Fierce

CommScope unveiled a new fiber cable it claimed will drive down installation costs for rural broadband builds, supporting the product's launch with enough production capacity to cover at least half a million homes per year. CEO Chuck Treadway said CommScope plans to invest another $47 million to expand its fiber capacity even further. CommScope’s new HeliARC fiber is “smaller and lighter” than traditional fiber cable.

Comcast and Charter are two of the largest providers of Wi-Fi in the US.

Although T-Mobile paid $304 million for 7,156 licenses of 2.5 GHz spectrum in 2022's summer auction, it now finds itself in the awkward position of not being able to deploy this spectrum. The reason is that Congress recently allowed the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority to lapse.

Despite Minnesota being known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” it’s not short of geographical constraints when it comes to building broadband. Bree Maki, director of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development, said the state has some key deployment challenges, including weather and workforce constraints.

Charter Communications is flexing some muscle in Maine in the face of growing fiber coverage from the likes of Consolidated Communications. Charter plans to invest a total $82 million over the coming years and scooped up Bee Line Cable to flesh out its footprint in the central part of the state. Bee Line boasts 300 miles of fiber cable, which it uses to serve internet and digital voice products to consumers in Anson, East Millinocket, Farmington, Industry, Madison, Millinocket, Skowhegan, and Wilton.

The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs advised T-Mobile to stop advertising that its wireless service has the most reliable 5G network based on tests by umlaut, a third-party testing company. The claims in question were made on T-Mobile’s website and in press releases.