Diana Goovaerts

Midco’s chief technology innovation officer Jon Pederson says the operator’s use of fixed wireless access (FWA) technology to serve certain remote locations is actually benefitting its efforts to expand its fiber network. Pederson, who has worked for the regional US broadband provider for more than three decades, explained Midco deploys fixed wireless access service for customers in some of the most remote parts of its footprint. As it runs fiber to new towers for that service, he said it’s also taking the opportunity to push fiber into nearby communities along the way.

Lumen Technologies landed a massive $1.2 billion contract with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), setting it up to give one of the biggest government agency networks a major makeover. Zain Ahmed, Senior Vice President of Lumen public sector, said the 11-year task order represents entirely new business for the company. Under the contract, Ahmed said Lumen will “completely transform” the USDA’s network covering 9,500 locations across the country.

Mediacom struck a settlement agreement with the city of West Des Moines (IA) to end a more than year-long scuffle over what the operator claimed was an illegal deal between the municipality and Google Fiber. The exact terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the deal will allow the municipality to move ahead with the construction of a $50 million city-wide conduit network.

The Italian government buckled down on broadband, launching a new multi-billion euro fund that aims to provide enough support to help operators push gigabit services to nearly 7 million locations in the coming years. Dubbed Italia a 1Giga (or “Italy to 1 Gig”), the funding initiative is set to provide a total of €3.65 billion (approximately $4.14 billion) in grants to fuel deployments across 15 regions in Italy. Operators will be permitted to submit bids for the grants through March 16, and will be able to win funding in a maximum of eight regions.

The Senate confirmed Alan Davidson as the new head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, installing a new leader for the agency as it begins the process of distributing billions in federal funding for broadband. Davidson was approved by a vote of 60-31, making him the agency’s first permanent chief since David Redl left the post in May 2019.

Ting Internet geared up to tackle its largest market yet, striking a deal with Colorado Springs Utilities to become the anchor tenant on a city-wide fiber network the electric, water and gas company plans to build. The forthcoming fiber network will pass upwards of 200,000 addresses, with construction set to begin by Q3 of this year. Ting said it plans to hire a dedicated team to serve Colorado Springs (CO) customers and expects to begin providing service in the city in 2023.

AT&T CEO John Stankey revealed the operator is conducting market tests of a multi-gig fiber service and plans to capitalize on an industry shift to bundled connectivity. Stankey stated rising bandwidth demand for use cases like video will require a robust fixed connection and highlighted a positive consumer response to a multi-gig fiber pilot it is running.

In many ways, 2021 feels like the year fiber became real. Companies across the board unveiled plans for sprawling fiber deployments and billions in funding began pouring in from governments and private equity players alike. But the firm focus on fiber as we head into 2022 begs one big question: what does the future look like for cable? “I don’t think that you can talk about cable without also talking about fiber,” said Jeff Heynen, Dell’Oro Group VP of Broadband Access and Home Networking.

A Mississippi official called on the Federal Communications Commission to audit AT&T’s use of Connect America Fund (CAF) money in the state, citing concerns about the accuracy of broadband coverage information submitted by the operator. AT&T denied it has done anything wrong.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) dished out more funding for rural broadband, awarding more than $119 million in loans and grants for projects in 19 states. The money was distributed as part of a $5.2 billion investment the USDA made to boost rural infrastructure projects. The figure included $48.6 million in Community Connect grants for broadband deployments and $71.1 million in loans for telecom infrastructure rollouts. Sierra Telephone Company secured the largest of the telecom loans, bagging $40.2 million for work in California.