Joan Engebretson

Add California and Wisconsin to the growing list of states whose broadband funding programs have received applications seeking considerably more funding than the program has available. California’s Federal Funding Account received 484 applications requesting $4.6 billion, which is more than double the $2 billion budgeted for the program. Awards are used to fund last mile infrastructure projects.

RiverStreet Networks, a sister company of rural provider Wilkes Communications, has received a $191.1 million loan from CoBank that will go, in part, to refinance legacy US Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service financing and, in part, to deploy fiber broadband in rural areas of North Carolina and Virginia.

President Biden signed an extension to the Farm Bill as part of a new appropriations package aimed at averting a government shutdown. Executives from NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and WTA—Advocates for Rural Broadband  Executives from NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and WTA—Advocates for Rural Broadband explained that the bill authorizes US Department of Agriculture to continue to operate broadband programs included in the 2018 Farm Bill through September 2024.

Three local providers were the big winners in the latest round of Minnesota’s Line Extension Connection broadband funding program. Two larger companies—Mediacom and Midco—also won funding in this round of the program, which awarded a total of almost $4.4 million. Mediacom won $190,501 to extend service to 37 locations and Midco won $166,800 to extend service to 21 locations.

One of Consolidated Communications’ institutional investors is encouraging other shareholders not to vote in favor of the proposed Consolidated sale to Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. The investor, Wildcat Capital Management, owns about 3 million shares of Consolidated stock, or between 2 and 3 percent of the company. That makes Wildcat the fifth largest independent stockholder, according to Wildcat.

The state of South Dakota has set a high bar for applicants seeking rural broadband funding in the ConnectSD Broadband Development Program. For example, the state sees fiber broadband as the “gold standard” in broadband technology.

The state of Idaho has awarded nearly $119 million in funding to Ziply, Comcast and 14 others. Ziply won two awards totaling over $14.3 million. Comcast won a single award for over $9.8 million. Other awardees included competitive and incumbent local providers. In addition, some awards went to individual counties. Awardees will contribute matching funds equal to 30 percent of project costs on average. The funding will go toward last mile and middle mile projects. The funding for the program came through the federal Capital Projects Fund.

Cable giants Charter and Comcast reported considerably different broadband results for the third quarter. As financial analysts at MoffettNathanson put it in a research note about Charter’s earnings, “Every unit metric in Charter’s report is strong, and more to the point, much stronger than Comcast’s.

Charter Communications told the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) that the company will decline a $6.9 million rural broadband award announced in April.

The state of Mississippi will be getting one of the largest allotments in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program–$1.2 billion. The funding comes on top of $151.5 million that the state was awarded from the Capital Projects Fund and an earlier award of $32.6 million from the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP). “We started with a smaller award and the awards have been getting larger and larger," said Sally Doty, director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM).