Telecommunication

Just as nations were beginning to invest significant capital in broadband infrastructure developments, COVID-19 crippled the Caribbean. The pandemic highlighted the need for critical infrastructure and connectivity around the globe, but especially for island nations. The effort to provide adequate broadband gained some traction in 2021 as some Caribbean nations restarted economic development plans that include telecommunications infrastructure rollouts from years before 2020. In these plans, fixed broadband leads growth, mostly supported by the expansion of fiber optic networks.

Windstream announced that construction will begin this September 2021 on the first of seven fiber broadband expansion projects funded in partnership with the State of Arkansas. The projects will deliver Kinetic by Windstream gigabit-speed internet service to more than 15,100 households and small businesses in rural areas of seven Arkansas counties. The fiber-to-the-premises projects were made possible by $46.3 million in state grants funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act and administered by the Arkansas Rural Connect Broadband Program.

Two German courts put questions to the European Union Court of Justice concerning the compatibility with EU law of the limitation, on the part of an internet access provider, on bandwidth, tethering or on use when roaming, where the customer chooses such a ‘zero tariff’ option.

CenturyLink, since renamed Lumen, has agreed to pay the Department of Justice (DOJ) $275,000 to settle the department's complaint stemming from the company's violation of the terms of its acquisition of Level 3 Communications. According to the DOJ, it is the second such violation by CenturyLink. The DOJ will file a civil contempt claim in DC federal court and at the same time ask the court to accept the settlement, which resolves the claim. “CenturyLink is a repeat offender,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers of the Antitrust Division.

With billions being poured into fiber builds, cable broadband players face the very real prospect of heightened subscriber competition in the coming years.

Regional operator Horizon has acquired Consolidated Cooperative’s commercial fiber business in Ohio. The deal adds 450 fiber miles to augment Horizon’s existing Columbus (OH) network and extend northward through Delaware, Marion and Richland counties. Consolidated Cooperative’s separate residential fiber business was not part of the deal. Horizon said that Consolidated’s commercial clients will see no disruptions and will continue to be served according to the terms of their contracts. The company currently has more than 5,500 route miles of fiber in the Midwest.

The Gulf Coast region is just beginning to recover from Hurricane Ida, with a significant impact on cell towers in the state of Louisiana. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 52 percent of cell towers in the hurricane’s path in the state are out of service as of August 30. That equates to 1,437 towers, most of them down due to loss of power, and some localities are far worse than others. Terrebonne Parrish has 100 percent of its 81 towers out of service, while Lafourche Parrish has 97 percent down.

In 2017, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his intention to dismantle the FCC’s hard-won network neutrality regulation. The 2015 net neutrality order owed its existence to the millions who submitted comments to the FCC demanding commonsense protection from predatory internet service providers (ISPs). After Pai’s announcement, those same millions flooded the FCC’s comment portal, actually overwhelming the FCC’s servers and shutting them down.

As 3G cellphone networks disappear next year, people using older devices could be left without a lifeline. Tracfones, flip phones, Jitterbugs and even older-style smartphones will no longer be able to make calls once the networks are taken down.

As military and civilian agencies eye the use of fifth-generation wireless tech, officials representing both agree that a key to success is ensuring interoperability between networks and devices through open standards. So far, the Department of Defense (DOD) has led the government’s effort to trial 5G by offering its bases to telecommunications companies as testing grounds for the technology.