those who grew up with technology, or who have had the opportunity to adapt to it over the years. But for those new to it, navigating the digital world can be a confusing muddle. As broadband access and broadband coverage is more available throughout North Carolina, the digital knowledge gap becomes increasingly evident.

After weeks of negotiations, Brightspeed of Southern Alabama and the City of Foley (AL) have agreed to a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by the high-speed broadband company. Brightspeed claimed the City and its Utilities Board have created barriers that violated state and federal law.

Across the country, educators are finding innovative ways to integrate technology into their curricula. Students from marginalized communities often don’t have the chance to engage with technology in meaningful ways, and instead are limited to passive uses of technology that lack rigor and present little opportunity for students to further develop their digital skills. Sometimes this divide stems from a lack of access to devices, but even students who have access often lack the adequate knowledge to utilize devices, and their teachers are typically not adequately trained to embed technology

In 2021 when the pandemic was raging, President Joe Biden led a bipartisan effort to pass the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the Infrastructure Act so low-income families would have subsidized internet service. It was especially important to get low-income families hooked up since their children would need to do their schoolwork from home.

This is the third Federal Broadband Funding Report produced by NTIA, showing fiscal year (FY) 2022 data reported by 12 agencies across 70 programs making investments in broadband. This is the first Federal Broadband Funding Report to highlight trends across three fiscal years of data collected. For the first time, this report not only will release a dashboard of major findings but will also include a comprehensive view of broadband investment data reported across the last three data collections—reflecting broadband investments from FY 2020 to 2022.

Fixed wireless access (FWA) is often thought of as a way to connect remote areas where fiber can’t do the job. But the technology also has a place in the big city, as nonprofit DigitalC has shown. DigitalC kicked off in January an 18-month plan to construct a citywide FWA network in Cleveland.

On July 24, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration published the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Competitive Grant Program. The Competitive Grant Program is the third (and final) set of funds available from the

In  North Kansas City, residents get a steady online connection covered by their taxes. Anyone there who signs up for KC Fiber can get internet service with no monthly bill.