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.

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.

The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.

Dr. Tamarah Holmes, Ph.D., has announced her transition into a new role in Virginia as the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  This position is a gubernatorial appointment in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Holmes has assumed the role of Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), which is appointed by the Governor.

The role is a culmination of Holmes’ almost 20 years in Virginia civil service, which includes 12 years with the state and almost seven as its broadband director. While BEAD has taken up most of her days in recent years, she tells broadband.io that what she is most proud of is the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI). Approaching 10 years since it was “birthed” by Holmes, she says her “fourth child” is ready for who and what’s next.

The FCC begins a rulemaking to speed deployment of wireless infrastructure, reduce red tape, and promote 5G and future 6G growth.

March 3, 2026 - The cable operator warned Nexstar’s proposed $6 billion TEGNA acquisition could drive higher retransmission fees and more blackouts for subscribers.

After a sluggish period of activity, cable operators are starting to move ahead more aggressively with DOCSIS network upgrades, according to Vistance Networks, a company formed last month in the wake of CommScope's sale of its Connectivity & Cable Solutions unit to Amphenol. Amphenol also acquired the CommScope brand via that transaction.

"We're seeing a resurgence in DOCSIS upgrade activity," Vistance CEO Chuck Treadway said today on the company's Q4 2025 earnings call, its first since making the change.

Meanwhile, Comcast is deploying Full Duplex (FDX) amplifiers "at better than expected levels," Treadway added. FDX amps are a critical piece of Comcast's DOCSIS 4.0 architecture.

• The network is the largest off-reservation, tribally owned and operated broadband project in Wisconsin's history.
• The Sokaogon Mole Lake Ojibwe Tribe is launching a $72 million broadband network in northeast Wisconsin.
• This project will install 900 miles of fiber-optic cable to serve about 4,600 homes and businesses.

The Sokaogon Mole Lake Ojibwe Tribe in northeast Wisconsin is launching the largest off-reservation tribally owned and operated broadband network in the state’s history.

The $72 million project promises to bring high-speed internet service faster and more reliably than anything currently available for rural communities in the region, including Elon Musk’s Starlink. Internet service has been spotty and unreliable in the region.

The United States woke up on Feb. 28 to news that President Trump had ordered strikes on Iran without congressional authorization, launching another illegal, deadly and expanding war in the Middle East. 

With nearly two-thirds of people in the United States opposed to airstrikes on Iran, inquiring minds will turn to news sources and the internet to understand what’s happening and why. And with the growing threats of massive media consolidation and biased AI, it will only grow more challenging for people to access truthful, unbiased information in this scary and chaotic moment. 

Indeed, Trump and his allies have made it no secret that their strategy is to consolidate the media into the hands of right-wing oligarchs and to — as Steve Bannon would say — “flood the zone with shit.” The goal is to make it difficult for people to discern fact from fiction. These figures modeled their takeover of our media system after what autocrat Viktor Orbán did when he destroyed independent journalism in Hungary.

It’s straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

Trump and his allies are working to consolidate the media into the hands of right-wing oligarchs. This is especially dangerous in a time of war.

Vermont’s Communications Union Districts (CUDs), which were the subject of a 2024 ILSR report, continue to make steady inroads in delivering high-quality broadband access to long-neglected rural Vermont residents. 

That includes the Chittenden County Communication Union District (CCCUD), which recently announced the completion of 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.

The Finnish company Jolla is back with the Linux-powered Jolla Phone. It’s being positioned as an antidote to the US-dominated smartphone status quo of Android and iOS.

Analysts Don Kellogg and Roger Entner unpack the week’s top telecom stories, including a leadership shakeup at Charter, accelerating rural consolidation, and the strategic void left by 5G Americas' dissolution.

David Ellison talks Warner Bros. in first comments about the megadeal that will combine Paramount and Warners.

AI data centers are expanding rapidly. Learn how communities can negotiate public benefit agreements that deliver jobs, infrastructure, and digital opportunity.

Dish Wireless has completed the legal trifecta with the nation's top tower owners after SBA Communications joined American Tower and Crown Castle in filing lawsuits against the EchoStar subsidiary for allegedly breaching its tower rental contracts. 

SBA filed its suit on February 2 with the US District Court for the Western District of New York. Per a redacted complaint (Light Reading has posted a copy here), Dish leased space on "thousands" of SBA towers via a master lease agreement (MLA) and supplements to that agreement as the company embarked on its plan to build a national 5G network back in 2021. 

Reflecting a situation echoed by American Tower and Crown Castle in their respective lawsuits against Dish, SBA noted that Dish issued a letter in September 2025 claiming it was "excused" from its tower rental contract. 

The merger of Charter Communications and Cox Communications did not face a ton of opposition, but the FCC brushed any aside in approving the transaction late last week. 

The FCC also lauded Charter for committing to "new safeguards" that fit with the agency's clamp-down on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, despite a strong rebuke from Anna Gomez, the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner. 

The FCC's stamp of approval arrived just days after Charter sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr confirming that Charter had "ended" its DEI policies and outlining other actions that it said would ensure a "work environment free from invidious discrimination, in both name and substance." 

Today’s blogs looks at some of the recent breakthroughs coming out of labs and research facilities that could have practical applications that could eventually benefit the broadband industry. Rainbow Chip. Researchers at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science have created a chip that turns a single laser beam into a “frequency comb”…

US and Ecuadorian forces launched joint operations Tuesday targeting suspected narco-terrorists in Ecuador, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said.

SOUTHCOM said it was taking “decisive action” against designated terrorist organizations, though it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.

“On March 3, Ecuadorian and US military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador,” SOUTHCOM posted on X.