Masha Abarinova

Though votes are still being counted, the verdict appears to be clear. Donald Trump won. So, now what? Surprisingly, that question has a few easy answers—as well as a few that are less clear. First things first. Historically, the party in power has held a 3-2 majority at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), allowing them to carry out the president’s policy agenda.

Telephone companies are getting tired of their legacy copper cables. It’s bad enough old copper is difficult to maintain, people want to steal it, too. AT&T recently posted a $10,000 cash reward for information on copper cable thefts in the Austin (TX) area.

In case you had any doubts about Verizon’s fiber ambitions, the company revealed just how far it thinks it can go by acquiring Frontier’s footprint. Once (and if) the acquisition closes, Verizon expects to reach more than 30 million fiber passings by 2028. In the longer-term, it’s targeting 35-40 million locations passed, a goal easier said than done, analysts noted.

Making broadband available to the masses is no easy task in any environment. But try doing it for people living in decades-old apartment buildings. A majority (82 percent) of multi-dwelling units (MDUs) over 10 years old report internet connectivity challenges, according to a recent study from Comcast’s Xfinity Communities in collaboration with Parks Associates. Issues include maintaining device connections over a Wi-Fi network and insufficient bandwidth, which can be difficult to fix due to the infrastructure of older apartment buildings.

Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten believes that federal broadband programs have mostly thrown key economic principles out the window. “And a persistent digital divide is partly the result of that,” he said. Rather than just focusing on the cost of capital or the cost of laying fiber, he said broadband programs should apply economic concepts to "maximize total net benefits" for consumers and also balance trade-offs between supply, different deployment technologies and what consumers want. For example, he said a consumer could consider moving from 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps “a huge

The telecommunications industry is pinning its hopes on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to bring broadband to all hard-to-reach rural locations across the U.S.

The federal government has set aside $42 billion to connect last-mile communities and just under $1 billion for the middle mile networks that will provide the backbone to reach those unserved homes.

The good news about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program? Shovels could be in the ground in some states as soon as next summer. The bad news? One state official said it likely won’t be able to finish its subgrantee selection process until 2026 and dubbed BEAD a “10-year slog.” Here’s everything you need to know about what officials from Nevada, New York, Massachusetts and North Dakota said about the program:

The United States needs way more workers to support the upcoming flurry of federal-funded broadband projects. But the broadband industry’s also got catching up to do with its labor standards. In fact, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is the first federal broadband grant program with “any type of language” concerning labor practice requirements, according to Marcus Chambers, network telecom technician for CWA and state broadband lead for Maryland.

As broadband operators pursue network upgrades, it’s not only about bringing faster speeds to customers. Reliability of the network is now pretty important too, according to Damian Poltz, SVP of wireline networks at Rogers Communications. In Rogers’ perspective, the broadband market is shifting to “really start to focus” on reliability, as customers say they value an interruption-free connection the most. Erik Kuhlmann, senior director of engineering and architecture at GCI, noted challenges not just in network reliability but scalability as well.