Analysis

A lot of smaller broadband providers are currently expanding their service footprints. They are often using grant funding to add more service areas and customers, while others are expanding using the more traditional route of borrowing to build new networks. But not all small providers are expanding, or are only expanding in small increments. The reasons why they aren't expanding:

• Fear of Being Able to Compete
• Fear of New Debt
• Staff Can’t Handle Change
• Reluctance to Change Habits
• Lack of Creativity/Innovation

One of the oldest standing legislative committees in the U.S. Senate, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has jurisdiction over communications, interstate commerce, science, and technology policy. In the Senate, Commerce is the main committee concerned with universal broadband. The committee convened this week for the first time in the 118th Congress.

While expanding broadband access throughout Texas is a priority for Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), part of his More Prosperous Texas initiative, the governor's record on connectivity is mixed. Texas faces two simultaneous challenges. First, there remain barriers to access which are particularly prevalent in rural areas of the state. Second, even where broadband is available, there remains a substantial portion of Texans who have not adopted or subscribed to broadband in their homes.

One of the most striking developments of the last decade has been the rapid “digitalization” of work—and with it, an urgent demand for skill-building. Digitalization is the infusion of digital skills (though not necessarily higher-end software coding) into the texture of almost every job in the economy. And it has inordinate power to both empower workers or divide them. That’s because gaps in access to digital skills engender disparate access to the nation’s best-paying, most desirable jobs and industries.

Extending broadband's reach to all Nevadans is a huge challenge. Nevada is the 7th-largest state in the U.S., but ranks just 32 in population, making it one of the least densely populated states in the country. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County which is home to the state's four largest cities, including Las Vegas. But, in 2000, over half of Nevada’s counties had fewer than 2 people per square mile.

US cable's big wireless gains in 2022 and expected to continue paired with a broader deceleration across the wireless industry will make it difficult for mobile's "Big Three"—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon—to beat and raise their subscriber targets. "The twin headwinds of decelerating industry growth and share loss to Cable are not sufficiently reflected in industry and company expectations, in our view," said MoffettNathanson Analyst Craig Moffett. US cable raked in more than 40% of wireless industry net adds in 2022. Growth for the Big Three mobile carriers slowed in 2022, ending with a

Senator John Thune (R-SD) recently asked broadband stakeholders what Congress could do to improve the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act (IIJA) with respect to broadband.

In his first State of the Commonwealth address in January 2020, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) asked lawmakers to address some stark realities. At the time, Kentucky was the third poorest state by per capita income and over 1 in 5 children in the state lived in poverty. The state ranked in the top eight of states in terms of hunger. Kentucky had some of the highest child abuse and neglect rates in the country.

Around the country, there are now elaborate alert systems in areas subject to tornados and other dangerous weather events.

Lumen is taking a different path forward than the other big telephone companies. The company announced a major upgrade to its long-haul fiber routes that cross the country. The company’s main fiber strategy is to beef up the intercity network with plans to add six million miles of fiber to existing fiber routes by 2026. The existing Lumen long-haul fiber network came to the company in two acquisitions. The original network came when CenturyLink bought US West, which had earlier merged with Qwest, a major builder of long-haul networks.