April 2018

Catherine Moyer, CEO of the nonprofit Pioneer Communications in Ulysses (KS) said network neutrality hadn’t thwarted her company’s infrastructure spending. Rather, she said the broadband investment drop in 2015 was likely due to uncertainty about internet infrastructure subsidies. Moyer said now that net neutrality rules have gone away, there’s a chance to bargain with Netflix and other companies looking to spare their customers the purgatory of buffering. More than half of Pioneer’s traffic is now streaming video. Netflix alone accounts for 42 percent.

The City of San Jose (CA) announced it has reached a tentative $5 million agreement with AT&T to deploy small cell technology on city-owned light poles. The non exclusive, 15-year agreement provides funding to help bolster the city's first responder communications network in addition to paying $1,500 per year for each of the projected 750 light poles to be used. The agreement still needs to be approved by the City Council at its May 1 meeting.

Microsoft and Declaration Networks Group are partnering on a project to bring fixed wireless broadband to 65,000 people on Virginia’s eastern shore over the next three years. The Microsoft Declaration Networks deal is part of Microsoft’s Rural Airband initiative, which aims to bring broadband to unserved areas of the U.S. within five years using a mixture of wireless and wireline technology. Declaration Networks Group specialized in bringing broadband to rural areas using fixed wireless broadband.