When we ask people why they don’t have home broadband, the primary response in every survey is the cost of broadband. So prices be part of the definition of broadband? There is a huge difference between a 100/20 Mbps connection that costs $55 and one that costs $85. As far as the public is concerned, these are not the same product—but we pretend that they are. Of course, there is nothing that scares the big cable companies more than talking about regulating broadband prices. This was the main motivation for deregulating broadband at the Federal Communications Commission—cable companies don’t want regulators looking too closely at broadband prices. But prices matter at least as much as speeds, and for millions of homes, price is everything. I know the big ISPs will say that the new Affordable Connectivity Program will take care of this issue—but it doesn’t. Not all ISPs are going to take part in the program, and many of the ones that do will not market it to customers. Besides, how good a deal is it to get $30 off the basic Comcast broadband product that costs $90? The price after the Affordable Connectivity Program subsidy is still out of reach of many homes and is still more expensive than urban DSL—and many of the homes without broadband today can’t even afford DSL. Besides, there is also no guarantee that the Affordable Connectivity Program won’t die in a few years when the funding runs dry.

The Greater Des Moines Partnership and regional partners have unveiled Broadband User Dashboard Maps based on data and research from the Central Iowa Broadband Internet Study. The maps were created as a part of a long-term goal to create a framework under which governments, the public, and providers can align in new and innovative ways to create solutions to the digital divide present in Greater Des Moines (DSM). The Broadband User Dashboard Maps outline a path where technology would be best matched to the varying demographics of the region to create the most cost-efficient and highest impact solutions in each area across the region. Each map highlights a key component of the overall deployment process — outlining demographics, technology plans, infrastructure deployment costs, and site assessment.

Attackers have commandeered thousands of TracFone customers’ phone numbers in recent weeks, forcing new owner Verizon Communications to improve safeguards less than two months after it took over the prepaid wireless provider. TracFone offers prepaid wireless service under several brands—including Straight Talk, Total Wireless, and its namesake brand. Some customers of Straight Talk said they found their phone lines suddenly disconnected around the December holidays. In some cases, customers said they discovered their lines had been moved without their permission to Metro, a unit of T-Mobile US. A T-Mobile spokeswoman said the company investigated and found “no fraud or data breach of any sort” on its side. The company added that such unauthorized transfers “are unfortunately an industrywide issue.” Verizon added security protections to the recently acquired services to prevent such fraudulent transfers. For instance, the prepaid operators will now send customers a text message notification when a transfer request is made. A Verizon spokeswoman said the attack appeared to affect about 6,000 TracFone customers, a fraction of Verizon’s roughly 24 million prepaid lines. 

CEO John Stankey wantsAT&T to condense its fiber build cycle so it can get its broadband products into the hands of consumers faster. His eagerness perhaps comes as no surprise given AT&T lost 20,000 broadband customers in Q4 2021, as healthy fiber net additions failed to offset DSL and non-fiber losses. Stankey said it currently takes about a year from the time AT&T begins engineering work in a new market to the time it is able to begin selling fiber products there. The goal, he added, is to cut that timeframe down substantially. Stankey also noted the company took a page from its wireless division and recently overhauled its fiber pricing with the introduction of its new 2-gig and 5-gig service tiers to make it simpler. The idea, he said, is to offer pricing which is “very straightforward for the consumer to understand over time, allows us to gain the right kind of momentum the market that’s sustainable, it drives up customer satisfaction, allows us to be consistent in our messaging that we carry out to the market and ensures every one of our employees knows the line.” As of the end of Q4, AT&T had around 6 million fiber subscribers and penetration of 37%, with the latter figure up from 34% in Q4 2020.