Linda Hardesty

Hyperscalers are prohibiting fiber off-ramps to towns and cities as they build their networks to data centers, according to a telecommunications attorney who spoke at Mountain Connect. The choice to bypass the off-ramps is intentional. Some hyperscalers are putting clauses in their contracts with fiber builders to prohibit off-ramps to towns and cities on the fiber route. “They control it. They've invested in it.

Three years ago, the Mountain Connect conference in Denver was bursting with excitement and enthusiasm. State broadband offices were either completing their final Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment proposals, or they were actively reviewing bids from sub-grantees. The talk was all about “putting shovels in the ground.” And there was a keynote interview with SpaceX’s President Gwynne Shotwell, which turned out to be eerily prescient.

In 2012 Google Fiber deployed fiber broadband in Kansas City, its first market, and people were astounded that they could get 1 Gbps symmetrical internet service. But now, of course, that’s standard. A panel of fiber operators at Mountain Connect talked about the ever-increasing demand for faster speeds and how they're differentiating themselves from the pack. Alberto Garcia, a regional government and community affairs manager with GFiber, said the reality today is that everybody is offering 1 Gig.

People who have a fiber broadband connection are doing more with artificial intelligence (AI) than people who don’t have a fiber connection, according to new research from Recon Analytics, which surveys 6,000 people per week about AI. Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, said his research found that people who have fiber broadband typically ask 28.5 questions per AI session. But the number of questions goes down with the quality of their connection.

On SpaceX’s inaugural earnings call since becoming a public company, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President and COO Gwynne Shotwell talked about the company's grand ambitions for Starlink broadband service to “deliver a majority of the world’s internet.” According to its SEC filing on June 1, 2026, SpaceX already has 10.3 million Starlink broadband subscribers across 164 countries, but the company wants more.

Well-regarded telecommunications and cable analyst Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson had some harsh words for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program in a recent note for investors. He said that because BEAD has taken so long—five years since it was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—private investors have stopped paying attention to it. And in fact, private industry has moved on to close the digital divide in its own ways.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its contract partner CostQuest have been agonizing over the U.S. broadband map for more than five years. They really doubled-down on the effort to create an accurate nationwide map when the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program started. Now, coming in at the 9th inning, the U.S. Senate has passed a bill—SB 2585 MAP for Broadband Funding Act—that would require the FCC to reevaluate its national broadband map.

Broadband operators are appealing to the Federal Communications Commission, saying, "Please give us some relief for pole attachment issues!" The FCC has supposedly already provided relief. In July 2025, it passed an order to streamline pole attachment rules.

Players in the broadband industry are increasingly concerned about the impact that SpaceX’s Starlink could have on their businesses. Recently, New Street Research (NSR), working with Recon Analytics’ data, found that SpaceX’s Starlink continues to get close to half of its gross adds from small rural broadband providers and customers that are new to broadband. “New customers” refers to subscribers who say they have not had broadband in the past. NSR Analyst David Barden said, “So far, we haven’t seen any major impact on the wired broadband operators in the U.S.

Ribbon Communications, a vendor that does IP routing, is working with MGW Telephone, a third-generation ILEC serving communities across Virginia, to help it transition from legacy TDM infrastructure to an all-IP environment. MGW is using Ribbon's Circuit Emulation Services and NPT platform.