Network

A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to President Biden's Federal Communications Commission, striking down the agency's hard-fought and long-debated open Internet rules.

Plus, a Florida city is expanding public Wi-Fi in parks, Connecticut released its biannual broadband report, libraries around the country will offer digital literacy training, and more.

The federal agency disclosed Chinese state-sponsored bad actors had breached its network and gained access to unclassified documents. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the allegation “unwarranted and groundless.”

In his final State of the City address this year, Mayor Richard Irvin said his city is “becoming a city of bytes, bandwidth and breakthroughs,” highlighting its work expanding broadband access and modernizing its online presence.

Plus, North Carolina launched a new website to support digital inclusion, Massachusetts is investing in connecting public housing properties, CISA issued mobile communications guidance, and more.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program has seen significant advances in 2024, and its program director expects this path will continue in 2025 under a new presidential administration.

The funding will help the state activate its Digital Equity Plan, part of a national endeavor to clear barriers to Internet access and use. The money, a grant, is intended to confront challenges including lack of affordable devices and insufficient digital skills.

The county has pledged the contribution of funds after winning a longshot bid for a state grant toward the endeavor. The state will contribute $26.1 million through its ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program.

Plus, the Federal Communications Commission is pushing for greater network security measures after a cyber attack, additional funding has been awarded through the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, and more.

Officials in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin and Tulare counties are asking why the San Joaquin Valley received just 6.6 percent of the first $804 million California gave out to increase access to affordable broadband.

The company has extended its network north of Sterling, Ill., the latest piece of its $1.4 billion investment in its network in the state during the last three years. This piece brings its full service suite to the county including unserved homes.

Plus, Kansas will soon open funding applications to expand connectivity, a Colorado county is receiving federal funding for broadband, the economic benefits of improving Internet access in Harlan County, Ky., and more.

The State Transportation Board has picked a private-sector collaborator to handle maintenance, operations and commercialization as it builds out 1,400 miles of high-speed Internet infrastructure on all Georgia interstates.

The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act came with billions to invest in broadband nationwide, for rural areas, schools and businesses. Application requirements and other mandates, however, threaten to constrain the deployment of high-speed Internet.

Plus, more states have been awarded federal funding from the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, and the city of Boulder, Colo., has announced a new partnership to expand community broadband.

Kiowa and Elizabeth, Colo., are the state's first communities to get high-speed Internet as a result of its nearly $1 billion allocation of federal broadband funds. The goal is to connect 99 percent of households statewide by 2027.

The Columbia County town of nearly 3,000 got high-speed Internet last week with the completion of a broadband fiber-optic line. Residents and officials realized the impact a lack of high-speed Internet was having during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Boulder City Council has unanimously approved a long-awaited agreement that will eventually empower the rollout of citywide broadband. Officials signed off on letting ALLO Communications LLC lease part of the city’s fiber backbone for 20 years.