Light Reading

Comcast's broadband business showed some surprising strength as the operator said it would've gained broadband subscribers in Q3 2024 if not for the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Comcast lost 87,000 broadband subs in the third quarter, comprised of a loss of 79,000 residential customers and 8,000 business customers, lowering its grand total to 31.98 million.

On Light Reading's The Divide, Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, talks to host Nicole Ferraro about the fallout from the fifth circuit court's ruling this summer on the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund (USF) and what comes next.

Amazon is applying for federal funding for broadband Internet providers. And that, according to the CEO of equipment supplier Calix, shows that Amazon is "the wolf in sheep's clothing." "They are applying for BEAD to compete with all of our customers," said Calix CEO Michael Weening. Amazon, Weening said, is "the enemy of every broadband provider out there." BEAD is the Biden administration's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, and it's designed to funnel $42.45 billion through US states for broadband networks in rural areas.

AT&T CEO John Stankey says the company has seen better-than-expected results in the use of open-access models outside the operator's own fiber footprint. He said the economics of the open-access model is also worth a look within AT&T's own fiber footprint. AT&T's fiber network passes more than 28 million locations and remains on track to reach 30 million by the end of 2025.

Verizon's $20 billion play for Frontier Communications is a clear indicator that the company is pressing forward with a plan to expand its fiber footprint and establish a foundation for a broader convergence strategy that combines home broadband and mobile.

November marks the tenth anniversary of NextLight: the municipal broadband provider for the city of Longmont, Colorado, launched in 2014 as the first municipal broadband network in the state.

AT&T is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move existing CBRS spectrum users to a different portion of the 3GHz band.

Cable execs have been adamant that their broadband businesses will return to subscriber growth eventually. But they haven't pinpointed exactly when they expect to turn that corner as they grapple with the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and a one-two punch of fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA) competition.