1. Monthly archive
  2. August 2024

August 2024

Community broadband scores win against 'smug' Illinois incumbents

Kendall County (IL) wanted to deliver a better broadband experience to its residents. So, it reached out to the local incumbent providers which reacted with smugness and arrogance. The county was so put off by the incumbents that it instead pursued a public-private broadband partnership. Many of the county’s residents have been dissatisfied with their selection of broadband providers, which include AT&T, Comcast and Metronet. So, the county decided to put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a private company to bring some broadband competition to the area.

Slower 1Q 2024 Broadband Growth

Cable companies seem to have turned the corner from continually gaining customers to now losing customers. This is a consequence of increased competition from fiber overbuilders and FWA cellular wireless. In the first quarter of 2024, the sale of FWA cellular slowed down for T-Mobile and Verizon, from 929,000 to 759,000 in the first quarter. But FWA still counts for practically all of the net broadband gains for the quarter. Experts are predicting a much smaller number of total net customer additions for 2024, which is due to two issues.

Biden-Harris Administration Approves Wyoming’s “Internet for All” Initial Proposal

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Wyoming’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative. This approval enables Wyoming to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program. Wyoming was allocated over $347 million to deploy or upgrade high-speed Internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.  

Net Neutrality Goes Down in Court

The Biden regulatory blitz continues, but courts are beginning to do their job to stop the biggest legal overreaches. A Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel blocked the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rule, citing the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine. Welcome to the post-Chevron world. “An agency may issue regulations only to the extent that Congress permits it,” the court writes.

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