Carl Weinschenk

Regional provider United Communications says it will invest $85 million to reach 77,000 members of the Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) electric cooperative in Murfreesboro (TN). [United Communications is the broadband unit of MTE.] The multi-year project will add 1,400 route miles of fiber and be capable of providing multi-gigabit service to residential and business customers. The initiative is expected to add about 150 jobs in the area.

Ubiquity has launched open access networks in Carlsbad (CA) and Mesa (AZ). The company said the Mesa deployment is the nation’s first scaled fiber deployment, in which service provider tenants will use both lit and dark fiber to service business and residential customers. At the same time, the company announced new fiber “footprints” in Omaha (NE) and Council Bluffs (IA).

In July 2023, wireless and broadband provider Vistabeam acquired Airbits, which served the towns of Estes Park and Pole Hill, which are in Colorado’s Front Range area. Vistabeam also established a digital empowerment Center in Yuma, Colorado. The move into Colorado’s Front Range area is a sign that fixed wireless access (FWA) technology is maturing. The acquisition includes 25 towers. Vistabeam’s footprint is 40,000 square miles and covers more than 100 towns in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

A $10.3 million public-private partnership between Chattooga County (GA) and fiber provider Windstream will provide broadband access to 3,400 addresses in the county. Key communities covered by the agreement, which will feature 320 miles of fiber cable, are Summerville, Trion, Lyerly, and Menlo. The partnership includes $3.1 million from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Windstream will invest $7.2 million and cover cost overruns. Work on the project is expected to be completed in 2024.

In a deal involving Ohio service providers, NKTelco has acquired Hometown Cable. The deal includes more than 6,000 addresses in and around the communities of Coldwater, St. Henry and Montezuma, as well as fixed wireless access assets serving Mercer, Auglaize, Miami and Darke counties. Former Hometown Cable customers will be supported by NKTelco’s fiber ring, which offers status monitoring and continuity services. They also will have access to the Flight Data packages and multi-gigabit broadband, NKTelco says.

Consolidated Communications expects to complete work by November 1, 2023 on a Vermont broadband deployment project funded, in part, by the state. The project is being done through a public-private partnership with the Southern Vermont (SoVT) communications union district (CUD). When completed, that CUD will be the first in the state to achieve universal broadband coverage. The SoVT CUD received a $9 million grant from the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) in October 2022.

LICT, a publicly-held company with several rural service provider subsidiaries, plans to spin off one of those subsidiaries into a separately traded entity. The subsidiary, currently known as Michigan Broadband, will be known as MachTen after the spinoff, which is expected to occur on August 14, 2023. The separation will make LICT and MachTen completely independent, publicly traded companies.

T-Mobile will appeal several decisions made by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs to challenges brought by AT&T. The decisions involved “Phone Freedom” ads that appeared in television commercials, radio advertisements, and on T-Mobile’s website. The good news for T-Mobile is that NAD found at least one claim made in the “Phone Freedom” campaign to be supported. The bad news for T-Mobile is that some claims were not found to be supported.

Astound Broadband is expanding its mobile offering, dubbed Astound Mobile, to about four million customers in 12 states the company currently serves.

Fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) provider GigFire has acquired Rural Comm, a service provider headquartered in Farina (IL). GigFire, which now operates in ten Midwestern states, was known as LTD Broadband until earlier in 2023.