Joan Engebretson

Charter and Brightspeed have formally announced broadband funding wins in the latest round of funding through the North Carolina Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) program.

Kwikom--a broadband provider based in Kansas that also serves some markets in Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma--has begun work on fiber deployments in several Kansas markets. Deployments in some of these markets were funded, in part, through a state broadband program and, in part, by funding provided by local governments. The total investment will be $12 million. Over 7,000 homes and businesses will be reached. The markets that will be partially grant-funded include Pomona, Quenemo (KS), and over 20 square miles of rural area between Ottawa and Quenemo.

Faster fixed wireless came a step closer because the Federal Communications Commission has approved testing of automated frequency coordination (AFC) systems for the 6 GHz band.

Broadband mergers and acquisitions have increased five-fold over the last 10 years, according to Jeff Brown, segment marketing manager for Calix. And Brian Vu, chief investment officer for Connect Humanity, estimates that there are about 50 investment funds at an average size of $2.5 billion that have invested or could invest in broadband. All that could be good news at a time when some industry observers are questioning w

Some states will be filing their initial proposals in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program soon if they haven’t already—and once the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) approves a state’s proposal, the state will be eligible to receive 20 percent of its allocation of funds.

The $451 million that Kansas will receive in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program will be sufficient to make service available to everyone in the state if 25 percent of it goes to fixed wireless access (FWA), said Jade Piros de Carvalho, director of the Kansas Office of Broadband Development. That determination was based on cost modeling, she said. Although Piros de Carvalho was disappointed in the amount of funding that the state received, she said, “I anticipate we’ll be OK.

The Coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Winners has filed an emergency petition with the Federal Communications Commission regarding its request for extra funding or other relief measures. The group argues that the COVID pandemic has raised deployment costs dramatically and that the funding the companies won is now insufficient.

Adtran will invest up to $5 million in its Huntsville, Alabama, manufacturing facility to support domestic manufacturing of fiber broadband equipment.

Rural electric cooperatives, rural telephone companies, and Comcast were the biggest winners in the latest broadband funding announcement from the state of Minnesota. The awards were made on June 30, 2023, although it isn’t clear if an announcement was released at that time. The biggest winner was Federated Rural Electric Association, which was awarded a $7 million grant in the Low Density Broadband Grant Program. The next biggest winners were Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone and Comcast, both of whom will receive about $5.5 million.

If UScellular were to sell some of its wireless assets, “under most scenarios that’s an opportunity and a positive for where we’re trying to go,” said Charlie Ergen, chairman of the board of DISH Network and