telecompetitor

Colorado Broadband Funding Program is Almost Four Times Oversubscribed

The Colorado Broadband Office received 112 applications from 37 entities requesting broadband funding through the Advance Colorado Broadband grant program. The total funding requested totals $643 million, which is almost four times more than the $162 million budgeted for the program. The network operators requesting the funding offered to contribute a total of almost $312 million in matching funds for projects in 47 counties. Thirty counties received one application, and 17 counties received more than one.

Comcast DOCSIS 4.0 Rollout: What’s Under the Hood?

Comcast announced that it will roll out DOCSIS 4.0 in Colorado Springs in late October and to parts of Atlanta and Philadelphia before the end of 2023. The company claims this is a world first. “Initially, customers subscribing to X-Class Internet plans will use the newest Xfinity Advanced Gateway with a companion modem to deliver multi-gig symmetrical speeds,” said Comcast. “[In 2024], Comcast expects to introduce its first DOCSIS 4.0-capable gateways.” X-Class is a new brand name for its symmetrical internet offerings. Comcast will offer symmetrical speeds up to 2 Gbps.

AT&T Touts Tribal Advances

AT&T increased coverage on tribal lands by more than 40 percent between 2020 and 2022, according to Rachel Salinas, president of ICAE, the Inter-Tribal Council of AT&T Employees. The company also expanded the FirstNet mobile broadband public safety network to move than 70 tribal nations. Telecompetitor reports that a recent AT&T collaboration with the Cherokee Nation brought a cellsite to Kenwood (OK) that supports FirstNet connectivity, as well as general connectivity for the tribe.

United Communications CEO Shares Grant-Winning Tips, “Outside-In” Build Strategy

United Communications CEO William Bradford purchased what was then United Telephone in 2011, a rural phone company founded more than 75 years ago to bring telephone service to unserved rural areas. His first order of business (after changing the name to United Communications) was to upgrade the organization’s infrastructure and start bringing internet services to its footprint of mostly rural customers. Today, United serves 70,000 middle-Tennessee homes with internet service and will reach a total of 80,000 homes by the end of 2023.

Sound Broadband: Spectrum Holder LICT Makes Big FWA Moves

LICT is best known as a rural broadband consolidator, but several months ago the company quietly added Sound Broadband to its holdings, not through an acquisition, but organically.

Louisiana Will be Tech-Neutral on BEAD. Say What?

When Executive Director for ConnectLA—Louisiana's broadband office—Veneeth Iyengar was asked if he was concerned that there might be areas of Louisiana that no broadband provider would want to serve, his response was, "We’re not concerned [because] it’s all in how you design the program.

FOCUS Broadband Brings Fiber to Rural North Carolina, Grant by Grant

In the past five years, FOCUS Broadband has gone from deploying fiber connectivity to just two North Carolina counties to eight, nearly doubling its number of customers from 36,000 to 63,000.

GeoLinks Touts Gig+ Fixed Wireless Access Speeds: Using Broad 28 GHz Holdings Comes Next

GeoLinks has a lot going on with fixed wireless access (FWA), Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) deployments, gig+ speed offers, and spectrum bands. The company has more licenses in the 28 GHz band than any other license holder and "that will give us the opportunity to look into other states in the future,” said COO Ryan Adams. Investments from Rock Mountain Capital and JLC Infrastructure make GeoLinks' expansion plans possible and help GeoLinks build upon their signi

Charter Gets Lion’s Share of $22 Million in North Carolina Broadband Funding

Charter Communications won close to $16 million in funding to cover some of the costs of making broadband available in seven North Carolina counties. The funding was part of a total of $22 million awarded through the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program. The awards were made by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT). According to the agency, the funding awarded in this round will connect 6,012 households and 164 businesses. Funding recipients must provide service at speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, scalable to 100/100 Mbps. Projects must be completed by Dec.

Windstream Forms Public-Private Partnership is With Throckmorton, Texas

A $580,000 Windstream public–private partnership in Throckmorton (TX) has the provider’s Kinetic gigabit fiber broadband service available to public schools and 650 homes and businesses in the small city. The bulk of the financing—$420,000—is being provided by Windstream. The balance is coming from the Throckmorton Collegiate Independent School District’s operating budget ($20,000), the City of Throckmorton ($70,000) and Throckmorton County ($70,000).

