Reporting

The Five Nine takes an in-depth look at an interesting question: “What is broadband without affordability?” The United States government is poised to spend more than $42 billion on broadband expansions across the country in a quest to bring internet connectivity to every citizen. But the recent collapse of the government’s Affordable Connectivity Program—which provided monthly subsidies to help eligible citizens pay for their broadband service—has raised a critical question.

Comcast still sees fiber networks as its biggest competition in the long term, but a top exec acknowledged fixed wireless access (FWA) as a "near-term issue" that is taking a piece of the lower end of the market. Although the pace of FWA subscriber growth among some of the top US service providers is showing signs of slowing, T-Mobile, Verizon and 

Consolidated Communications has won over $200 million in broadband funding, said the company’s vice president of market development, Sarah Davis. Most of the broadband funding that Consolidated has received was for New England, where the company is a major provider, Davis said. The company is currently gearing up to bid for funding in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program in several states that it serves, she added. Consolidated’s latest win was $11.8 million through New Hampshire’s Broadband Matching Grant Initiative (BMGI) Program.

Immediately after Verizon announced that it was buying Frontier Communications, people started saying “the race for fiber assets is on!”  And perhaps they are right because AT&T and BlackRock announced they want to grow their Gigapower fiber joint venture more than originally planned. AT&T also announced four new partnerships to expand its fiber network faster. AT&T said it selected each company because they provide opportunities to expand AT&T Fiber to new service areas without existing fiber options.

On September 10, 2024, the House Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee held an oversight hearing focused on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. BEAD was established with $42.5 billion by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Congress charged the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) with implementing BEAD which provides grants to states to deploy broadband in unserved and underserved areas.

The dust has yet to settle after August’s surprising deal between Google and California lawmakers, sidestepping two major legislative efforts to force tech giants to pay local newsrooms for their content.

Efforts to expand high-speed internet access in Wisconsin have hit a political roadblock, stalled by partisan infighting, according to Democratic Assembly members. A budget proposal made by Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI)) seeking $750 million in state funding to supplement federal broadband dollars was removed during the final stages from the state’s 2023-25 budget by Republican lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee. Rep.

Speculation is swirling that Verizon's $20 billion bid for Frontier Communications will spur more fiber-focused mergers & acquisitions among the nation's top mobile operators.

Kara Frederick, the Heritage Foundation’s director of tech policy, on her sweeping vision for re-imagining how conservatives relate to tech, including low earth orbit satellites (LEOs), Smart Cities, and generative artificial intelligence. She spoke about what the government could be doing but isn't, saying "Having a national data protection framework is also, to me, an extremely common-sense measure.

The recent Georgia school shooting was every parent’s worst nightmare, and one that highlights potential downsides to efforts among states, school districts, and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cellphones in classrooms. The moves to restrict phone use in schools have been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom.