Thousands of rural Wisconsinites may lose broadband and disabled voters may get help to vote

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read

A fight between the FCC and a broadband provider could cost thousands of Wisconsin homes broadband internet service

  • More than 88,000 homes and businesses in rural Wisconsin could miss out on getting high-speed internet service because the Federal Communications Commission denied funding for the service provider, LTD Broadband. Las Vegas-based LTD, which covers large swaths of the Midwest, says it will appeal the FCC’s decision to not move forward with $1.32 billion in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund grants the company won for roughly 500,000 locations in 15 states. “We clearly think they broke their own rules in arriving at their decision,” said LTD Chief Executive Officer Corey Hauer.

  • Recently the agency said it was denying the funding for LTD as well as $889 million for Elon Musk’s Starlink Communications. The reversals came nearly two years after the grant awards were announced but were subject to further scrutiny. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said LTD and Starlink failed to demonstrate they could live up to the RDOF requirements. “We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements,” she said in a statement.

  • LTD had submitted winning bids in 15 states. But the company struggled to receive telecom carrier status in seven of them, according to the FCC, rendering it ineligible for RDOF support in those states. “Ultimately, the FCC review concluded that LTD was not reasonably capable of deploying a network of the scope, scale and size required by its extensive winning bids,” the agency said. Currently, the company only has a small presence in Wisconsin. But its fixed-wireless internet service, where the signal is sent to homes and businesses from transmitters mounted on towers and buildings, covers parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Wisconsin disabled voters may have help returning their ballots, federal judge rules

  • Wisconsin voters who have disabilities that prevent them from returning ballots themselves may receive assistance while voting, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge James Peterson said the federal Voting Rights Act allows disabled voters to have friends or family return their ballots despite a recent state Supreme Court decision that barred such practices.

  • The voters brought the lawsuit in July after the state Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled state law does not permit unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes and that voters could not give absentee ballots to someone else to submit to a clerk's office. It did not bar others from dropping absentee ballots in the mailbox for voters.

  • "I'm thrilled with the ruling today from Judge Peterson," said Martha Chambers of Milwaukee, who is paralyzed from the neck down. "The fact that now people who vote absentee, specifically, people with disabilities, now are assured that they can vote with the assistance of an agent, a loved one, a caregiver, like I vote — it's thrilling. It's reassuring."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thousands of rural Wisconsinites may lose broadband