Doug Dawson

The recently announced merger between GFiber and Astound is interesting. It brings together a premium fiber overbuilder and a traditional cable company that also owns some fiber assets. GFiber has been somewhat of a mystery in the industry since its splashy launch in 2012. Known then as Google Fiber, the company was the first to introduce the whole country to the idea of gigabit fiber. Astound Broadband is a conglomerate of three broadband businesses.

I was looking through the Federal Communications Commission cellular map in Buncombe County (NC), where I live. For those not fully familiar with the FCC broadband maps, the agency publishes two maps: the more familiar one that shows broadband coverage and a second that shows cellular coverage. You can toggle between the two maps at the FCC’s map website. It struck me while looking at the details in the maps that rural cellular coverage is changing, and not in a good way.

I recently looked at the reported broadband subscriber counts from the largest publicly traded internet service providers for the end of 2025. Most of these statistics come from the quarterly reports of the ISPs. The story hasn’t changed a lot during the year. Fixed wireless access cellular ISPs still dominate new net customer gains in the industry. Cable companies continue to lose customers. Telephone companies are growing by adding more fiber customers than they are losing copper customers. There are a few interesting stories in these numbers.

State legislatures across the country are recognizing that good broadband adoption is vital for a robust economy and have tackled or are considering plans to make broadband more affordable. The Oregon legislature passed HB 3148, which strengthens support for low-income broadband customers.

There has been a lot of talk over the last year at the state and national level about lowering the regulatory and paperwork barriers for internet service providers (ISPs) building rural networks funded by Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants. I don’t know any rural ISP that doesn’t think this is a good idea. Any efforts that can simplify processes like permitting, pole attachments, and environmental studies would be a big benefit for a rural construction effort. There is another situation that probably warrants easier and simpler paperwork.

The House of Representatives recently approved H.R. 5419, a bill introduced by Rep Tom Kean (R-NJ). Titled the Enhancing Administrative Reviews of Broadband Deployment Act, the bill would attempt to improve the process of getting permits for broadband on federal land. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Specifically, the bill would direct the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive review of administrative barriers involved in reviewing applications to use federal rights-of-way.

According to the Census Bureau’s Building Permit Survey, the top five states for permits for single-family homes in 2025, as measured in permits per 100,000 residents, were South Carolina (56), North Carolina (48), Florida (45), Idaho (45), and Delaware (43). At the bottom of the list were New York (4), Connecticut (5), Illinois (6), Rhode Island (6), and Massachusetts (6). Since my state of North Carolina had the second-fastest growth in single family-home permits per 100,000 residents, I thought I’d look deeper at the statistics in the state by county.

When the new administration came in, one of the first things we heard from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was that the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program process would be accelerated to put the grant funds to use. He was highly critical of the prior administration that hadn’t yet connected any households to broadband by the end of 2024. Everybody in the industry was hoping that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was going to speed up the process.

The Federal Communications Commission has been tasked by Congress to find and auction 800 megahertz of mid-range spectrum. This was a key element of the One Big Beautiful Bill that planned to use the proceeds from spectrum auctions to offset other costs created by the bill. The bill specifically requires the FCC to auction 100 megahertz of spectrum in the upper C-Band, located at 3.98 – 4.2 GHz. The new requirement to auction that spectrum has resulted in a strong response from the aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration.

I've written a lot recently about the impact of AI on broadband. There are other, more subtle, impacts from the AI boom. One of the unexpected issues is the sudden shortage of electricians in regions where AI data centers are being constructed. Electricians are needed during the massive effort to wire a new data center used for AI.