Fierce

Everybody in the wireless ecosystem is clamoring for Congress to reinstate the spectrum auction authority of the Federal Communications Commission. One former deputy at the FCC speculates that the delay may be related to the Department of Defense (DoD) wanting to wait for a spectrum report that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is working on. NTIA is doing an assessment of the use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz spectrum.

Lingering concerns about whether money from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will be used to fund overbuilds of other government-subsidized projects flared up again recently. Concerns seemed to center on what BEAD will mean for those receiving funding from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program.

Windstream is targeting roughly 8,300 additional locations in Georgia with its Kinetic fiber network, thanks to a new public-private partnership with the state’s Union County. The $20.5 million project will provide fiber to homes, businesses, and schools across Blairsville, Suches, and nearby parts of the county. Kinetic plans to lay about 550 miles of underground optical fiber cable for the deployments, which are expected to be completed in 2024. Union County is committing $11.2 million in state grant money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), along with $500,000 in matching funds.

GoNetspeed President and CEO Richard Clark calculates that the founding team behind the provider holds about 100 years of experience in broadband operations and construction. The freshly-consolidated GoNetspeed is focused on rolling out one product and one product only: fiber. Each of the companies that merged under the GoNetspeed umbrella historically operated in varying states, but as of 2023, their footprint comprises communities in Maine, Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Frontier Communications inked a high-profile fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) deal with AT&T in February 2023, but it’s not the only wireless carrier buying up Frontier’s fiber wares.

Operators across the board have already flagged rising deployment costs related to inflation, geopolitical issues, and labor shortages. And it’s no secret that shipping delays of all stripes have plagued construction projects across the nation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Between international shipping container delays, shortages of truckers, the steady climb of the price of diesel, and rising interest rates from the Federal Reserve, it would seem that telecom is slated to take a serious hit in costs

State and federal government officials said that state laws restricting municipal broadband deployments aren’t expected to delay the distribution of funding from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. BEAD support is expected to be divvied up among all 50 states in the coming months, but, as BroadbandNow noted, rules for BEAD stipulate that states with laws that either restrict or prohibit municipal broadband must disclose whether or not they plan to waive such laws.