Joan Engebretson

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program has $42.5 billion available to cover some of the costs of bringing broadband to unserved and underserved rural areas. States will administer the program but must first have a plan approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and, as new research from BroadbandNow shows, some states face an important hurdle as they prepare their plans—a hurdle that involves anti-municipal broadband laws.

The Federal Communications Commission said it was ready to authorize Starry's winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) bids in eight states. However, the company has told the FCC that it plans to default on all its winning bids, including those in one additional state. Starry had a winning bid totaling about $269 million. The news of the default came in an FCC public notice that also listed some other companies that had informed the FCC of plans to default on at least a portion of their winning bids. Defaulting companies are subject to a base forfeiture of $3,000 per census block group

Vermont stakeholders have collaborated on an application for $114 million in funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) middle mile grant program. If awarded, the funding would represent over 10% of the approximately $1 billion allotted to the NTIA program, which has proven to be a highly competitive one. The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) spearheaded the application. The request would cover some of the costs of the proposed 1,663-mile fiber network.

Nextlink, one of the biggest winners in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, will be using 10 Gbps XGS-PON fiber broadband infrastructure from Nokia to connect 200,000 homes in 12 states; including 6 states that it already serves and 6 new states. XGS-PON fiber technology can be easily upgraded to 25 Gbps in the future.

The next update of the Federal Communications Commission broadband map, expected in late November or early December, is likely to have a considerable number of errors, according to sources familiar with the broadband data collection initiative on which the map will be based. The new map will be based on data collected from broadband providers. Those providers were required to enter broadband availability data on a per-location basis into an FCC-provided database.

Competitive fiber network operator Cogent Communications reached a definitive agreement to buy T-Mobile’s wireline business.

Auction 108 of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band closed after raising less than $428 million, a considerably lower amount in comparison with what we have seen in other recent auctions. The spectrum is considered mid-band, which is widely seen as supporting the optimum mixture of speed and coverage for 5G.

Small independent telecom companies increased rural network investment “slightly” in 2021, according to a new report from accounting firm FORVIS. This was true for companies with annual revenues below $2.5 million and those with revenues exceeding $25 million and for all companies in between.

Dish and DirecTV are the latest opponents to issue dueling data about the impact of a proposed rule change for the 12 GHz spectrum band. A proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission is studying opening up 12 GHz spectrum for two-way 5G use. Both companies currently use 12 GHz spectrum for direct broadcast satellite (DBS) video service, but Dish and others advocate a rule change for the band that would enable the band to also be used for mobile and potentially fixed wireless services.

One of the biggest surprises in the rules that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program was the agency’s definition of “reliable broadband”—at least with regard to fixed wireless. While fixed wireless using “entirely licensed spectrum or a hybrid of licensed and unlicensed spectrum” was considered “reliable,” fixed wireless “relying entirely on unlicensed spectrum” was not.