Masha Abarinova

The fate of the Universal Service Fund (USF) remains uncertain, as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held an en banc (before the entire bench) hearing to debate whether the current system is illegal The USF includes four main programs aimed at addressing the digital divide – High Cost, Lifeline, E-Rate (for schools and libraries) and Rural Health Care.

AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said it's a safe bet that AT&T and BlackRock's joint venture—Gigapower—will tap into Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding; but stressed the importance of targeting those funds in “areas that make sense for us.” Deroches said “We are not getting dollars for the sake of getting dollars. We want to make sure we can get an appropriate return on those.”

Charter Communications has frequently talked up the pace of its rural deployments, reaching 68,000 subsidized rural passings in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023. CFO Jessica Fischer said the Charter has a “tremendous opportunity” to expand its footprint to rural areas. Charter was one of the largest winners in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, and Fischer noted progress in those builds “has been going quite well” in terms of pace and penetration.

Comcast has continued to shed broadband subscribers, despite domestic broadband revenue being a bright spot in its second quarter (Q2) earnings. CEO Brain Roberts noted average revenue per user (ARPU) for broadband grew “four and a half percent” in the first half of 2023. As to what’s driving Comcast’s broadband growth, Roberts pointed to an influx of broadband usage, which “almost doubled” in the last couple of years.

Northeast broadband provider Archtop Fiber has completed its acquisition of GTel, which will allow Archtop to expand its network in more than five townships across New York’s Columbia County. GTel currently has more than 2,500 customers on a 300-mile fiber network.

Great Plains Communications is undertaking significant network rollouts across the Midwest, announcing earlier in August 2023 that it will build fiber in 16 new urban and rural communities in Nebraska. CEO Todd Foje said these markets are all areas where Great Plains will upgrade its broadband services with fiber, with construction slated to start by late fall 2023. Some of the expansion markets are in the Omaha metro area, such as Gretna, La Vista, Papillion, and Ralston, while others are considered “small

Verizon was hit with a fresh pair of class action lawsuits from investors, who claim the operator misled the public about the environmental and health risks of lead-clad cables. The lawsuits were filed in a western Pennsylvania federal court by the Gross Law Firm and Levi & Korsinsky, both of which urged Verizon shareholders to register for the class action.

Missouri was among the lucky winners of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, receiving the third highest allocation at $1.74 billion. But whether that amount will be more than enough or just right to cover all unserved and underserved locations is “the ultimate question,” said BJ Tanksley, director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development. “I think the thing about this is it also is a call to us, there’s just a lot of work to be done across the state.” Tanksley said that while Missouri “always predicted” it would receive a relatively high BEAD allotment, the stat

As a two-peninsula state, Michigan has broadband accessibility challenges others states may not have, said Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer at the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI).

As states draft their initial proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is striving to help broadband offices tackle the cybersecurity aspect of the BEAD guidelines. Essentially, states must verify the vendors and suppliers to whom they award contracts have “adequate” cybersecurity and supply chain risk management (C/SCRM) plans.