Carl Weinschenk

Michigan Broadband Services will acquire “substantially all assets” of the Educational Access Network from Northern Michigan University’s if the agreement between the organizations closes. MBS would receive licensed 2.5 GHz Educational Broadband Service spectrum covering portions of 41 counties, Nokia AirScale radio equipment deployed across more than 70 tower sites, licensed microwave facilities, and related network infrastructure. EAN has approximately 7,500 subscribers and generates about $2.5 million annually. MBU is a subsidiary of publicly traded MachTen.

The United States Senate has passed S.2585, which is known as either the “Modernization, Accountability, and Planning for Broadband Funding Act.” It is an effort to study and, if necessary, improve oversight in federal funding for broadband infrastructure.

Comcast Cable Communications has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau that claims that the Appalachian Power Company is not complying with the FCC’s order on pole attachment pricing in Virginia. The conflict focuses on the $126 million grant to Comcast from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. The service provider is to provide broadband to approximately 13,000 unserved and underserved locations in the commonwealth. Comcast needs access to APCO’s poles in order to fulfill its obligations.

Amazon Leo will begin providing services later this year, according to a project update from the company. The report says that Amazon Leo—formerly Project Kuiper—began full deployment in April 2025. So far, the low Earth orbit provider has conducted 14 missions consisting of more than 375 satellites. The update says that the launch rate will accelerate, and more than 100 satellite launches are booked for the future. Amazon Leo is also changing a key vendor, the company announced. It is transitioning from the United Launch Alliance to the Vulcan launch vehicle, which has more capacity. 

The NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission in response to the commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking aimed at changing rules to accelerate the transition to all-IP networks. The filing raises three points regarding the impact of the change in rules on rural local exchange carriers.

The Broadband Forum has released a technical report that looks at what is necessary to effectively bring AI into broadband networks. It also looks at what new capabilities and services AI can bring. The Broadband Forum’s “AI in Broadband Networks” report sets out a vision of how broadband networks should evolve with AI, outlining the AI development trends and network characteristics for services-led broadband networks and their service requirements,” according to the press release.

The 2025 transition of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program from a fiber-first to tech-neutral approach opened the door to satellite approaches. Most immediately, it is an opportunity for Starlink, SpaceX’s low-earth orbit service. Indeed, Starlink’s BEAD awards will cover 476,000 locations—the most of any provider—and the company received BEAD grants totaling $738.8 million. Winning locations and grants is one thing. Meeting BEAD requirements and customer expectations is another.

The Federal Communications Commission has denied waiver requests from Mediacom Wireless of Florida LLC (and a related entity in Georgia) and Consolidated Communications related to the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction. The FCC said that it did not find good cause to grant either RDOF waiver.

Americans are fed up with how much they pay for internet-based services and are taking steps to reduce their bills, according to a recent report from Reviews.org, following up its 2025 Consumer Trust Survey. Another closely related takeaway was that people resent being surprised by hidden costs. The report found that 67% switched or considered switching internet providers if they feel their provider has hidden fees or presented them with unexpected charges. That figure was up from 56% last year.

Charter Communications has agreed to modify the “fiber-powered” claims in website and video advertising in response to a Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) Fast-Track SWIFT challenge brought by AT&T. Fast-Track SWIFT is an expedited process for single-issue advertising cases. At issue was whether Charter, which does business as Spectrum, conveyed the message that the term “fiber-powered” used in its advertising conveyed the message that it was providing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure.