Community Connect Grant Program Accepting Applications
USDA Rural Development has opened a grant application period for the Community Connect Grant Program. This program provides funds to eligible applicants that will provide broadband service in rural, economically challenged communities where service does not exist. Eligible applicants include state and local governments, federally recognized Tribes, nonprofits, for-profit corporations, and limited liability companies. Eligible areas for the grant include rural areas that lack any existing broadband service of at least 10/1 Mbps. Applications are due by June 29, 2026.
HiCountryNet Ribbon Splicing
Paul Murdock, HiCountryNet Founder, and Rebecca Dilg participate in the Ribbon Splicing
HiCountryNet, a local internet service provider based in Herriman, Utah, recently completed construction on a Broadband Access Grant-funded project. This project brought reliable broadband to an underserved community on the west side of Herriman to 268 locations. At the celebratory “Fiber Ribbon Splicing” event, UBC met with HiCountryNet, family, key suppliers, and several of the neighbors who have been served by the project. This project has been a labor of love for HiCountryNet that will provide high-quality service to the impacted community for many years to come.
Box Elder County Ribbon Splicing
The Box Elder County Broadband Access Grant project was recently completed in partnership with Beehive Broadband. This project served over 1500 locations in six communities across Box Elder County: Mantua, Howell, Elwood, Bear River City, Thatcher, and Penrose. A ribbon splicing ceremony was held at Golden Spike Historical Monument to commemorate this project. Just as the joining of the Transcontinental Railroad brought new opportunities connecting the nation improving travel and communication, the fiber network installed in Box Elder County will connect communities to the myriad local to global resources available through broadband.
Attendees at the Box Elder County Ribbon Splicing
Utah Broadband Alliance Meeting
UBC held its quarterly Broadband Alliance meeting on May 20, 2026. Presenters discussed opportunities to partner with Senior Planet to license computer access programming for adults 50+; provided an update on the completed Navajo Mountain Connect Project from Emery Telcom; gave a report from Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) on the annual statewide K-12 IT inventory; and participated in a panel with Duraline, Millennium, and Prysmian on Build America Buy America (BABA) compliance and supply chain issues. A recording of the meeting and the meeting slides have been posted on UBC’s website.
Mountain Connect Hosted Buyer Program
Mountain Connect has notified UBC of a new Hosted Buyer Program. Mountain Connect invites internet service providers to meet with vendors in a private setting to discover new partners at this year’s Mountain Connect conference in August. Participants in the Hosted Buyer Program will receive complimentary conference registration and Mountain Connect will cover their travel expenses.
BEAD Technical Assistance Corner
UBC has developed a Technical Assistance (TA) webpage for BEAD award recipients. The page includes Frequently Asked Questions, training materials on compliance topics such as NEPA and BABA, and recorded presentations from our in-person training event from February 2026. This new BEAD Technical Assistance Corner section of our newsletter will highlight one technical assistance resource from that webpage each month.
UBC has requested that BEAD awardees review their project areas and, if necessary, segment them into separate areas for NEPA reviews. Each NEPA area must have independent utility, meaning that the network to be built in each NEPA area must be able to function on its own, without needing other parts of the project to be built first. To help BEAD awardees decide whether and how to segment their project areas, UBC has published a NEPA Project Area Review Form. This form will help awardees determine whether segmentation is appropriate for their project.
Upcoming Events
Connecting Utah Call: June 17, 2026
This call will focus on additional technical assistance for BEAD subgrantees
Broadband Alliance Meeting: August 19, 2026