On Wednesday, December 15, the Communications Workers of America and the Speed Matters campaign released the 2010 Report on Internet Speeds in all 50 States.

Between December 22 and December 31, The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced an additional twenty broadband mapping and planning grants in eighteen states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced $3.4 million in grants to improve Internet connections of public libraries in Kansas, Arkansas, New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Through the Opportunity Online program, the Foundation will partner with fourteen additional states to help libraries compete for broadband stimulus funds.

The US Department of Agriculture released a report that compared job growth in rural areas that adopted broadband at the start of the decade with areas that lack broadband. The conclusion: broadband helps communities and businesses create good-paying jobs. Yet, according to the USDA study, only 41 percent of rural households had broadband connections in 2008.

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Rural Health Care Pilot Program (RHCPP) announced grants for five broadband telehealth networks - connecting hospitals in nine states on April 16. The program will also fund a sixth network in Alaska.

Speed Matters has released our second

Telecommunication service is known to vary widely in availability, quality, and cost for Western Montana residents. Because of this inconsistency, Marcy Allen, executive director of the BitterRoot Economic Development District is calling a for a publicly funded study that would map the areas of poor cell phone service and existing fiber optical cable lines in order to see where more are needed the most. BitterRoot Economic Development District (BREDD), the federally designated economic development district for Western Montana Region covering Ravalli, Mineral, and Missoula counties.

Thanks to our 80,000 Speed Testers, the Speed Matters Campaign has been making waves around the country. On Monday we released a state-by-state report and interactive map on U.S. internet speeds based on the test results.

More than 80,000 people have taken the Speed Matters Speed Test to learn the actual speed of their internet connections. We've used the results of all those speed tests to create the first-ever state-by-state report on internet speeds across America. Our findings were deeply troubling.

In cooperation with Connected Nation, a nonprofit group aimed at expanding high-speed Internet access and other community-based technology improvements, CWA has developed model legislation for state-level Internet policies.