Universal Broadband

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund was the biggest attempt at the time to solve the rural broadband gap. The Federal Communications Commission had originally slated $20.4 billion to award to internet service providers in a reverse auction, meaning the ISP willing to take the smallest subsidy for a given area won the funding. Winners were to collect the funding over 10 years and had up to seven years to build the promised networks. The program ran into problems in several dramatic ways.

On November 1, 2024, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) and its Wisconsin Broadband Office (WBO) received over $13 million in Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). With this funding, WBO will implement the activities in its state Digital Equity Plan.

Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) has preliminary applications from internet service providers (ISPs) to serve nearly every eligible address in the state under Vermont’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (VT-BEAD) Program. Vermont’s allocation of BEAD funds is almost $229 million. The applications were from a preliminary round, which was a mandatory step for any ISP seeking VT-BEAD funds for broadband construction.

With all the buzz around what will and won’t happen to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, it’s easy to forget the government’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is chugging along – albeit on a road rife with defaults and rural areas left behind. As of 2025, internet service providers (ISPs) have defaulted on $3.3 billion of the $9.2 billion total in RDOF awards, according to a study from the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition appointed Joseph Wender as its new Executive Director, effective March 10, 2025, succeeding founding Executive Director John Windhausen. This transition comes at a pivotal moment in broadband policy, including a pending Supreme Court decision on the future of the Universal Service Fund (USF). Since its founding, SHLB has led efforts to ensure that every school, library, healthcare provider, and anchor institution has access to affordable, high-speed broadband.

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has issued a periodic update on its middle-mile and last-mile initiatives. The report says that almost 3,100 miles of Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative (MMBI) have “gone to installation” through the CDT’s joint build, indefeasible right-of-use/lease partnerships, and Caltrans constructions. The total is nearly half of the roughly 8,000 miles that will be deployed Caltrans says that it is continuing to make progress in moving from pre-construction to installation of almost 800 miles of network.

Now that New York’s Affordable Broadband Act has gone into effect, other states are looking to mandate low broadband rates for low-income households. The New York law went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the case. State Senator Pavel Pavano (D-MA) of Massachusetts proposed SD1200, “An Act preserving broadband service for low-income consumers”.

On December 6, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) over $5.7 million in Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program funding towards closing the digital divide in the state. Maine plans to use these funds to spearhead a number of initiatives, including:

New economic analysis of the Affordable Connectivity Program—which offered monthly broadband service subsidies to low-income households—finds that the economic benefits generated by the program far outweigh its costs. Highlights include:

Many stakeholders were shocked when it came to light that over a third of $9.2 billion in winning bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund broadband program were rejected after the Federal Communications Commission reviewed winning bidders’ long-form applications. And the tally of RDOF defaults isn’t complete yet. A Benton Institute analysis found that bids associated with nearly $112.8 million in additional RDOF funding are in default. The additional defaults represent nearly 1.9 million locations that had been expected to receive service.