Dan O'Shea

In recent years, a variety of government broadband funding programs have emerged to address what many people living in small towns knew long before: Rural markets were both under-served and under-appreciated by big technology companies, and not just for broadband, but for just about any technology product or service that comes to mind. IdeaTek, a computer services company that was founded in 1999, pivoted in 2005 into providing internet services, initially dial-up and later DSL, and, by 2007, a small number of fiber-to-the-home connections in five small Kansas towns.

Could the major telecom operators increase prices on customer bases already reeling from general cost-of-living increases and other economic uncertainty? Executives from AT&T and Verizon both seemed to leave the door open to that possibility, but new research suggested that could be a very risky move. EY issued a report titled, “The top 10 risks in telecommunications,” which identified “Insufficient response to customers during the cost-of-living crisis” as the No.

Lumen Technologies completed one major business divestiture last month and are close to wrapping another. Company CFO and EVP Chris Stansbury said the pair of deals will help the company allocate resources to other products at a time when Lumen is starting to see big growth opportunities. “The company is going to get smaller before it gets bigger again,” Stansbury said.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently proposed raising the minimum broadband speed requirement in the US to 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads. The move was generally well-received, but long overdue at a time when median download and upload speeds among US service providers still rank below several other nations. Still, Fiber Broadband Association President and CEO Gary Bolton said the FCC’s ongoing focus on speed minimums is a misguided approach.

Two independent telecom service providers–TDS Telecom and Shentel–have touted their increasingly fiber-focused broadband expansion plans. Jim Butman, president and CEO of TDS Telecom, said TDS is pressing ahead with a self-funded fiber expansion that mostly will focus on out-of-territory growth, with a few exceptions where the provider uses a full fiber deployment to defend some of its ILEC areas from competitive overbuilders. “We have plans over the next five years to make the business much more fiber-centric," said Butman.

UTOPIA Fiber--the operator of a Utah-based, community-owned Open Access fiber network--said it made fiber available to 26,000 new homes during 2021 and that 65 percent of new subscribers on its network are using services of 1 Gbps or higher, up from 48 percent a year ago. Regarding the jump in 1-gig subscribers, UTOPIA Deputy Director and CMO Kimberly McKinley said, “As consumers become more educated, they want the speed and capacity that gigabit-speed fiber can bring.

Consolidated Communications is on pace to exceed its 2021 goal for gigabit-capable fiber upgrades after the independent telco reported that it had achieved 97,000 upgrades in the third quarter. The figure, reported as part of the company’s third quarter earnings, comes after Consolidated reported 76,000 fiber upgrades in the second quarter this year and 46,000 in the first quarter as it embarked on a goal to reach almost 2 million fiber upgrades by 2025.

Windstream is looking to leverage funds from two Federal Communications Commission programs as it expands broadband Internet and related services to new markets and customers. Kinetic, Windstream’s community broadband business, announced that it plans to participate in the FCC’s $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program. “As soon as the FCC is ready to take this program live, we are ready to implement it so any e