LightReading
Verizon: Frontier needs mobile to compete with cable (LightReading)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 10/18/2024 - 14:27WOW's fresh funding could mean takeover play is off the table (LightReading)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 10/18/2024 - 14:26FCC, Starlink and major wireless carriers move to keep hurricane survivors connected (LightReading)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 10/17/2024 - 12:08Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's John Horrigan on the costs of ACP's end
This episode of The Divide features John Horrigan, senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. We discussed a new report released from Benton assessing the impact of the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on low-income households and the economy at large.
The Affordable Connectivity Program's demise weighs on Charter and Comcast
When it comes to cable earnings, the outlook hasn’t been exactly optimistic. Cable broadband “may decline for the foreseeable future,” Wolfe Research recently predicted, as valuation multiples for Charter and Comcast “near all-time lows.” Charter and Comcast lost 149,000 and 120,000 broadband subscribers, respectively, in the second quarter.
The ACP is not dead yet
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) came to a close at the start of June, due to a lack of funding and a failed effort in Congress to pass extended appropriations in time. But the program is not entirely dead yet. A couple of potential paths forward have reemerged in Congress.
US broadband subscriber pace slows across the board
The pace of US broadband subscriber growth slowed considerably in the first quarter of 2024 as fiber, fixed wireless access (FWA) and cable broadband service providers collectively turned in results that were worse than what they posted in the year-ago period. Total industry net additions, including or excluding FWA and geosynchronous (GEO) satellite broadband providers, decelerated noticeably in Q1 2024.
US mobile prices sky high after T-Mobile's Sprint buy
According to new figures from Rewheel, T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint in 2020 helped to keep mobile prices in the US sky high. "Five years on, the Sprint / T-Mobile 4-to-3 mobile merger made the US one of the most expensive mobile markets in the world," the Finland-based research firm wrote in a new report.
FCC urged to reconsider USF stance in net neutrality order
With the FCC's vote on net neutrality coming up Thursday, April 25, some industry groups are making a final push for a change to the language in order to leave open the possibility of meaningful Universal Service Fund (USF) reform at the agency level. Specifically, representatives at industry trade groups NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, Incompas, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) met with members of the FCC in the last week to urge the Commission not to forbear applying USF to broadband Internet access providers (BIAS). I