Public-private partnerships poised to play pivotal part in fiber proliferation

Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) President and CEO Gary Bolton said, "It feels like the tide has changed where experienced providers are now realizing there’s a role for them to help, whether it’s a utility or a municipality or any community effort to put broadband in." Bolton noted the topic of public-private partnerships emerged unexpectedly as a key theme of FBA's Fiber Connect conference in July. But operators have recently been vocal about pursuing such arrangements even outside of conference halls. Bolton said he’s been surprised by what he characterized as a dramatic change in posture on the subject. “I was just shocked about how flexible – especially incumbents – are, where they’ve kind of changed their positioning and that they’re being much more flexible working with communities." Interest in public-private partnerships from municipalities has also picked up.