Fierce

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) has suspended the city’s Internet Master Plan, creating uncertainty for New Yorkers waiting for fiber broadband and also for the vendors tapped to deploy fiber and deliver service. T-Mobile, Starry and Flume were among the 12 companies named by former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY) when he announced the $157 million plan in 2021. At that time, Mayor de Blasio said the plan would incentivize high-quality affordable internet at scale and help reverse New York’s digital divide.

The third time might be the charm for [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] Gigi Sohn. New Street Research analyst Blair Levin predicted Sohn will once again be approved by the Senate Commerce Committee “relatively quickly.” If Sohn does finally make it to the Federal Communications Commission, Levin said she could help advance action on issues like net neutrality, digital discrimination, and spectrum.

Things have been looking up for fixed wireless access (FWA) for some time now. Indeed, by the end of 2022, FWA is not only thriving, but it’s also playing a starring role in 5G. It hasn’t always been this way. In earlier iterations, FWA didn’t pan out for mobile operators.

What counts as a fiber passing, anyway? It seems the answer varies slightly by operator, though most consider a passing to be any location which can be connected to fiber running along the main road. A Consolidated representative said passings are locations that are in “close proximity” to its network.

Congress is again kicking the can down the road on several issues important to the US telecommunications industry. A 4,155-page omnibus spending package bill that Congress unveiled is expected to pass in order to keep the government operating. But Congress punted on a long-term extension of the Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority, covering the shortfall for rip and replace funding, and consideration of more mid-band spectrum for wireless use. One tiny blurb of the bill was devoted to the FCC’s

GeoLinks took home $84.6 million of the $234.9 million it won in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction for broadband projects in Arizona and Nevada. While its top priority is ramping up those fiber and fixed wireless builds, company President Ryan Adams said it's also keeping its eyes peeled for expansion opportunities from the Southwest to the East Coast which could help it scale over the next decade.