Diana Goovaerts
Tachus Fiber drops $100 million to go bigger in Texas
Tachus Fiber, with help from private equity partner Crosstimbers Capital Group, is set to spend $100 million to expand its footprint in the Houston (TX) metropolitan area. The company has the aim of adding 100,000 passings in southwest Houston by the end of 2025.
Nextlink, Ting, Calix dish on the dos and don’ts of fiber funding
It feels like broadband funding is flying at operators from left, right and center. But how does a provider figure out which funding source is the right fit, and what do they need to know about applying for and actually spending that money? A panel comprised of experts from Nextlink, Ting Internet, Calix, Fujitsu, and COS Systems tackled the ins and outs of the funding landscape. Here are the top takeaways from the session:
Permitting Council chief says it is gearing up to make BEAD a breeze
Permitting has long been the bane of broadband deployments across the country, but a little-known federal council is working to change that.
Nokia goes big, BEAD friendly with network-in-a-box 2.0
Nokia is broadening its horizons with a new version of its network-in-a-box solution, adding new components into the mix and making its kit scalable to meet the needs of medium-sized operators in addition to small ones.
C Spire’s backhaul network gets a $26.2 million boost from Middle Mile program
C Spire has been working to bridge the middle-mile gap in the rural southeastern US, plugging away at construction of a backhaul network in the area for the past few years.
Tillman gets $500 Million from Northleaf for open access fiber build in 5 states
Tillman FiberCo received a $200 million investment from Northleaf Capital Partners to fuel plans to build an open-access fiber network in five states. The deal with Northleaf leaves the door open to another $300 million investment when the time is right. Founded in 2021, Tillman FiberCo is a subsidiary of Tillman Global Holdings, whose other subsidiary, Tillman Networks, is a well-known player in the telecommunications construction world. But unlike its sister company, Tillman FiberCo not only designs and builds fiber networks, but also owns them.
Cable operators can get to 8 Gbps without end-to-end DOCSIS 4.0
DOCSIS 4.0 has been billed as the technology that will put cable operators on par with 10G PON service from fiber providers, but a recent CableLabs interoperability event showed cable companies can hit over 8 Gbps with a mix of new and old gear. CableLabs Principal Architect Doug Jones said that operators demonstrated speeds of “eight point something” gigabits per second downstream and 1.5 Gbps upstream. But rather than using an end-to-end DOCSIS 4.0 system, this was done using a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem termination system (CMTS) in a high split configuration and a DOCSIS 4.0 modem.
Nokia bows to Buy American rules with new US broadband plant
Nokia is teaming with longtime manufacturing partner Sanmina to bring production of fiber network electronics to Wisconsin, hoping the move will help it bring in the cheese when money starts flowing from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
States could be the next big source of middle mile funding
The US government just dished out $930 million in support for middle mile broadband projects, but a pair of experts said there’s demand for billions in additional funding. Both noted that states could be the next big source of support as they work out how to divvy up their newly allocated Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) allotments. Zayo was one of the big winners in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) recent award round for the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, scooping up nearly $93 million for three projects.