This report explores state broadband policy in North Carolina and examines its effects on competition. The report finds that rural communities in North Carolina see less investment and less competition than their urban counterparts and that cooperatives are responsible for many of the rural broadband successes in the state.

This resource shares the experiences of four Native Nations—the Coeur d’Alene, the Nez Perce, the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe, and the St. Regis Mohawk—as they developed their own broadband networks. The case studies examine the unique challenges Native Nations confront as they seek to build internet infrastructure and address the digital divide while also retaining the Tribal sovereignty that is essential to their identity and heritage.

Georgia’s 2021 annual report provides an update on statewide broadband development and recaps the accomplishments of the previous year, such as continued public-private cooperation, a comprehensive mapping program, and offers of technical assistance to local communities.

Produced in March 2011, this strategic plan assesses Florida’s governmental broadband infrastructure service offerings; describes and analyzes internal and external models for providing broadband; reviews and evaluates future public sector broadband needs, with strategies for their implementation; identifies broadband availability and adoption barriers; and recommends methods to cost-efficiently optimize broadband use.

An article from December 2020 that makes a case for more subsidies to expand broadband into rural areas of the United States. The author also recommends engaging electrical cooperatives, using alternative technologies, and entering into public-private partnerships.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that fiber is the best option for last-mile infrastructure, contrasting it with coaxial cable and wireless last-mile infrastructure. It explains concepts like bandwidth, latency, channel capacity, and noise.

In this blog, EducationSuperHighway discusses the importance and difficulty of upgrading bandwidth using fiber in rural school districts using the example of LLano Independent School District in Texas.

In this blog, EducactionSuperHighway describes how Polar Communications worked with local school districts for deliver broadband to North Dakota students in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. This blog also provides recommendations on how to work with local telecommunications companies to build solutions for students and schools.

This blog by EducationSuperHighway details how Prince William County Public Schools successfully sought out support to aid in upgrading their bandwidth in order to provide internet access to current students and prepare for future scaling projects.

This resource describes a high-level approach to adapting a governance process to support identified broadband needs and produce the greatest community value. The paper presents a governance framework in which stakeholder drivers and needs and the process of organizing for service contribute to value creation.

This resource provides tools and guidelines that libraries can use to evaluate their current and future needs and to find broadband services that fit their budgets and goals. Using this report, a library or library system will be able to specify needs such as bandwidth, quality of service, and network type.

This strategic plan for New Mexico provides a framework for future efforts to eliminate the state's broadband gap, including a means of combatting the economic impact of Covid-19. Recommendations focus on using grant programs to expand rural broadband, prioritizing fiber-based rural solutions for longevity, prioritizing construction of new fiber and wireless networks, and including broadband considerations in all Covid-19 recovery planning.

This document is intended to assist policymakers and library professionals to fully understand the importance of prioritizing bandwidth and internet access for today and the future. It describes how libraries currently use bandwidth to fulfill their mission, how that role is expanding and evolving, and how library professionals and policymakers can quantify the bandwidth libraries need to incubate opportunity and innovation.

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This testimony by Joanne Hovis, presented to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, argues that areas with high infrastructure costs per user fail to attract the private capital necessary to build networks. Further, it presents steps that state, local, and federal government can take to improve the economics of broadband deployment and incentivize investment.

This survey and speed test tool is designed to gather data about the availability and speed of internet service, including to identify locations that lack such service. The results can be used to inform broadband planning efforts.