Competition/Antitrust

The Federal Communications Commission announced winning bidders from its 5G spectrum auction of flexible-use licenses in the 3.45 GHz band. The winning bidder information is available in the Public Notice released by the FCC. Gross proceeds for the auction exceeded $22.5 billion.

As a cautionary tale to any city that provides broadband, incumbent internet service providers (ISPs) are always going to push back on city initiatives. In 2021, the city of Tucson (AZ) launched a free wireless network to bring broadband to students in homes without broadband. Tucson recognized the need for the network when it got requests for over 7,000 wireless access points from students during the pandemic. The city then decided that the best long-term solution to the large numbers of unserved students was to create a private network using CBRS spectrum.

Lawmakers and lobbyists anticipate a major fight over antitrust bills meant to tame Big Tech before the midterms put an unofficial end to the legislative effort. The bills could remake how Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google operate and treat competitors — if they make it over the finish line.

Ting Internet geared up to tackle its largest market yet, striking a deal with Colorado Springs Utilities to become the anchor tenant on a city-wide fiber network the electric, water and gas company plans to build. The forthcoming fiber network will pass upwards of 200,000 addresses, with construction set to begin by Q3 of this year. Ting said it plans to hire a dedicated team to serve Colorado Springs (CO) customers and expects to begin providing service in the city in 2023.

Lumen plans to increase locations reached by fiber from the current 2.5 million to 12 million, representing a five-times increase over the company’s traditional deployment rate according to President and CEO Jeff Storey. Those deployments target the 16 states that Lumen will retain after plans to sell its local exchange business in 20 states to Apollo Funds are completed.

Over 230 communities have applied for National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Infrastructure Program grants. But community leaders increasingly say they’re facing costly, unnecessary challenges from incumbent broadband providers, who are exploiting unreliable US broadband maps to overstate existing coverage and defend the status quo.

AT&T CEO John Stankey revealed the operator is conducting market tests of a multi-gig fiber service and plans to capitalize on an industry shift to bundled connectivity. Stankey stated rising bandwidth demand for use cases like video will require a robust fixed connection and highlighted a positive consumer response to a multi-gig fiber pilot it is running.

This research, performed by RVA LLC Market Research & Consulting (RVA), shows that fiber broadband now passes over 60.5 million homes in the US alone—a 12 percent growth in 2021. The increase in deployments can be attributed to the fact that fiber continues to score higher than any other broadband technology—such as cable, satellite or wireless—in terms of capacity, reliability, latency and customer satisfaction. The study also revealed that 43 percent of US households and 60 percent of Canadian households now have access to fiber.

In many ways, 2021 feels like the year fiber became real. Companies across the board unveiled plans for sprawling fiber deployments and billions in funding began pouring in from governments and private equity players alike. But the firm focus on fiber as we head into 2022 begs one big question: what does the future look like for cable? “I don’t think that you can talk about cable without also talking about fiber,” said Jeff Heynen, Dell’Oro Group VP of Broadband Access and Home Networking.

With the broadband gap laid bare by the events of 2020, 2021 saw a renewed focus on meeting the challenge once and for all.