Doug Dawson

Some broadband topics that interested me in January: 

We’ve spent a lot of time and money in recent years to get better broadband for rural America, so I thought it would be of interest to look at who lives in rural America, based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency:

A partnership has been announced that has the goal of creating a low-latency private Internet for artificial intelligence (AI) traffic. The three partners involved are Moonshot Energy, a manufacturer of electrical and modular infrastructure for AI data centers, QumulusAI, Inc., a provider of GPU-as-a Service, and Connected Nation Internet Exchange, which has been promoting the creation of more Internet Exchanges.

A recent report, From Gig City to Quantum City: The Value of Fiber Optic Infrastructure in Hamilton County, TN 2011-2035, quantifies the benefit of the citywide municipal fiber network to the City of Chattanooga (TN). The fiber network is operated by EPB, the electric and fiber utility owned by the City of Chattanooga.

One of the more curious undertakings done by the Federal Communications Commission every year is the Urban Rate Study. This is an annual exercise to determine the highest monthly broadband rates that Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETC) can charge. This basically means regulated carriers and other internet service providers that participate in some grant or subsidy programs.

Cellular carriers seem to be on a winning streak with federal regulators. In the Big Beautiful Bill, cellular carriers were able to insert language in the bill that mandates the Federal Communications Commission to auction 800 MHz of mid-range spectrum. That’s going to force the FCC to carve the spectrum from other uses, and it seems likely that most of the spectrum that goes to auction will be won by the big cell carriers.

Ookla published a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) Report Card in November that looks at the speed performance of eight large WISPs—Etheric Networks, GeoLinks, NextLink, Resound Networks, Rise Broadband, Starry, Unwired Broadband, and Wisper Internet. Since this article was published, Starry has been acquired by Verizon. Ookla trended speed test results for each WISP by quarter from first quarter 2021 through second quarter 2025. The results of the speed tests for most WISPs were not spectacular:

The industry spends a lot of time focusing on potential federal broadband regulation, and bills introduced in Congress get a lot of press. It’s easy to forget that a lot of broadband legislation happens at the State level. The National Conference of State Legislators tracks state legislation across the country and wrote an article summarizing state legislation related to broadband issues.

There have been a number of articles in the industry press predicting a major shortage of fiber in 2026. Fiber manufacturers have already been working at full capacity due to the large amounts of fiber networks being built, and 2026 should be a busy year for fiber construction. The telephone companies, cable companies, and fiber overbuilders are all planning a lot of fiber construction.

There is still some glimmer of hope that states will see some of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program non-deployment funds. I call it a glimmer of hope because the issue is far from settled.