Vernonburg Group: Celebrating Five Years of Growth and Impact
A selection of photos from Vernonburg Group’s engagements and projects over the course of our five years.
This week marks five years since Vernonburg Group’s founding. A lot has happened over the last five years to sharpen and strengthen our collective focus on closing the global digital divide. We’ve seen an increased recognition of the importance of both making digital infrastructure and services universally available and promoting its adoption. We’ve seen massive investment in fiber backbone and last-mile networks and terrestrial fixed wireless and space-based low-earth orbit satellite technologies become mainstream. We’ve also started to realize both the potential and risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. And, we’ve begun to realize the environmental impacts of massive investment in data center infrastructure. We also continue to see disparities. Much of the world continues to race ahead from a technological perspective, while other parts of the world continue to lag. Overall, technological innovation outpaces market adoption.
We founded Vernonburg Group five years ago with the mission to help close the global digital divide. Of course, a small consulting firm couldn’t possibly do that alone. But over the past five years, Vernonburg Group has made its mark, partnering with organizations across sectors and geographies to expand access to affordable, sustainable, and resilient broadband infrastructure and encourage meaningful broadband and digital service adoption worldwide.
Highlights just from Vernonburg Group’s fifth year of operations include:
Creating a Digital Opportunity Index, the first benchmark comprehensively evaluating U.S. publicly-traded internet connectivity providers on their efforts to close the digital divide.
Launching Connect One Billion to provide technical assistance and growth investment to high-potential early-stage internet service providers (ISPs) in low- and middle-income countries.
Preparing the International Telecommunication Union’s Connect Humanity Action Blueprint report, which estimates the cost of closing global internet connectivity and adoption gaps and proposes transformative projects that have the potential to accelerate progress toward universal, meaningful connectivity.
Releasing a paper showing that broadband funding achieves more than twice the impact when invested in adoption-focused programs rather than network overbuilds in already-served areas. The report, Avoiding the Overbuild Trap: Adoption, Not Overbuilding, Drives Connectivity and Digital Opportunity, challenges the practice of using public funds to subsidize new broadband networks in areas where high-speed service is already available.
Completing updates to our Digital Opportunity Map, a geospatial visualization of U.S. broadband availability and adoption, as well as technology costing, at a granular level.
Contributing to the public dialogue in the U.S. on how to responsibly manage once-in-a-lifetime funding for fiber, cable, fixed wireless, and LEO satellite broadband infrastructure projects while creating a Digital Opportunity Dividend that can be spent on digital adoption and other programs.
Conducting comprehensive feasibility studies in sub-Saharan Africa and India, equipping operators with strategic, technical, operational, and financial analysis to scale their services.
This year, we have established new partnerships with county governments including in the great state of New York, increased our international client base, and developed new products and services leveraging our network modelling and data visualization capabilities.
I am constantly impressed by our team’s perseverance and positivity. I am honored to work with such an amazing group of people each day.
Looking to the future, our resolve is steadfast. Vernonburg Group envisions a world with meaningful internet connectivity for every person and community worldwide. We help governments, companies, and other organizations bring meaningful internet connectivity to communities around the world by developing strategies and supportive policy frameworks, forging partnerships, mobilizing capital, and providing actionable data-driven insights.
Vernonburg Group provides end-to-end consulting services to accelerate broadband access, adoption, and digital opportunity. Our work spans policy advisory, engineering, geospatial mapping, feasibility studies, program design, and resource mobilization. Our portfolio spans the U.S. and global markets, from communities across the U.S. to sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Thank you to our clients who make this possible.
I am excited to see what’s in store for the next five years. Let us know how we can help!
Paul Garnett
September 25, 2025