Allo Communications' 20 Years of Growth and New Opportunities from Government Funding

 Nebraska-based Allo Communications, a competitive provider that serves urban and rural areas, has seen strong growth over the 20 years since its founding. Allo CEO Brad Moline talks about the many rounds of investment the company has received—from his own pocket to private equity. “It’s such a capital-intensive industry that you just go through evolutions of investors,” said Moline. “I just try to run a perpetual business and as investors want to come in, or go out, or invest more, we can look at it and accommodate them,” he added.

Consolidated Wins Fiber Network Deal in Vermont County

Consolidated Communications will build a fiber network in Lamoille County (VT) that will be funded, in part, through the state. Consolidated will invest almost $10 million in the network and the Lamoille FiberNet communications union district (CUD) will invest $14.9 million.

How Georgia is Getting Broadband to the Most Unserved of its Unserved Areas

Georgia has found a way to get bids for, and ultimately service to, its most unserved areas. Georgia’s Deputy State Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of the Georgia Broadband Program, Jessica Simmons, said the state's Capital Projects Fund (CPF) program, funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act,  enabled its success.

AT&T, Black Rock, Gigapower Execs Share Their Vision: Open Access With Scale

Black Rock, AT&T, and Gigapower executives shared their vision for the joint venture and how they expect to change attitudes toward open access. Adam Waltz, Managing Director of Black Rock’s Global Infrastructure Fund was excited because the company sees the US as underpenetrated when it comes to fiber broadband. Gigapower CEO Bill Hogg said, “scale will be a differentiator” beacuse the network’s scale will appeal to service providers interested in offering service over the network because “you don’t want to make [them] invest over and over with a lot of small players.” Erin Scarborough

$247 Million in Florida Broadband Awardees Revealed: Cox, Comcast, Conexon Are the Big Winners

Cox Communications was the biggest winner in Florida broadband funding, and will get over $80 million for 11 projects. Fellow cable provider Comcast was the second biggest winner and will take home over $60 million for 34 projects, followed by Conexon, which will receive about $40 million. Other companies winning funding include Charter Communications, AT&T, CenturyLink, Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC), Consolidated, TDS, IBT, and Myakka. The Florida broadband awards were made through the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Program, in which $247 million was funded through the f

altafiber Public-Private Partnerships Bear Fruit in Kentucky

altafiber's gigabit broadband service is available to most single-family homes and business addresses in the Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell, and Kenton. The projects were made possible through altafiber (formerly known as Cincinnati Bell) public-private partnerships that were announced in 2021: 

NCTC Connectivity Exchange, Fully Built, Supports Wholesale Offering for Members

The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC), formerly known as the National Cable Television Cooperative, has completed the build of its Connectivity Exchange platform, which allows NCTC broadband provider members to compete for and win bids to provide services to commercial customers through a single unified network. Initially focused on negotiating video-related deals for smaller broadband and pay TV provider members, the NCTC's focus has expanded to include offerings such as a mobile virtual network operator offering through AT&T.

What Providers Should Know About 25G PON

Dell’Oro Group recently raised its forecast for the next generation of passive optical network (PON) technology, known as 25G PON, and expects its revenues to triple between year-end 2023 and year-end 2025. As Stefaan Vanhastel, head of marketing and innovation for fixed networks for Nokia, explained most service providers are looking at 25G PON as an opportunity to generate additional revenue from business customers. Some businesses will prefer 25G PON because they are used to 10 Gbps symmetrical service and, with 13% overhead, XGS-PON doesn’t support full 10 Gbps speeds. The cost of 25G P

Charter CEO: BEAD Funding Will Be ‘Trickier Than We Were Hoping For’

Winning funding in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband program will be “trickier than we were hoping for,” said Charter CEO Chris Winfrey. “We didn’t get all the guidelines and [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] instructions that we were hoping for,” Winfrey said. Instead, some of the guidelines that have been established are “unhelpful to private capital.” Although Winfrey didn’t elaborate, this may have been a reference to rules that favor public/private partnerships. 

 

LICT Completes Michigan Broadband Spinoff, Withdraws RDOF Wins

LICT completed its spinoff of Michigan Broadband on August 31, 2023. The spinoff company is now known as MachTen. LICT, a rural broadband consolidator with operations in several states, withdrew from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program due to “substantial cost increases and other significant changes within the organization since we first participated and won in the RDOF public auction.”

Buy America Groundswell? BEAD Supplier Requirements May Be Easier to Meet Than Expected

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has tried hard to generate excitement about Buy America requirements for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program, even enlisting US Vice President Kamala Harris in the process.

Meet NTIA Digital Equity Director Angela Thi Bennett

As the US sets out to get everyone connected to broadband, it’s about more than just making sure broadband is available everywhere.