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As Americans file their taxes this Tax Day, digital equity leaders across the nation will gather for a timely exploration of how public dollars are being used to strengthen communities – and how local advocates can negotiate better deals as AI data centers rapidly expand. Co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the next Building for Digital Equity livestream – “Local Dollars, Local Solutions: Digital Equity Tax Money & How to Negotiate Better AI Data Center Deals” – promises to offer insights from frontline forces working to ensure broadband and technology investments serve public needs rather than distant corporate interests.

Lafayette, Louisiana-based LFT Fiber, formerly known as LUS Fiber, says it continues to expand its fiber footprint and introduce faster symmetrical speed tiers to many Louisiana locals long trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The webinar examined what it takes to connect communities floor by floor, building by building. The conversation ranged from why MDU's matter to the business and technical realities of providing Internet access to those who live in them, as well as the federal and state policies that help or hinder the push to give everyone the ability to meaningfully participate in a digital economy.

Los Alamos County, New Mexico is inching closer to the launch of its “Atomic Fiber” county-wide open access fiber network, recently announcing they’ve received signed contracts with the partner ISPs that will be tasked with providing affordable fiber access to local residents.

Don't miss this free webinar, hosted by ILSR and the American Association for Public Broadband, today at 12pm ET. We're talking apartment buildings, public housing, and other multi-dwelling deployments, and all the opportunties and challenges that go along with it. Bring your questions!

Broadband ISPs should be held to a higher public interest standard and regulated like traditional utilities in California, a new joint study by nonprofit state policy news outlet Cal Matters and UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab argues. State governments should also vocally support community broadband networks as a direct challenge to monopoly power, the authors state.

Fledging efforts to build a fiber network in Fort Bragg, California have seen some headwinds in the wake of the project’s original build partner being dismissed. The need to find a new vendor to help the city toward its goal has resulted in significantly higher costs and some notable delays, though city leaders say they’re still dedicated to guiding the project to completion.

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it sought to modernize regulatory structures for the digital age. Three decades later, architects of the ‘96 Act say it achieved many of those goals, but numerous legal challenges reshaped how key provisions were implemented.

ILSR's Christopher Mitchell talks to State Scoop about the far reaching significance of a new affordable Internet law passed in New Mexico and how state's can take the lead in the absence of federal action. Senate Bill 152 – first filed on January 26 of this year by State Sen. Michael Padilla, (D) Majority Whip – will update the state’s Rural Telecommunications Act and empower the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) to offer up to $30/month for qualified households to pay for Internet service.

Last May, we shared a dashboard we built to track how community networks were doing in California's Last-Mile Federal Funding Account broadband grant program. With a new round of winners recently announced, we've updated our dashboards to show who, where, and how much community networks are getting.

Our popular webinar serieswith the American Association of Public Broadband returns on March 19. It will dive into the challenge of how local communities are tackling the digital divide in multi-dwelling units.

In late 2024 the Biden FCC implemented a new rule requiring that broadband providers include a “nutrition label for broadband", but a lack of enforcement made their impact lukewarm, and now the new FCC is looking to water down their effectiveness even more.

Another round of two-year ACLS fellowships has opened up that aims to take those with degrees in sociology, literature, political science, geography, history, and similar fields and place them with social justice-oriented nonprofits around the United States.

Bergen County, New Jersey officials say they’re making significant progress on their plan to dramatically expand Bergen County Fiber – the county’s new municipal fiber Institutional Network (I-Net) – with recently completed deployments in communities like Little Ferry and Lodi.

Chittenden County Communication Union District recently completed a planned fiber extension into the heavily rural communities of Essex Town, Essex Junction, Jericho, Shelburne, Westford, and Williston. The deployment was completed in partnership with Fidium Fiber, which says the expansion brought fiber optic connectivity to more than 1,900 homes and businesses across the six towns for the first time ever.

lllinois State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, has introduced legislation directing regulators to set broadband price protections for low-income residents, though the bill text leaves key details to be determined later. The measure joins those in other states, including Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota, that have introduced measures aimed at capping broadband prices for qualifying households.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law today new legislation that aims to provide tens of thousands of low-income households in “The Land of Enchantment” an Internet lifeline similar to the now-expired federal Affordable Connectivity Program. It makes the state the first to step up in the absence of federal action to support households that just can’t afford to pay for monthly service, and will directly support 173,000 households, offering up to a $30/month for qualified households to pay for Internet service.

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa (also referred to as Ojibwe) has officially begun construction on a foundational fiber optic broadband expansion project in northern Minnesota. The ambitious undertaking is supported by a significant $20 million grant awarded under the 2021 Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, marking a major step forward in modernizing infrastructure for the sovereign nation.

We've been adding features and functionality to our brand new community network map to show in more detail where and what publicly owned networks are building around the United States. Today, we take a big step: adding Tribal networks serving their communities to the map.

Close to a 1,000 broadband-minded registrants attended yesterday’s NTIA listening session, surfacing suggestions on how to spend “non-deployment” funds. Given how many advocates attended yesterday’s listening session, NTIA officials agreed to hold yet another listening session next Wednesday, February 18.