Diana Goovaerts

President Biden's budget seeks another $400 Million for ReConnect Program

The US Department of Agriculture’s Broadband ReConnect Program already got a $2 billion boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but President Joe Biden is looking to bolster the loan and grant initiative with a fresh batch of funding. In a budget proposal covering fiscal year 2024, President Biden called for an additional $400 million to be allocated to the program to help deploy broadband in unserved areas. “Installing high-speed internet creates high-paying union jobs and strengthens rural

AT&T COO McElfresh: 50 Million homes ‘deserve’ fiber

AT&T is on a quest to deploy fiber broadband to 30 million locations by the end of 2025. But if comments from COO Jeff McElfresh are any indication, its ultimate goal could be much, much higher. McElfresh said that despite a choppy economic environment, demand for fiber remains high and its rollout is still delivering the right level of returns. With that in mind, he added, the 30 million target AT&T set in May 2021 is “not the entirety of what I think the market opportunity is there.” “We're going to be on this journey for a while.

Texas eyes creation of $5 Billion Broadband Infrastructure Fund

New legislation introduced in the Texas House of Representatives could give voters in the state a chance to decide whether or not to throw $5 billion behind efforts to improve broadband there. The bill, known as H.B. 9, calls for the creation of a state Broadband Infrastructure Fund and would give the Texas comptroller and Public Utility Commission power to allocate the money for specific uses.

Where will net adds come from once there’s Internet for All?

President Joe Biden’s administration has set an ambitious goal to deliver Internet for All using $42.5 billion in funding from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. It’s not entirely clear how realistic that goal is.

Cable giant Charter is building hundreds of thousands of fiber passings this year

Charter Communications has talked a lot recently about its rural expansion plans. But what it hasn’t drawn attention to is the fact that most - if not all - of its planned rural passings will be delivered with fiber. The operator originally announced its rural build plan in 2021 after the close of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. All told, it said it was planning to spend $5 billion – including $1.2 billion in RDOF subsidy money – to reach 1 million rural locations across 24 states over the coming years.

Frontier CEO says it's 'looking at all options' to push fiber reach beyond 10M

Frontier Communications is all heads down as it works to reach its target of deploying fiber to 10 million locations by the end of 2025. That said, it’s also got an eye on the horizon beyond that goal, with executives saying that subsidy dollars or a potential joint venture (JV) could help it expand further. CEO Nick Jeffery added it would also entertain an open-access network deal to reach more locations. “In terms of open access infrastructures generally, if there is one available that we could use, yes, we’d look at it,” he said. “It can be a capital smart way of operating.

WOW! hits 25% penetration in first greenfield fiber market

Consumers in central Florida are apparently hungry for fiber. WideOpenWest (WOW!) CEO Teresa Elder said the company is seeing strong uptake of its service, including its higher-tier products. WOW! announced its launch in Altamonte Springs, FL, in January 2022, noting at the time it had around 1,000 passings in the city. Elder said the market had already achieved a 25% penetration rate – which she noted was quite near the 30% rate WOW!

Here’s how much fiber US operators are planning to build in 2023

With Q4 2022 earnings mostly in the rearview, a clearer picture of fiber build targets for the coming year has emerged, at least as far as US operators are concerned. While some operators have lowered their targets for both 2023 and their overall build plans, the industry still plans to build millions of passings in 2023. An informal tally found operators are plotting to roll out fiber to between 6.5 million and 7 million new locations – at a minimum. Top broadband operators' Q4 data reveals the following fiber updates:

Here’s how cable giant Comcast is thinking about fiber

Comcast is in the midst of a massive overhaul of its network, rolling out mid-split upgrades and plotting the launch of DOCSIS 4.0 in the second half of 2023. But while Comcast remains firmly in the cable camp, Cable EVP and Chief Network Officer Elad Nafshi said there is a place for fiber in its future. And, he said, it’ll soon provide a more in-depth glimpse of what that future looks like. To be clear, there’s already a ton of fiber in Comcast’s network. According to Nafshi, Comcast’s nationwide backbone network – which it calls the core network – is all fiber.

Here’s how broadband providers might react to Biden’s effort to scrap ‘junk fees’

President Joe Biden called on Congress during his State of the Union address to pass legislation that would prevent operators from levying so-called “junk fees.” That’s unlikely to actually happen, but similar ideas could be adopted at the state level and operators will be left looking for new ways to pass on costs to consumers. The details of the Junk Fee Prevention Act have yet to be released.