Universal Broadband

Broadband Expansion May Hinge on States’ Processes for Attaching Lines to Utility Poles

Increasing broadband deployment has been a critical component of the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a central aspect of the recent wave of funding aimed at modernizing the country’s infrastructure. However, achieving the goal of those federal commitments will require a new degree of public and private sector collaboration, and one issue in particular is causing a disproportionate amount of uncertainty: the attaching of lines for broadband to utility poles. To better understand pole attachment challenges and begin to identify possible policy solutions, The Pew Charitabl

Proposed Second Quarter 2025 Universal Service Contribution Factor

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2025 will be 0.366 or 36.6 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the FCC. The FCC calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications re

BEAD bonanza disappears from vendors' 2025 hopes

It was initially viewed as a "once in a lifetime" funding effort, a moonshot geared toward connecting all Americans to the Internet after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the extent of the digital divide in the US.

Minnesota’s Broadband Expansion Faces New ‘Roadblock’

Minnesota’s push to bring high-speed internet to every corner of the state could hit a roadblock.

At the Center for Changing Lives, Digital Skills and Financial Opportunity Go Hand in Hand

For over 35 years, the Center for Changing Lives (CCL) has worked to connect Chicagoans to financial services that will, well, change their lives. CCL operates in four main categories of work: 1) U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counseling and financial coaching, 2) employment coaching and digital literacy, 3) resource development coaching, and 4) small business coaching.

Meet the Women Transforming the Broadband Industry: 7 Women Driving Digital Inclusion

The broadband industry is constantly evolving. New developments in internet connectivity, from Li-Fi to 5G internet, have changed how we get online over the years.

Texas Adds to List of BOOT Program Broadband Grants

The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) Program, which announced a second round of broadband grants for $701.9 million earlier in 2025, has updated its list of grantees to include seven new awards. The awards now cover more than 76,000 locations in Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Carson, Coleman, Colorado, Edwards, Falls, Fannin, Irion, Karnes, Kenedy, Liberty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Roberts, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.

New York City creates digital equity officer role, roadmap

New York City officials on revealed a $2.4 million project to advance digital equity. Mayor Eric Adams and city Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser announced the NYC Digital Equity Roadmap, a document containing 11 initiatives the city says it will undertake in the coming months to continue closing the gap in access to broadband service across the five boroughs.

State of Maryland Bridges Digital Divide with New Digital Infrastructure Group

In this week’s episode of Fiber for Breakfast, Gary was joined by Eric Bathras, the Chief Technology Officer for Infrastructure at the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT).

Resilient Kentucky Responds to Latest Floods

Over Valentine's Day weekend 2025, parts of Appalachia, many still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helene just 5 months earlier, were battered by another round of heavy rain and flooding.