Fierce

Here’s where Google Fiber expanded its network in May 2023

Google Fiber in May 2023 has picked up steam in its network expansion, announcing several new cities across Idaho, Kansas, Utah, and more. Specifically, Google Fiber has expanded to the following locations:

Bringing broadband to West Virginia is an uphill climb, experts say

About 27 percent of households in rural West Virginia currently lack access to 25/5 Mbps internet speeds. The US Department of the Treasury disbursed West Virginia’s $136.3 million in Capital Projects Funds (CPF) dollars in May 2023—and the entirety of the funding is going towards broadband access initiatives across the state. Since all broadband solutions throughout the state pose unique challenges because of topography, there is a case to lean into what is considered a superior solution anyway: fiber. “At this point, it’s as future-proof as you can get.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, BEAD supercharge US digital equity efforts

Across the country, broadband advocates and representatives are crunching numbers to figure out how to implement an often under-examined piece of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program puzzle: What does digital equity look like? Passed alongside BEAD as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Digital Equity Act (DEA) provides $2.75 billion dollars that will be parsed between states and territories to help them implement digital equity plans.

Ericsson, MediaTek claim upload speed record of 440 Mbps

Ericsson and MediaTek say they set a new 5G upload record of 440 Mbps using uplink carrier aggregation (CA). That uplink speed was achieved in an Ericsson lab. The test was performed with Ericsson’s Radio Access Network (RAN) Compute Baseband 6648 and a mobile device using a MediaTek Dimensity 9200 flagship 5G smartphone chipset. Specifically, the CA combination involved here was 50 MHz FDD 2.1 GHz and 100 MHz of TDD C-band, or 3.7 GHz.

Mears cautions fiber hopefuls to engage construction firms early

Mears is a division of Quanta that provides construction services for fiber broadband deployment projects.

Chattanooga mayor credits city utility for bolstering broadband

Chattanooga, Tennessee, is considered ahead of the game with multi-gig connectivity, as in 2022 it introduced citywide 25-gig service for consumers and businesses.

Louisiana releases BEAD proposal draft, digital equity plan

As states prepare to receive their allocations from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, Louisiana is putting the finishing touches on its plan to put that money to work. The state’s broadband office released the first volume of its BEAD proposal, outlining Louisiana’s current efforts to deploy broadband, a breakdown of unserved and underserved locations as well as how it plans to tackle the challenge process.

Frontier CEO says copper decommissioning is 3-5 years out

Frontier Communications still has hundreds of thousands of copper passings, but it doesn’t seem like that footprint will be taken offline anytime soon.

Former FCC leaders push Congress to renew auction authority

A who’s who of former Federal Communications Commission leaders sent a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate Commerce Committees urging Congress to restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority as soon as practicable. “As former leaders of the Federal Communications Commission, we have worked together, on a bipartisan basis, to lay the foundation for America’s global wireless leadership. Although our policy priorities at times differed, we share an understanding that central to Americans’ wireless success is the FCC’s spectrum auction authority,” the letter states.

Mississippi BEAD director credits electric co-ops for reaching rural

The most rural parts of Mississippi are home to expansive agricultural lands with low residential density and until recent years, little incentive for broadband providers to build broadband infrastructure. Homes in the Mississippi Delta—the state’s most untenanted area—have typically used satellite service to make do, according to Sally Doty, a former state senator who was appointed as Director of the new Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) office in 2022. As the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding nears deployment, the BEAM of

Grain says not all private equity broadband investors are created equal

Private equity (PE) money has been flooding into the broadband market over the past two years. Everywhere you look, someone has a PE partner of some kind.

AT&T’s rate of fiber penetration is twice as good as expected

AT&T CEO John Stankey specified the main factors that AT&T considers for a fiber build. For about three years, AT&T has been clearly communicating its two main focuses—5G and fiber. In terms of fiber, it set a goal to pass 30 million locations with fiber by 2025. It closed 2022 with a total of 24 million passings. Stankey said the fiber build and the consumer response to it have been going well.

Private equity can move faster on fiber deployments than government

The prospect of billions of dollars flowing to states from the Broadband Equity Access & Deployment (BEAD) program is causing private equity companies to also flood the market with investment funds for fiber. On a panel at the recent Connect(X) conference in New Orleans (LA), panelists were asked if private equity companies will compete for BEAD funds or if they will add to the overall investment in fiber.

Viasat acquisition ready for launch as SpaceX challenge fizzles

Viasat will likely be able to move forward with its acquisition of Inmarsat after the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the deal. The transaction was first agreed upon by California-based Viasat and London-based Inmarsat more than 18 months ago, but has been deferred by review processes in both the U.S. and U.K.

An industry short on enthusiasm: Where are all the fiber technicians?

The federal government has been trumpeting its efforts to expand access to high-speed internet service for underserved areas across the US, namely through $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding. But in BEAD’s shadow stands another obstacle to closing the digital divide: a massive shortage of fiber technicians. Flume Internet CEO Prashanth Vijay put a salient reason for that shortage simply enough. “There's just not much enthusiasm to go and like… dig a trench,” he told Fierce Telecom.

Operators sold subscribers on usage-based broadband, now must keep up with that usage

In the first quarter of 2023 subscribers on usage-based broadband (UBB) plans for the first time reached and marginally surpassed consumption parity with flat-rate broadband (FRB) plan consumers, according to an OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report. Operators have long pushed for this to happen, but now they must face the network health and congestion challenges that come hand-in-hand with UBB consumption growth. The OVBI report said that significantly higher rates of usage growth among UBB subscribers resulted in average (562.7 GB) and median (382.0 GB) monthly consumption — slightly

CEO Brian Roberts admits Comcast hasn’t competed well for low-end broadband

Billions of dollars are about to flow from the Broadband Equity Access & Deployment (BEAD) Program, which is driving all kinds of interest in delivering fiber broadband to unserved and underserved areas of the US. In addition, the wireless carriers, T-Mobile and Verizon, are deploying fixed wireless access (FWA) in many underserved areas where people have never been happy with their choices of low-speed cable or DSL. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said, “I don't think we competed as well for the lower end of the market.

Frontier CFO: Cost per passing “not the most important value driver” of fiber build

Frontier Communications said it expects its cost per passing to fall in the $1,000 to $1,100 range in 2023.