Linda Hardesty

It’s a good thing the Federal Communications Commission is planning to approve satellite licenses via an assembly-line process, because SpaceX has filed an application with the FCC, seeking to deploy its new Gen3 broadband constellation of up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites.

GFiber has worked with multi-dwelling-unit owners and residents since practically the inception of Google Fiber, using fixed wireless access technology and mmWave spectrum for those projects under its Webpass brand. But now, GFiber is beginning to offer managed Wi-Fi for MDUs, via bulk-billing arrangements.

The private equity firm Grain Management is combining two of its fiber operators—Ritter Communications and Great Plains Communications—into one entity called Rightfiber. Heath Simpson, currently CEO of Ritter Communications, will serve as CEO of Rightfiber, and Todd Foje, currently CEO of Great Plains Communications, will serve as executive chairman. Foje said that the reasoning behind the combination is that there are advantages to scale.

In May, Verizon’s new CEO Dan Schulman spoke at a MoffettNathanson conference, and one thing he said stunned me.

AT&T is streamlining its fiber broadband home internet options. Beginning June 7, customers can choose from four AT&T Fiber speed options: 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 5 Gbps. With the change AT&T retired its 100 Mbps plan, making 300 Mbps the entry point for fiber broadband service. Of the new pricing for fiber, Sarah Day, VP of Consumer for AT&T, said, “The simplification is part of a broader portfolio effort to make sure that we're creating plan options that match the diverse needs of consumers in the market and give more choice.

Gigapower, the joint venture between AT&T and Blackrock, has been kind of quiet, from a media perspective, for a while. But Amy Wheelus, chief technology and information officer with Gigapower, recently said the company is very busy building open-access fiber broadband networks. Wheelus said that Gigapower is actively building and operating networks in eight different markets in seven states across the U.S.: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Florida.

Fiber is grabbing its share of the spotlight at the three Tier 1 wireless providers. During their Q1 2026 earnings calls, all three carriers spent a significant amount of time talking about fiber and convergence. They also talked about big broadband acquisitions. Verizon closed its acquisition of Frontier Communications; AT&T closed its purchase of Lumen’s mass market broadband assets; and T-Mobile announced two new joint ventures to expand its fiber footprint.

Cambridge Broadband Networks Group, a company headquartered in the U.K., is running a business in the U.S., which is similar to Starry Internet. This is interesting given that Starry struggled mightily. There was a time when Starry was a real “star” in the telecommunications world as a fast-growing fixed wireless access provider, using mmWave spectrum to serve multi-dwelling units. The company even went public in a splashy initial public offering.

Zayo has won a new deal with an AI infrastructure company to build long-haul networks, and a company executive said AI is driving a ton of new demand for its long-haul fiber. Bill Long, Zayo’s chief product and strategy officer, said the company can’t yet name the anchor tenant in the new contract, but he called it “a monster deal.” Zayo’s customers already include all the major hyperscalers, neo-cloud operators, and big AI labs.

The broadband industry may soon cheer if Congress legislates permitting reform. The industry has long complained that permitting processes across a multitude of federal, state, and local jurisdictions are incredibly cumbersome. Now, Congress may act to streamline all of that. However, a host of local organizations are vehemently opposed to the federal government steamrolling over their municipal rules and regulations. Congress considered multiple proposed bills to address broadband permitting.