Light Reading

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which subsidizes broadband for low-income households, will officially stop accepting new enrollments after February 7, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gears up for the popular program to run out of funds this May.

Mobile operators will feel a financial twinge if the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is shut down this spring, but the cut won't cause extreme bleeding when it comes to subscribers, revenues and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Broadband vendors continue to speculate on when network operators will resume spending on equipment. According to the latest data points, that might happen in 2024 but could take until 2025. For example, Calix's newest 2024 financial outlook "was significantly weaker than expected," wrote the financial analysts at Rosenblatt Securities.

As communities around the US work to close their digital divides, more and more are pursuing municipal broadband networks as a solution. As a recent example, in mid-January 2024, the state of New York was awarded $228 million by the Treasury Department for a grant program that will provide funding to "municipalities, non-profits, and other entities to construct open and accessible public bro

Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), discusses municipal broadband networks in the US, including why and where they're popping up and which are most successful.

New Street Research took a deeper dive into the risks faced by wireline broadband operators if the government fails to refund the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and it were to be shut down this spring. The study confirms that Charter Communications faces the greatest risk—by far.