Doug Mohney

Next-generation gigabit fiber speeds are running up against the limits of trailing-edge home Wi-Fi gear and other in-home factors, much to the chagrin of service providers and their customers, according to the latest research insights from Ookla.

With net broadband subscribers down year after year due to fixed wireless and new fiber projects, cable providers now face substantial competition and need to reevaluate their upgrade strategies. The capital expense expenditures to support DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0 rollouts are difficult to justify if there’s insufficient growth and a slim return on investment anticipated. However, cable providers are faced with diverting choices to upgrade their existing plant.

One hundred fifty billion dollars in new funding is expected to add an additional 59.3 million US homes to be reached by fiber over the next five years, according to the latest research from RVA Market Research & Consulting, with a total of over 137 million US homes passed by fiber by 2028.  At the end of 2023, 78 million US homes were passed by fiber with a total of 5.1 million route miles of fiber construction completed.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is winding down and will end in April when the rest of its funding is expected to run out, unless Congress enacts legislation to refund it.

In 2023, fiber broadband hit all new records, with 9 million newly passed U.S. homes added by network operators in 2023, with 6 million of those newly passed homes that previously did not have fiber, according to the latest annual research conducted by RVA Market Research & Consulting for the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA). “Cumulatively we’re now at about 78 million homes passed, including second and third passings,” said Michael Render, CEO and Principal Analyst, RVA LLC Market Research and Consulting. “We’re about 69 million unique homes passed. We’re now passing 51.5% of U.S.

One out of four urban households do not have a wireline subscription or the infrastructure to support one, making the challenge of closing the digital divide no small matter. Achieving digital equity is going to take time, and efforts will be ongoing as technology evolves and household circumstances change. “Digital skills are one issue that will never go away,” said Angela Siefer, Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).

As state and local officials gear up to build fiber networks through Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and other programs, opportunities abound for leveraging various funding to demonstrate how to get the most economic and societal benefits out of their networks, according to US Ignite Co-founder and CEONick Maynard. “Our mission is to help support underserved communities by helping them with their main challenges, but also through economic development or startup and research commercialization challenges,” said Maynard. Going into its second decade of operation, US Ignite curr

Providing internet to every household and small business by 2030 may not take a village, but it will require the efforts of local officials and service providers working together to pave the way for fast and efficient construction, an effort that the National Association of Counties (NACo) says its members have been steadily working on. “About two years ago, we put together NACo’s Broadband Task Force,” said Seamus Dowdall, NACo's Associate Legislative Director for Telecommunications & Technology. The task force generated a report to define how counties could facilitate the deployment o

As broadband needs continue to increase, service providers want to build a “No Regrets” fiber network capable of operating for decades and easily upgradable as user needs increase and technology evolves.

Many cable companies boast about having more fiber than coax in their outside plant, and according to recent research from Omdia, those numbers are expected to dramatically increase over the next decade. “Forty-three percent of MSOs have already deployed PON in their networks,” said Jaimie Lenderman, Principal Analyst and Research Manager at Omdia covering the Broadband Access Intelligence Service. “It’s split between the largest and smallest providers. Middle-sized organizations are expected to deploy PON in the next 12 to 24 months or longer.”