The National Telecommunications and Information Administration plans to create a program that makes grants to eligible entities for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of middle-mile broadband infrastructure. The Middle Mile Grants Program seeks to encourage the expansion of middle-mile infrastructure and to promote network resiliency.

‍

Executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition John Windhausen discusses what the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes and what it omits. The Act includes a number of SHLB Coalition initiatives, but Windhausen worries that anchor institutions may not end up with the gigabit speeds called for in the National Broadband Plan.

‍

A description of Thundercloud, a nonprofit looking to build a 585-mile fiber network in the nine-county Advantage Valley region of West Virginia. The network will reach underserved areas, boost economic development, and connect anchor institutions.

‍

This blog dissects the section of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that allocates $1 billion for middle mile infrastructure. In addition to providing an overview of the program, the piece recommends bringing the energy sector—utilities, electric cooperatives, and oil and gas companies—as partners on middle mile projects.

‍

This State Broadband Plan from West Virginia, published in 2019, reviews activities to date of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council and sets the Council's goals for facilitating broadband deployment while outlining numerous strategies to meet those goals.

This resource examines state broadband programs nationwide, identifying nine states engaging in what it identifies as promising practices such as stakeholder outreach, planning and capacity building, and program evaluation and evolution.

This resource shares results of a Pew Research Center survey that explores the disproportionate relationship between people with disabilities and digital device ownership and use.

This resource explains the impact of the new California legislation S.B. 4 and A.B. 14, which allow local cities and counties to access infrastructure dollars along with empowering local private entities, rather than depending on private multi-national entities which, the EFF argues, are not willing to make the needed generational investment into infrastructure in most areas of the state.