Sue Marek

Facebook-led Terragraph is a technology designed to bridge the last mile gap between the subscriber and the service provider’s closest fiber node. Terragraph's fixed wireless service delivers multi-gigabit-speed data using 60 GHz unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum. The technology works by using its transmitters, which are typically deployed on street lights or rooftops, to create a distributed network. It can extend a fiber network wirelessly through these nodes to provide last-mile connectivity.

Facebook Connectivity thinks it has developed a cheaper and faster way to deploy fiber that doesn’t involve digging up streets. Instead, the company has created Bombyx, an aerial fiber-deploying robot that crawls along power lines and wraps fiber around those lines. The company envisions Bombyx being used as a middle-mile fiber solution, meaning it can bring fiber capacity to a pole mount and from there a service provider would either have to use underground fiber or wireless for the last-mile connection.

Great Plains Communications purchased Kearney (NE) based USA Communications and expanded its fiber network into areas of Nebraska and Colorado. Great Plains now has a fiber network touching 13 states and spanning more than 13,500 miles. USA Communications has been in business since 1995 and provides fiber connectivity to business and residential customers in parts of both Nebraska and Colorado; Great Plains said it plans to initially focus on expanding USA Communications’ fiber network to more homes and businesses in Kearney, Grand Island and other Nebraska communities.

Frontier Communications is on track to beat its goal of building fiber to 495,000 homes in 2021. CEO Nick Jeffery stated that Frontier will hit 600,000 homes passed in 2021, which is 105,000 more homes than planned. When asked about supply chain issues, Jeffery said that the company hasn’t experienced any issues yet and he is confident that it won’t because Frontier announced its accelerated fiber build before many other fiber providers announced their plans. This allowed the company to get contracts with vendors before many others.

TDS Telecom’s leadership said that the company believes that there is a “sense of urgency” around its fiber strategy and it plans to increase its fiber build within its existing wireline footprint and also in expansion markets outside its footprint. In fact, the company feels such a sense of urgency that it is not naming the markets or the number of markets and addresses where it plans to expand its fiber footprint because of the growing competition in the 1-Gig space.

The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology is upgrading its state-run education network, the Illinois Century Network (ICN), from Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). The state consulted with Fujitsu Network Communications on the project and Fujitsu designed an SD-WAN solution using equipment from Silver Peak. The ICN project includes Silver Peak appliances that are deployed at each location with a centralized orchestrator.

The demand for better broadband connectivity is driving many telecommunications operators to make a big push to expand their fiber footprints. According to a report from financial analysts at Cowen, in 2021 telecom operators, led by AT&T, are expected to expand fiber to 5 million more homes, bringing the total homes passed in the US to approximately 42 million. The firm estimates that by 2025 that number could increase to 68 million homes passed with fiber, which means fiber would have a penetration rate of more than 50% in the US. AT&T is at the forefront of the fiber push.

Emerging from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon, Frontier Communications executives say the company is ready to complete its transformation into a data-focused provider of telecom services. frontier will continue to de-emphasize its unprofitable video business and focus on broadband. As of the end of 2020 it had completed its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) builds to 60,000 additional homes. Of those 60,000 homes passed, Frontier said that more than 44,000 were to greenfield locations such as new housing developments.

AT&T will increase its investment in fiber this year and focus on filling in areas where the company already has fiber to a neighborhood but hasn’t yet expanded to fiber to the home. It will also focus on buildings where it might have dedicated access to one customer but can fairly easily add new customers in the building at a lower cost. AT&T believes it benefits from fiber deployments in three ways:

Altice USA snapped up Morris Broadband, a provider of high-speed Internet and cable TV services to customers in North Carolina. The deal, which is valued at $310 million, will expand Altice’s operations in North Carolina where it already has a presence through its 2015 acquisition of Suddenlink. Morris Broadband is a division of Morris Communications, which is a privately held media company based in Georgia that also owns newspapers, radio stations and billboards.