Fierce

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Federal Communication Commission’s attempt to reinstate net neutrality. The decision puts perhaps the final nail in the coffin for open internet regulation.

The U.S. fiber industry set another record in 2024, marketing fiber to 10.3 million new homes, up from 9.1 million new homes marketed to in 2023, according to data compiled by Michael Render, CEO and principal analyst at RVA LLC. The 10.3 million new homes marketed (as well as the 9.1 million homes from last year) also includes 2nd passings to some homes. In 2024, 8.4 million homes were passed and marketed with fiber for the first time. Fiber broadband is now marketed to 76.5 million U.S.

Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) has been the talk of the town for the past few years. The U.S. government touts the program is key to closing the country’s digital divide once and for all. Billions of dollars are on the line, so BEAD must succeed...right? I don't want to downplay BEAD's importance too much, because we'll probably never see something like it again in our lifetimes. But amid all the uncertainty about what BEAD will and won't be under Trump, there's a glaring elephant in the room.

Rural broadband providers just got a couple of early Christmas gifts in the form of regulatory relief. But whether the moves will amount to anything once Trump takes office remains to be seen. The U.S. Senate passed legislation that would essentially simplify financial reporting requirements for rural telecommunications providers.

Despite the furor over T-Mobile’s shares after CEO Mike Sievert’s comments about their fourth quarter earnings, the wireless chief actually had plenty of other issues to talk about, particularly his company’s wireless spectrum and how that might be used in the future. Sievert talked about the use and availability of its midband spectrum, both 2.5 GHz and C-Band, at

Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite is poised to play a bigger role in the broadband landscape come 2025, and Charter seems to be all for it. Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said although satellite broadband is even more “capacity constrained” than fixed wireless access, he acknowledged it could provide “decent service” in rural areas. Deploying satellite broadband makes sense if there’s not much financial incentive for operators like Charter to come into those markets. Charter is currently building at around “10 homes per mile” in its subsidized rural footprint, said Winfrey.