Joan Engebretson

If provider associations are successful in their advocacy, the next Farm Bill will end the need for ReConnect broadband funding to be reappropriated every year. The ReConnect program covers some of the costs of deploying broadband to unserved areas. Farm bills are an every-five-year occurrence and the current bill is due to expire later in 2023. Fortunately, the farm bill typically has bipartisan support and usually passes both chambers, noted NTCA (The Rural Broadband Association) Director o

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is scheduled to release state funding allocations for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program by the end of June 2023. The allocations will be based on the latest version of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map released in late May 2023.

Flume, a service provider operating in New York City, metro Los Angeles, and Connecticut, has a rather unique business model. It offers fiber broadband but has very little fiber infrastructure of its own. “In the metro core, there’s a lot of overbuilt fiber,” said Prashanth Vijay, Flume co-founder and CEO. In some cases, the fiber may have been installed by a utility company, cell tower company, or another entity that doesn’t offer residential broadband.

The next update to the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map will be released on May 30, said FCC senior officials. The map will reflect availability data reported by providers as of December 31, 2022, as well as challenges made more recently to that data. It’s an important development, as this is the version of the map that will be used for making allocations to states in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

The same day that SpaceX scored a big win on the proper use of spectrum, it became embroiled in a new fight over appropriate spectrum use. The new fight is with AT&T over SpaceX’s plans to enable calls from T-Mobile cellphones via SpaceX satellites. That type of service is called supplemental coverage from space (SCS) and is a market AT&T also is pursuing via a deal with satellite operator AST.

North Dakota ranks as the best-connected state with gigabit broadband availability, according to a new report from Smarthomestarter.com. North Dakota broadband providers offer gigabit service to 60.58% of residential locations in the state — the highest percentage in the nation, according to the research.

Nearly every winning bid in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) rural broadband funding program has now either been authorized or deemed to be in default.

Charter has received funding to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to 260,000 more rural locations from state and “other” sources, said Charter CEO Chris Winfrey. And there likely will be more to come. “Our BEAD chances are very good,” said Winfrey, in a reference to the upcoming $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The company was one the largest winners in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, which awarded funding for an area to the company that committed to deploying service for the lowest level of government support.

Loveland Pulse, a municipal broadband network in Loveland (CO), has seen considerable success since turning up its first residential customer in June 2020, and the company will be expanding to neighboring communities. Loveland Pulse was formed in 2018 by the city of Loveland and its local utility with the goal of getting high-speed broadband available community-wide.

TDS has been taking every opportunity to talk up the Federal Communications Commission's Alternative Connect America (A-CAM) program and why the company is so excited about a possible extension to the program, even as the US gets set to award an unprecedented $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband program. “A-CAM has been absolutely revolutionary for improving our hardest-to-serve rural areas,” said TDS Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Andrew Petersen. TDS is rather unique among publicly-held broadband providers in that it is eligible