OpenVault just published its Broadband Insights Report for the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. As usual, the results are astounding and demonstrate the continued strong growth of household broadband usage. I think one of the most useful statistics from OpenVault is the average household usage of broadband; there were not many people in the industry in 2018 who would have believed that the average home usage in 2021 would be using over a half terabyte of data each month. Another startling number is the percentage of US households that now use over a terabyte of data each month – something that OpenVault calls power users. OpenVault says that 2.7 percent of all US households now use over two terabytes of data per month. These statistics must be sweet music to those internet service providers with data caps that penalize home for using the broadband they’ve purchased. I also think that the most interesting statistic is the rapid migration of customers to faster broadband tiers. In just the last year, the number of households subscribed to gigabit broadband is up 250 percent, while the number subscribed to slower speeds has dropped precipitously. Many millions of homes over the last year upgraded to faster broadband plans.

[Doug Dawson is President of CCG Consulting.]

State governments will soon have a big responsibility that will impact the availability of broadband in their states. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act makes $42.5 billion available for broadband deployments and gives state governments responsibility for awarding those funds. Considering that some states currently have no state broadband office and those that do have an average of 10 staffers, it would appear that the states can use all the advice they can get. Providing that advice is the goal of a new 42-page Broadband Infrastructure Playbook created by telecom consulting firm Cartesian for the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is expected to provide more details in a notice of funding opportunity (NOFA) to be issued in May 2022, and service provider associations have advised NTIA to take a strong supervisory role toward the states. In the meantime, the playbook advises states not to wait until the NOFA to start making plans.

Digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, have seen explosive growth in recent years, surpassing a $3 trillion market cap last November and up from $14 billion just five years prior. Surveys suggest that around 16 percent of adult Americans – approximately 40 million people – have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrencies. Over 100 countries are exploring or piloting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), a digital form of a country’s sovereign currency. President Biden will sign an Executive Order outlining the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology. The Order lays out a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation. Specifically, the Executive Order calls for measures to:

• Protect U.S. Consumers, Investors, and Businesses
• Protect U.S. and Global Financial Stability and Mitigate Systemic Risk
• Mitigate the Illicit Finance and National Security Risks Posed by the Illicit Use of Digital Assets
• Promote U.S. Leadership in Technology and Economic Competitiveness to Reinforce U.S. Leadership in the Global Financial System
• Promote Equitable Access to Safe and Affordable Financial Services
• Support Technological Advances and Ensure Responsible Development and Use of Digital Assets
• Explore a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency 

With practically every telecom and cable company moving to step up their fiber buildout plans over the next few years, MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett wonders if the recent acceleration in construction was indeed too much, and whether telecom and cable companies will be able to justify the cost. There is no question that broadband subscriber growth is slowing down, and that the remedy for both telecom and cable providers appears to be investing more in building out and expanding their fiber reach. It makes sense in that the only way left for most operators to grow broadband is to either expand their footprint to homes that don't currently receive service, and/or boost new home growth. Since providers have no control over the latter, the former has been a big focus. According to Moffett‘s report, over the past 20 years about 30 percent of the US population has been overbuilt by fiber networks. But that coverage is expected to rise to 60 percent in the next five years and possibly 80 percent by 2033, as nearly every telco and cable operator has put forth plans to build new or expand existing networks. Based on announcements of fiber-to-the-home projects, Moffett estimated, telecom companies will add nearly 40 million new fiber passings between 2020 and 2025 for overbuilds alone.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said that the company’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service runs on “the best network.” Roberts was referring to the fact that Xfinity Wireless rides on Verizon’s network due to a wholesale agreement between the two companies. Roberts bragged that Comcast and Verizon recently updated their agreement to make improvements. The wholesale agreement specifies that Comcast can use its Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum to offload mobile traffic from Verizon’s network. In 2020 Comcast bought $458 million worth of priority access licenses (PALs) of CBRS spectrum. Its cable competitor Charter also participated in the CBRS auction, purchasing $464 million worth of the spectrum. And the two companies, whose MVNOs both ride on Verizon’s network, have alluded to a collaboration related to their CBRS spectrum. They’ve been talking about using CBRS to offload some of their mobile traffic from Verizon’s network to save on wholesale costs. Roberts said as part of its renegotiation of its Verizon contract it solidified its ability to do some offloading of traffic in heavy-traffic areas so it could “become a hybrid MNO,” essentially using Verizon’s network when that makes sense and using its own CBRS spectrum in areas where that’s possible.