Regional

The third grant program funded by the Digital Equity Act of 2021 is the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. This information can guide organizations as they Get Ready to prepare their applications. The grant's purpose is to create the conditions where individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in the society and economy of the United States. Allowable uses of grant awards include:

In 2019, the Vermont Department of Public Service found that nearly a quarter of Vermont addresses lacked service that met the then federal benchmarks for broadband speeds (25/3 megabits per second, or Mbps). The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored the urgent need in a state that has consistently ranked near the bottom of connectivity comparisons over the past decade. Vermonters saw a lack of interest from private providers to invest in the sparsely populated rural state and recognized that communities needed to address the problem themselves.

NEK Broadband and CVFiber announce a preliminary plan to join the two Communications Union Districts (CUDs). The proposed merger would unite resources, experience, expertise, and a shared commitment to deliver exceptional high-speed internet services to their collective 71 communities. Working together, they will be better able to support digital equity, economic growth, and community development across the Northeast Kingdom and Central Vermont.

Western Governors encourage Congress and federal agencies to recognize that the current definition of broadband – 25/3 Mbps – does not correspond with the requisite download and upload speeds necessary to support many business, education, and health care applications that promote economic and community prosperity.

North Texas Innovation Alliance is a 501(c)3 regional consortium of over 40 municipalities, agencies, corporations and academic institutions across North Texas working to create the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country. The alliance is re-launching the "Internet for North Texas Coalition” (I4NTX).

San Francisco (CA) has offered jail tablets and their content at no cost to incarcerated people, part of a wave of institutions starting to decouple carceral communications from a profit motive. The free tablet program was introduced in May of 2023, a logical follow-up to San Francisco making jail phone calls free in 2020, the first county in the country to do so and the second city after New York. Before 2023, the San Francisco jails had never implemented any tablet program for all inmates.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) named 47 communities as 2023 Digital Inclusion Trailblazers, recognizing the efforts of local governments to close the digital divide. These communities span 23 states, and demonstrate the important role municipal, county, and regional governments have in digital inclusion. NDIA launched a valuable resource with an open collection of 591 resources and documents from all of the 2023 Trailblazer awardees.

Glo Fiber, powered by Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel), reached a partnership with municipal officials to deploy next-generation fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services to the City of Lancaster (PA). Glo Fiber will utilize portions of the city’s extensive existing fiber network and provide key fiber assets to the City for Smart City uses. Engineering work is currently underway, and construction is slated to begin in mid-2024 and last approximately 18 months.

How Congress, the federal Executive Branch, state and local governments, and carriers can forestall likely, measurable declines in broadband geographical penetration and subscription rates achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, a look at the reforms needed to make ongoing universal service subsidy programs sustainable and more effective in achieving additional progress in bridging the Digital Divide as emergency grant programs wind down.

The future for rural areas without internet access could be bleak, said Simone of GrantWorks. If an area lacks the internet connectivity businesses and employees need for work and life, they won’t stay there. Communities that do invest in broadband, however, could grow. That's why the East Texas Council of Governments is planning for broadband expansion in the region.