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The state of South Dakota has set a high bar for applicants seeking rural broadband funding in the ConnectSD Broadband Development Program. For example, the state sees fiber broadband as the “gold standard” in broadband technology.

The state of Idaho has awarded nearly $119 million in funding to Ziply, Comcast and 14 others. Ziply won two awards totaling over $14.3 million. Comcast won a single award for over $9.8 million. Other awardees included competitive and incumbent local providers. In addition, some awards went to individual counties. Awardees will contribute matching funds equal to 30 percent of project costs on average. The funding will go toward last mile and middle mile projects. The funding for the program came through the federal Capital Projects Fund.

Virginia will be receiving nearly $1.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program rural broadband funding—one of the higher amounts allotted in the program. Virginia’s goal is to ensure universal service, and as Dr.

Cable giants Charter and Comcast reported considerably different broadband results for the third quarter. As financial analysts at MoffettNathanson put it in a research note about Charter’s earnings, “Every unit metric in Charter’s report is strong, and more to the point, much stronger than Comcast’s.

Charter Communications told the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) that the company will decline a $6.9 million rural broadband award announced in April.

Velocity, founded in 2018 and located in south central Kansas, is a subsidiary of the Butler Electric Cooperative and serves approximately 5,500 consumer customers. Velocity’s fixed wireless service operates on more than one band of unlicensed spectrum, depending on the loading and density of each tower. However, the organization will be migrating to fiber in the coming months and years. As a nonprofit, Velocity is trying to provide service as close to cost as possible. Velocity’s current fixed wireless pricing ranges from $49 (up to 15/3 Mbps) to $84 (up to 100/10 Mbps).

The state of Mississippi will be getting one of the largest allotments in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program–$1.2 billion. The funding comes on top of $151.5 million that the state was awarded from the Capital Projects Fund and an earlier award of $32.6 million from the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP). “We started with a smaller award and the awards have been getting larger and larger," said Sally Doty, director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM).