Julia King

Fiber companies have made being environmentally friendly a central part of their messaging—especially when it comes to comparing the technology to its counterparts, like cable and copper.

Earth Day is here, and Fierce Network is celebrating by looking into how telcos are approaching their sustainability agendas. Fierce reached out to several internet service providers (ISPs) to ask how they're making their businesses more environmentally friendly. For companies Fierce didn't hear from, it took a look at their recent environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports to check their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scope 1 emissions are a company's direct emissions from owned or controlled sources.

Brightspeed's fiber expansion is gaining momentum. The privately-backed company said its fiber network is now available at one million locations, notching that achievement just one year after it launched Brightspeed Fiber Internet. And sure, hitting that milestone is cool. But what really matters is that people are buying it. A spokesperson for the company said Brightspeed Fiber Internet sales increase every month.

Zayo Group unveiled a slew of upgrades to its fiber infrastructure, including the acquisition of a new long-haul dark fiber route connecting Washington, DC and Atlanta. Zayo acquired the route through a secretive "technology partnership," but Chaz Kramer, Zayo's VP of product management, said the name of the company and price tag for the acquisition “aren’t being disclosed." In things that are being disclosed, the company announced that it built a dark fiber route connecting Columbus, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In Massachusetts a consulting program is helping local municipalities navigate digital equity planning. There is no flow of money to municipalities under said program. Instead, the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program, spearheaded by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), pairs towns and cities with consultants to develop strategic plans for digital equity within their communities.

Just because it isn’t as futuristic as we pictured doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened yet: Smart devices are on the rise, and they’re creeping into the broadband world. Our refrigerators aren’t making us sandwiches and we don’t have laundry folding robots (yet), but subtle smart home devices (a.k.a. any gadget with internet connectivity) like washing machines, smoke detectors and locks are starting to nestle into more homes.

Are federal labor protections for broadband workers strong enough, or should state lawmakers intervene to give them a boost? That question is at the heart of a fiery debate raging in Colorado’s state house over a piece of proposed legislation that would codify additional rights for broadband workers. If passed, the bill would mandate that any company using federal or state money for broadband projects of over $500,000 would have to pay workers prevailing wages.

It seems like the Universal Service Fund (USF) has been stuck in a loop for years, as debates over how it could be improved and better funded rage on. There are plenty of possible solutions on the table, yet the wheels just keep on spinning.

In spite of all the public broadband haters, municipalities will be allowed to vie for money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

Speed is but one thread in the tapestry of connectivity and user experience. To address bandwidth-constrained households, some ISPs and vendors are exploring alternative routes to enhance network performance. Traffic prioritization tools within the home, for instance, offer a potential solution for the bandwidth-constrained. The key to driving user adoption of tools like this is to make the interface easy to use, and automate where possible. Speed has become “less relevant,”  said OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau, now that the industry has reached multi-gig levels.