Reporting

Cable operators and vendors are a bit defensive about comparing cable’s hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks with fiber networks. New fiber builds are being driven by the $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Jay Lee, chief technology and strategy officer with ATX, said he attended the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect conference in August. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised the fiber guys were going to beat up on the cable guys,” he said.

Verizon is hiring 1,800 additional technicians to support its East Coast broadband expansion efforts in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Washington (DC). Many of the targeted markets are rural and traditionally underserved communities, and so they qualify for funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Velocity, founded in 2018 and located in south central Kansas, is a subsidiary of the Butler Electric Cooperative and serves approximately 5,500 consumer customers. Velocity’s fixed wireless service operates on more than one band of unlicensed spectrum, depending on the loading and density of each tower. However, the organization will be migrating to fiber in the coming months and years. As a nonprofit, Velocity is trying to provide service as close to cost as possible. Velocity’s current fixed wireless pricing ranges from $49 (up to 15/3 Mbps) to $84 (up to 100/10 Mbps).

The Federal Communications Commission is heading into the next round of Washington’s longest-running fight over technology policy. On Oct. 19 the agency is slated to take a preliminary vote to reassert its authority to regulate broadband providers, clearing the way to pass a version of the net neutrality rules that it eviscerated during the Trump administration.

Dish Wireless collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung to successfully test simultaneous 5G 2x uplink and 4x downlink carrier aggregation (CA) using Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD) spectrum across FDD bands n71, n70 and n66. The result, according to Dish, is that it was able to achieve 200 Mbps peak uplink speeds with just 35 MHz of 5G spectrum and 1.3 Gbps peak downlink speeds with just 75 MHz of spectrum.

Minnesota is getting a taste of open-access fiber, as Intrepid Fiber will expand its network into the Greater St. Cloud area—bringing symmetrical multi-gig broadband to over 44,000 households and businesses. This marks Intrepid’s second open access initiative in the state: a project in Bloomington is set to cover 40,000 locations. As for St. Cloud, construction is already underway in the city as well as in Sauk Rapids, Waite Park, and Sartell. Intrepid expects fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) service to be live in the area by the end of 2023.

Through a recent partnership announcement with Ciena, eCommunity Fiber is poised to extend its open-access fiber network in Georgia and beyond. Launched by parent company A2D, an open-access local exchange carrier, the privately-funded eCommunity Fiber network currently serves five cities within Clayton County in Georgia. eCommunity is now gearing up for its second Georgia deployment, with plans to cross other state lines in 2024. Open-access networks are deployed by one company and then leased to multiple internet service providers, which can then offer broadband service to end customers.

On September 29, the American Enterprise Institute hosted an expert panel to discuss states’ plans for managing the billions of dollars allotted to broadband expansion. The panel featured Duke University’s Michelle Connolly, North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Nate Denny, ConnectLA’s Veneeth Iyengar, and Kansas Office of Broadband Development’s Jade Piros de Carvalho. Piros de Carvalho highlighted the need for solutions to the labor shortage that the deployment process will soon be facing, as well as the need for streamlined permitting processes.

The state of Mississippi will be getting one of the largest allotments in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program–$1.2 billion. The funding comes on top of $151.5 million that the state was awarded from the Capital Projects Fund and an earlier award of $32.6 million from the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP). “We started with a smaller award and the awards have been getting larger and larger," said Sally Doty, director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM).

Bluepeak has been swiftly and steadily expanding its footprint since its owner, private equity firm GI Partners, acquired competitive cable TV provider Vast Broadband in February 2021. At the time of the acquisition, Vast’s cable network passed 150,000 homes in its anchor markets, Sioux Falls and Rapid City (SD).