Phil Britt

Houston (TX)-based Ezee Fiber is investing $200 million in the continued expansion of its high-speed, 100% fiber optic network in Fort Bend County, a fast-growing area in southeast Texas. The investment pushes forward the company’s plans to reach an additional 125,000 Fort Bend County homes in 2024. The high-speed fiber internet is expected to be available to residents of Mission Bend, Sugar Land, Missouri City, Pearland and surrounding communities by the end of the third quarter of 2024.

Altafiber, formerly Cincinnati Bell, has agreed to acquire the broadband infrastructure assets of Bridgewired, a Ohio-based company that operates a fiber optic network delivering gigabit Internet speeds to locations in portions of Warren County, Greene County, and Clinton County.

Cogent Communications has completed the previously announced acquisition of T-Mobile’s Wireline Business.

The US fiber optic test equipment market will comprise over a fifth (21.3%) of the worldwide market over the next ten years, according to a new report from Future Market Insights. Fiber optic testing is becoming more critical as the telecommunications industry increasingly deploys fiber broadband and as fiber becomes an increasingly important underpinning of wireless networks. The researchers expect the worldwide fiber test equipment market to grow from $923 million in 2023 to $1.7 billion by 2033. The 10-year growth rate represents a CAGR of 6.8%.

A group of Tennessee broadband providers has launched projects that received $53.5 million in state broadband funding. The group, known as Project UNITE, is spearheaded by local provider United Communications. The projects will make high-speed broadband — fiber or wireless — available to more than 14,000 underserved locations in Middle Tennessee.

Chicago-based Crosstown Fiber aims to build, maintain, and operate a robust fiber network with a specific focus. The company will offer fiber infrastructure built below ground to provide unique routes and strategic alternative paths between data centers and other entities. Crosstown custom designs, builds, leases, and maintains high-capacity, high-bandwidth, dark fiber optic networks providing customers the ability to use a redundant ring structure with a network route spanning approximately 400 route miles across all corners of Chicago. Crosstown’s underground network is designed for custo

The North Carolina Broadband Infrastructure Office awarded $23.4 million in Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants to expand broadband infrastructure in 12 counties, which will boost service for nearly 7,000 households and 374 businesses. With the awards, North Carolina joins Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin, and several other states that are releasing funds for broadband expansion. Half of the 12 awards went to Charter Spectrum. The cable company has taken an aggressive approach to obtaining government funding for rural broadband expansion.

Comcast announced it will soon start enabling customers to sign up for its Internet Essentials Plus service at the company’s more than 500 Xfinity stores. The offering includes 100 Mbps speed, a cable modem, access to millions of WiFi hotspots, and unlimited data for $29.95 per month and is free to customers eligible for the low-income Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Comcast is training customer service agents at its call centers to help eligible customers sign up for the Essentials Plus service and educate them about the ACP.

Internet2 has finished the transition of its research and education network traffic to the fifth-generation backbone that interconnects with 37 state and regional networks, serving every state in the country. It’s an important development because the network serves a critical niche in the national broadband infrastructure and underpins high-capacity and advanced services. In 2021, Internet2 moved over 2.75 exabytes of data, equivalent to a video call that is 594,557 years long, or 27.5 million high-definition films.

MetroNet is expanding its fiber footprint to its 12th state, Wisconsin, and is planning to spend $12 to $15 million on the project, which is expected to start in the Spring of 2022. LaCrosse will be the initial city in the Badger State to have the MetroNet fiber network, which boasts 100 percent fiber to the home with symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Gbps without any long-term contracts.