Joan Engebretson

In the latest round of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund awards, the Federal Communications Commission said it is ready to authorize funding for Windstream and 11 other companies. Windstream winning bids fill more than 60 of the 80 total pages that comprise the list. The FCC said it is ready to authorize Windstream winning bids in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio. LTD Broadband is not among them and the company got some bad RDOF news from the FCC.

According to advocates of the Convergence Apocalypse theory, telecommunications companies’ increasingly ambitious fiber deployments pose a big threat to major cable companies at the same time that cable companies’ increasing success in offering mobile service poses a big threat to the major telcos. Both threats are real, researchers argue, but they don’t see the threats as symmetrical. Instead, they see cable companies having the advantage. MoffettNathanson offers several data points to illustrate the threat that telco fiber deployments pose to cable companies.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) has sent a letter to the governors of all 50 states asking them to ignore a prohibition against using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) broadband funding for fixed wireless deployments. The prohibition is included in the interim rules issued by the US Treasury for $350 billion in ARPA funding directed to state and local governments.

There might be a business case for AT&T to deploy fiber to more than the 30 million locations that the company aims to make fiber broadband available to by 2025, said AT&T CEO John Stankey. Defining the business model for fiber deployment may not be as clear cut as some might believe, Stankey suggested. Another impending development that could impact the fiber deployment business case, according to the CEO, is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that passed the Senate

LTD Broadband, which was the largest winning bidder in last year’s FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, has asked the commission to reconsider its decision involving the carrier’s application for eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status in California, alleging “egregious misconduct” on the part of the attorney that handled the filing. Unless reversed, the Federal Communications Commission decision will prevent LTD Broadband from obtaining RDOF funding for the state.

MTA Fiber Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alaskan telecommunications cooperative MTA that is responsible for the creation of AlCan ONE, is the first-ever terrestrial fiber network connecting Alaska with the lower 48 US states. Alaskans previously relied solely on subsea cables for that connectivity, explained MTA CEO Michael Burke. MTA undertook the AlCan ONE project because, as Burke explained, “We needed to explore owner economics.” In making the decision to do the fiber build, MTA “looked at our projected capacity needs going into the future and how much bandwidth we would need [b

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) this week stayed and suspended proceedings and requests for comment about a state law that would have required broadband providers to offer a $15 plan to low-income households. It is the second blow that the law has sustained this month, following a US Eastern District Court of New York preliminary injunction to prevent the state from enforcing the rule while awaiting a final decision on the legality of the requirement.

As policymakers consider the best way to expand broadband availability, a key question is where to set speed targets which, in turn, will impact the technology used – fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-fed copper, fixed wireless or satellite. While some people argue that any government broadband support programs should be technology-neutral, we shouldn’t be “expectations-neutral” or “outcomes-neutral,” argued Ernesto Falcon, senior legislative counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The debate about plans for the 12 GHz spectrum band is not just about billionaire versus billionaire, said Harold Feld, senior vice president for Public Knowledge which is part part of a new coalition know as 5G for 12 GHz.

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, Charter defended itself against a group of bidders in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction that have questioned Charter’s winning bid in the auction. Charter had the top bid in the auction and is poised to gain $1.22 billion to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to unserved rural areas. Charter made its filing in reply comments in connection with the company’s request to obtain eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status for Alabama, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.