In the metropolitan hubs of the world, access to ubiquitous high-speed fiber within city limits is almost taken for granted these days. But for many people in rural areas, such access is limited. Service providers understandably often can’t provide fiber access to the last mile in rural areas because of the sheer expense of laying and maintaining fiber to each home in sparsely populated areas. This has left many people underserved for decades, relying on legacy copper networks to attempt to bridge the digital divide. But with service providers unable to go to the last mile because of the expense, what can rural communities feasibly do to maintain pace with their metro counterparts? After all, reliable residential broadband is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have – just like electricity. Rural regions may need to take it upon themselves to bring access to their communities – and many are doing so, looking to residential broadband as a regional, government-led initiative.

[Steve Alexander is the chief technology officer of Ciena]

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) awarded grants under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ‘Internet for All’ Initiative, including the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Workforce Planning Program and Digital Equity Outreach Program. The grants will support outreach, coordination, and community engagement efforts that will shape the implementation of these historic programs designed to improve broadband access, affordability, and adoption in Wisconsin. These grant programs will inform and prepare for the next stages of the ‘Internet for All’ timeline. Once the planning stage is completed over an approximately one-year period, Wisconsin will begin to implement the statewide plans over the next several years. Wisconsin could expect an allocation of $800 million to $1.1 billion to implement these plans under BEAD. Additional federal funding will help to implement the state’s digital equity plan so that all residents have access to a reliable, affordable internet connection. The Commission made awards to two entities totaling $100,000 under the BEAD Workforce Planning Grant Program. The PSC made awards to seven entities totaling $335,000 under the Digital Equity Outreach Grant. [list of the Workforce Planning Grant recipients; list of the Digital Equity Outreach grant recipients]

[04/07/2023]

Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community in Douglas County (CO), has made fiber-based broadband the centerpiece amenity of its community. It is achieving its broadband goals through a partnership with Lumen Technologies and Lumiere Fiber, a network integrator. By expanding its relationship with Lumen, Sterling Ranch, the first all-gigabit community in Colorado, will offer its residents 8 Gbps symmetrical fiber-based internet services. The network delivers fiber to every home. Walker Hinshaw, COO of Lumiere Fiber, says Sterling Ranch is focused on accommodating residents’ desire for a work/life balance. When Sterling Ranch began its search for a broadband provider, it looked at how other master-planned communities built their network infrastructure. In 2014, the company talked to a developer of the master-planned community Lake Nona, outside Orlando, which advised Sterling Ranch on best practices. Sterling Ranch sees fiber-based internet as a critical amenity it can use to bring in more buyers. The network is designed to be backward- and forward-compatible to accommodate various fiber broadband generations.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) has signed a sweeping bill imposing a minimum age limit for social media usage, in the latest example of states taking more aggressive steps intended to protect teens online. The legislation appeared to contain vast loopholes and exemptions benefiting companies that lobbied on the bill and raising questions about how much of the industry it truly covers. The legislation, known as the Social Media Safety Act and taking effect in September 2023, is aimed at giving parents more control over their kids’ social media usage, according to lawmakers. It defines social media companies as any online forum that lets users create public profiles and interact with each other through digital content. The new law, also known as SB396, includes numerous carveouts for certain types of digital services and, in some cases, individual companies. And although its sponsors have said the law is specifically meant to apply to certain platforms, including TikTok, parts of the legislative language appear to result in the exact opposite effect. In the final days of negotiation over the bill, Arkansas lawmakers approved an amendment that created several categorical exemptions from the age verification requirements. Media companies that “exclusively” offer subscription content; social media platforms that permit users to “generate short video clips of dancing, voiceovers, or other acts of entertainment”; and companies that “exclusively offer” video gaming-focused social networking features were exempted.

North Carolina native Dinni Jain doesn’t just run Google Fiber. In his spare time, he also helps oversee an equally complex business: a farm. Both endeavors have involved a lot of trial and error thus far. But with a winning formula for each now sorted out, the time has come for both businesses to mature from experimental adolescence to adulthood. According to Jain, Google Fiber’s willingness to experiment with new ideas – both good and bad –was almost the antithesis of the telecommunications model he was familiar with. The 2-inch trenching, which it used in Louisville (KY) was a notorious failure that ultimately resulted in the company leaving that market in 2019. Google Fiber thinks it finally worked out the speed and cost equation with a business model it can replicate widely. And that, Jain said, is what was behind its decision in 2022 to shift gears from experimentation to expansion. Jain said it is looking for communities with poor broadband performance and low satisfaction with incumbent providers. With those identified, the next step is finding communities with a willingness to let them build using the micro-trenching technique it favors.