Local/Municipal

Mass Priorities is the group calling on local governments to prioritize improvements in water quality, education, and bridge infrastructure over investments in government-owned broadband networks. It is making its message known with a half-million-dollar, three-month advertising barrage, which kicked off on October 31. What is not clear, though, is where the freshly launched group got its money. The Mass Priorities website says that it is a project of the Domestic Policy Caucus, which Policy Director Christopher Thrasher confirmed.

Where are we in terms of closing the seven gaps that we think of, or should think of, as the elements of the digital divide? The seven gaps are the rural access gap, the affordability gap, the operating gap of very high-cost rural providers, the adoption gap, the institutional gap, the cable/copper gap, and the utilization gap. We could be using the network to improve outcomes in education, health care, government services, public safety, carbon reduction, civic engagement, and other public purposes. But to do achieve those goals, we need to close all seven broadband gaps.

The Superior (WI) City Council approved an ordinance that has made broadband internet a public utility. This means that the city can go through with the construction of its own broadband internet service for residents. Slow and expensive internet has been a major problem for Superior residents. Having broadband as a public utility was the project’s final step before construction could start. Residents will be able to choose to be on the city’s internet service when it is completed.

LinkNYC 5G kiosks are part of a citywide program to provide free high-speed internet and other services to people in the city. Stretching more than 30 feet in the air, the kiosks offer free Wi-Fi, free charging, nationwide phone service, and other digital services.

Burlington Telecom has launched the Internet Assistance Program (IAP), a new program aimed at helping the community connect. The program was created to provide affordable dynamic broadband and internet services to qualifying participants. The IAP will offer two broadband choices to eligible customers. The Basic tier includes a 50MB/50MB internet connection at $9.95 a month. and the Enhanced tier includes a 150MB/150MB internet connection for $24.95 a month. Both packages include smart WiFi and free installation for a single outlet. 

Charter Communications announced a nearly $1.25 billion investment in Ohio through its companywide network evolution project and broadband expansion commitments. The investment will enable the delivery of symmetrical gigabit and multi-gigabit speeds across the state, rural broadband expansion programs in Ohio and other customer-benefiting projects. Charter is investing nearly $500 million in a network evolution project in Ohio; the project is expected to be substantially complete across the company’s Ohio service area by the end of 2025. Charter is also expanding its fiber-optic network to

More reliable and higher quality internet could be coming to Fort Worth’s (TX) underserved areas. The Fort Worth City Council approved a $7.5 million, 34-year contract with Dallas-based Sprocket Networks for broadband infrastructure. The contract authorizes the installation of an approximately 300-mile network to connect residents and businesses with internet in locations designated as underserved. Around 17 percent of residents in Fort Worth don’t have access to high-speed internet and 8 percent have no internet access at all.

There is still one more chance for local communities or broadband service providers to fix the maps that will be used to allocate Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program grant funding. Under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) rules for the BEAD grant process, every State Broadband Office (SBO) must conduct one more challenge process to the broadband maps.

Ting Internet, a division of Tucows, has been selected to provide fiber internet service to Memphis residents, businesses, and institutions in partnership with Blue Suede Networks. Ting and Blue Suede Networks created a partnership with financially sustainable goals for both parties.

This paper examines how the quality of Internet service from existing providers is affected when voters in Colorado approve referenda eliminating a barrier to their local governments providing broadband service. Using a difference-in-differences framework, the research design exploits variation in the timing of a community’s approval of a referendum in order to examine whether incumbent private providers adjust their speed offerings in response to the signal that public entry is more likely.