Masha Abarinova

Flume, a New York City-based fiber provider, has made strides over the past couple of years offering gigabit service to lower-income households.

As AT&T continues ramping up its fiber business – reaching 18.5 million passings in Q3 – it aims to leverage its fiber strategy to grow wireless customers, according to CFO Pascal Desroches. “In 5-10 years from now I just don’t see consumers accepting anything other than fiber,” Desroches said. “Also I think the power 5G will bring will make wireless relationships even more valuable. And we are able to provide both with our owner’s economics.” When AT&T offers both fiber and 5G, it sees a “meaningful uplift” in its wireless penetration, Desroches added.

With all the buzz of late about internet service providers (ISPs) doubling down on fiber builds, there’s the question of whether fiber is cost-efficient enough to bridge the digital divide. Gary Johnson, CEO and general manager at Paul Bunyan Communications, noted fiber’s front-end costs don’t compare to its long-term benefits. “When we put in fiber networks we know it’s in there for decades,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to be rebuilding it, we’re burying all our infrastructure.

The Indiana statewide fiber scene is heating up with two recently formed cooperatives, Hoosier Net and Accord Telecommunications Collaborative, joining forces to tackle fiber connectivity. Hoosier Net, a consortium of 17 internet service providers (ISPs), will leverage its combined assets with Accord to facilitate broadband deployment throughout rural Indiana. Accord, a group of 21 electric and telephone cooperatives, was the second Indiana statewide fiber network announced in June 2022, along with Hoosier Net.

The American Association of Public Broadband (AAPB) is concerned the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s broadband infrastructure funding guidelines pose a challenge for local and state governments seeking to boost municipal broadband. The challenges include a cumbersome application process with a letter-of-credit requirement which serve as steep barriers to entry for local government, nonprofits and small ISPs.

Frontier Communications expects to surpass one million new fiber passings by the end of 2022 – hitting 100,000 to 200,000 additional locations – according to CFO Scott Beasley. The accelerated buildout is mainly due to Frontier’s recent move to boost its liquidity to a total of $4 billion, meaning the company has plenty of cash on hand until mid-2024. “First, it sends a strong signal to overbuilders to build somewhere else if they thought we weren’t going to build [fiber].

Cable One saw an uptick in customer growth and revenue in first quarter 2022, driven by business acquisitions, and is seeking rapid fiber expansion with its Clearwave Fiber investment. CEO Julie Laulis thinks the latter especially puts the operator in a vital position against competitors.

Municipal-owned City Utilities of Springfield (MO) is more than halfway done with the construction of a more than 1,000-mile fiber network that will cover the entire city, with work expected to wrap in late 2022 around eight to nine months ahead of schedule. Lumen Technologies, which is pursuing a rapid expansion of its residential fiber footprint, is set to serve as an anchor tenant on the network and will deliver symmetric gigabit internet to Springfield’s 180,000 residents and businesses.

Regional US operator C Spire continues its fiber buildout in the South, having begun work in Hoover and Homewood, Alabama. The operator is investing $500 million of its own funding over a three-year period, its deployment driven by crowdsourcing and grassroots campaigns. Ben Moncrief, C Spire’s EVP for Alabama markets, said the company encourages people to visit its website, where they can input their addresses and let the company know where they want fiber deployed. He added C Spire “absolutely” places emphasis on local community feedback.

Tennessee’s broadband deployment is getting a leg up with expanded funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) will award up to $400 million to service providers for broadband infrastructure projects. All entities authorized to provide broadband in the state are eligible to receive funding, said Taylre Beaty, state broadband director for the Tennessee ECD. The entities can be solely broadband providers to Tennessee, or they can include nationwide coverage.