Fierce

Northeast broadband provider Archtop Fiber has completed its acquisition of GTel, which will allow Archtop to expand its network in more than five townships across New York’s Columbia County. GTel currently has more than 2,500 customers on a 300-mile fiber network.

Missouri-based Gateway Fiber is stretching its legs outside of the state to break ground on fresh fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects in Minnesota. In February 2023, Gateway Fiber was acquired by CBRE Investment Management in part to help finance FTTH build-outs as the team prepares for national expansion. John Meyer, Chief Marketing Officer at Gateway, said that the team found that the Minnesota specifically markets around Minneapolis, fit into its internal formula. Meyer said that the decision to enter Minnesota next was unrelated to the state’s federal grant monies.

Great Plains Communications is undertaking significant network rollouts across the Midwest, announcing earlier in August 2023 that it will build fiber in 16 new urban and rural communities in Nebraska. CEO Todd Foje said these markets are all areas where Great Plains will upgrade its broadband services with fiber, with construction slated to start by late fall 2023. Some of the expansion markets are in the Omaha metro area, such as Gretna, La Vista, Papillion, and Ralston, while others are considered “small

Fairfax (OK) will be the first town to be connected to the internet by Cox Communications on a fiber network leased from a local power provider. Indian Electric Cooperative (IEC) CEO Todd Schroeder said service should be available by the end of 2023. In addition to multi-gigabit, symmetrical broadband, Cox will offer its Contour TV product, as well as mobile phone service through Cox Mobile.

T-Mobile told a Washington (DC) court not to grant Dish Network’s request for more time to purchase T-Mobile-s 800 MHz spectrum, essentially saying a deal’s a deal and other potential buyers are in the wings. Dish asked the US District Court for the District of Columbia to give it 10 more months to get the financing together to buy T-Mobile’s 800 MHz spectrum for about $3.6 billion. Dish cited the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and other macroeconomic conditions that led to substantial inflation and rising interest rates since a Final Judgment was issued in April 2020.

In comments filed with the Senate Working Group on the future of the Universal Service Fund (USF), many organizations underscored the issue of redundant government expenditure in their submissions, with a notable focus on whether the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) should be integrated into the USF framework. The USF includes four programs targeting different vulnerable portions of the broadband market: the Connect America Fund, Lifeline, Schools and Libraries (E-Rate) and Rural Health Care.

There are a large number of wireless and wired telecommunications trade associations; so many that it can be hard to keep track. Fierce Telecom created this list of the most well-known trade groups in the industry.