Broadband

The $20 million contract meant to connect every Cleveland resident to high-speed Internet was put on hold this week when concerns were raised about whether the nonprofit DigitalC has the capabilities to see the work through.

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, the Indiana Broadband Office and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs have announced that Ohio and Dearborn counties, the town of Moores Hill, the town of Dillsboro and the city of Rising Sun are the newest Broadband Ready Communities.

Plus, Mississippi nets more federal funds to connect residents to affordable Internet, Connecticut directs $10 million to upgrade its senior centers, and more.

Sen. Joe Manchin announced the addition of some 86,000 unserved locations to West Virginia’s portion of the FCC broadband map. The map will be used to distribute funding to areas in need of Internet expansion.

School-approved devices in participating districts can connect to secure Wi-Fi well beyond the classroom or student homes under Kajeet's expanded partnership with eduroam, a roaming Wi-Fi service for school networks.

With staffing issues and few resources, rural counties are most likely to have missed the deadline for correcting the broadband map, meaning they will miss out on millions of dollars in federal funding meant to bring the Internet to rural America.

A fiber-to-home broadband project in the village of Poplar was one of 24 to be awarded a 2023 State Broadband Expansion Grant. The $523,423 grant for the project will be matched by the ISP overseeing the work.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday signed an agriculture and broadband spending bill into law. The new law earmarks $100 million in funding for rural Internet expansion.

Plus, San Francisco launches a new initiative to support awareness for the Affordable Connectivity Program; Charter Communications commits another $1 million to a digital education initiative; and more.

Yakima County, Wash., has been awarded more than $11.3 million by the state's Broadband Office as part of $121 million in grants awarded to 19 projects in underserved communities statewide.

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, the Indiana Broadband Office, and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs announced Decatur County has been designated as the state's 77th Broadband Ready Community.

Residents in rural Marion County likened Internet service to “a dead turtle” while offering officials feedback on the state of broadband in the region. The input was gathered as part of a six-county listening session.

A $10 million grant from Google.org is expanding digital navigator programs in 18 rural or tribal communities nationwide, and advocates say the lessons could inform work for years to come.

Local nonprofit DigitalC has presented its $40 million plan, funded both publicly and privately, to improve Internet access in a city that has lagged behind its peers in this area.

One option would provide an affordable monthly broadband plan through a local nonprofit, while the second option would come through a proposed agreement with SiFi Networks to build fiber-optic lines across the city.

Plus, a new report looks at what digital inclusion efforts are lacking, a pair of organizations are partnering to promote broadband careers to students and more.

High school and college students will be part of Massachusetts' Digital Equity Partnerships Program, a grant funding initiative to train seniors in technology skills and how to use devices.

The Polis administration has made it a goal to get 99 percent of the state connected to reliable broadband by 2027, but nearly 194,000 households and businesses remain unconnected to the Internet.