Joan Engebretson

More than 20 million businesses have a landline phone as their main business number. Three-quarters of people over the age of 75 rely on a landline phone. And one-third of US households have a landline phone.

JAB Broadband, also known as Rise Broadband, is a fixed wireless provider with a geographical footprint that reaches about 5.4% of the US population. JAB is one of just 11 US broadband providers that   cover 5% or more of the population. Its presence on the list underscores the importance of fixed wireless beyond the metro areas, which are the primary markets for Verizon and T-Mobile. Many of the nation's 2,201 fixed broadband providers are small fixed wireless providers, some serving just a handful of customers. But JAB/Rise has been acting as a consolidator in that market.

Frontier has received $440 million in government grants for broadband deployments, said the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Scott Beasley. Most of that money came from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Frontier was one of the top 10 winning bidders in the RDOF auction, which awarded funding to the company that committed to deploying service to an area for the lowest level of support.

Comcast said that it successfully completed a trial of 10G and full duplex DOCSIS 4.0 technology delivering symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds on a live connection. The company said it will continue to trial the technology “over the next several months in preparation for offering 10G-enabled services to customers in the second half of 2023.” The cable industry uses the term “10G” for a range of technology advances aimed at enhancing internet connectivity. Full duplex DOCSIS 4.0 is one of those advances.

AT&T is looking to expand fiber beyond its traditional local exchange carrier service territory, said AT&T Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh. AT&T already did an out-of-region fiber deployment in Mesa (AZ) and apparently is sufficiently satisfied with the results so far to consider doing more of the same.

2022 was an important one for Verizon fixed wireless access (FWA) as the company turned up the service using C-band spectrum and 5G in major metro markets.

Seven US senators sent a letter to Alan Davidson, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, urging NTIA to revise its definition of reliable broadband for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. In establishing rules for the program, NTIA omitted fixed wireless service that relies totally on unlicensed spectrum for last mile connectivity from its definition of reliable service – a decision that impacts the BEAD program in two ways. 

The latest round of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) ReConnect rural broadband funding program received three times as many applications as there is funding for, said Andy Berke, administrator of USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, which is responsible for awarding the funding. Round 4, the latest USDA ReConnect round, has a budget of $1.15 billion to cover some of the costs of deploying service to unserved or underserved rural areas. USDA began accepting applications for funding in early September.

Northleaf Capital Partners acquired a controlling interest in Mercury Broadband and will invest up to $230 million over the next several years to support the provider’s expansion plans. Mercury Broadband, also known as Mercury Wireless, won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money to cover some of the costs of deploying a combination of fixed wireless and fiber broadband to unserved and underserved rural areas of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. Northleaf, a “global private markets investment firm,” raised $21 billion in private equity, private cre

The National Advertising Division (NAD) of Better Business Bureau National Programs has upheld some claims made by Cox in television and radio advertising for its Gigablast internet service but has advised Cox to make changes to the advertisements. BBB National Programs is a non-profit organization that resolves disputes between advertisers. The decision came in response to a challenge from AT&T. In the ads, Cox states that it has gigabit available everywhere – a claim that NAD said is true throughout areas where the advertising has run.