Linda Hardesty

Can you imagine a future where everyone relies solely on their cellular connection, and they don’t subscribe to a fixed broadband connection at all? Currently, the U.S. government is undertaking a big push to get everyone in the country connected to fiber broadband to close the digital divide. But ironically, a research group from the U.K.

Companies that plan to apply for Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds should be planning now for how they’re going to staff their projects. Evan Feinman, director for BEAD with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said state workforce groups typically wait until there is a job shortfall before they initiate training programs. “In this instance, we know there’s $42.5 billion of demand,” said Feinman. “They need to be ramping up training.

The mayor of the city of Vineland (NJ) says residents of his city are underserved by currently available broadband services. And he’s moving forward with a plan to create a municipal broadband network. This has already sparked lobbying against the prospect by a dark money group called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation. According to the city’s initial proposal, Vineland suffers from high economic distress with some areas having unemployment rates as high as 9% and poverty rates as high as 19.2%.

There are several reasons why a telephone company with legacy copper cables might want to extract those cables. First, copper is valuable. It’s currently priced at an all-time high of more than $5 per pound. And who doesn’t love found money? Secondly, some carriers, such as AT&T, are trying to convert large swathes of their copper plant to fiber.

AT&T CEO John Stankey touted open access fiber networks, giving several examples of how they could be structured to benefit AT&T. AT&T is partnering with BlackRock for an open access joint venture called Gigapower. The JV is building networks outside of AT&T’s footprint. It already has fiber builds in progress in parts of Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

John Greene, former CEO of New Lisbon Holdings, said, “Who would have ever thought we’d see private equity filter into rural areas and small companies?” Rural broadband is very expensive to build. That’s why the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program is designed to subsidize the gap where it otherwise doesn’t make financial sense for private companies to build. Panelists at the Connect(X) show noted that one of the main competitors in some rural areas is the local electric co-op. Greene said rural electric co-ops “are going to be a force to be reckoned with.

“The main long-term competitor for us is fiber,” says Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson. Comcast is in the process of rolling out mid-split upgrades and preparing for the launch of DOCSIS 4.0. Comcast doubled mid-splits year over year and now reaches 40% of its footprint. Watson said the company has previously been asked if it’s holding back on network investments to manage capital intensity. He said, “We’re not holding back one bit.

An appealing way to finance fiber builds is through asset-backed securities (ABS). However, this is only available to established companies that actually have fiber assets, which they can leverage to secure a lower cost of debt. It’s not something available to new entrants in the fiber space. Since the introduction of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, many private equity (PE) investors have entered the fiber market.

Evan Feinman, director for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, provided an update on the program. All states have submitted their Volume 1 proposals to NTIA, and Feinman said that nearly all Volume 1 proposals are approved. A check of NTIA’s Progress Dashboard today shows that only Florida, Maryland and Minnesota have yet to have their Volume 1s approved.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited a recently completed Comcast rural broadband project in Stafford County, Virginia, highlighting that this is a public-private project between Comcast and the county. The giant cable company is involved in public-private partnerships across its national footprint. For years cable operators such as Comcast, Charter and Cox have fought hard against municipal broadband projects, always crying that it’s wrong for taxpayer dollars to compete against their private investments.