telecompetitor

Comcast has announced that its subsidized Internet program Internet Essentials has now been provided to six million low-income Americans, and that it will expand the program to nearly one million low-income military veterans. Comcast said it has connected two million users to Internet Essentials just in the last year—its largest annual increase to date.

T-Mobile and Nokia have agreed to a $3.5 billion deal to accelerate deployment of a nationwide 5G network. Under terms of today’s announcement, T-Mobile gains access to Nokia’s complete end-to-end 5G technology, software and services portfolio. Additionally, Nokia will help construct T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network with 600 MHz and 28 GHz millimeter wave 5G capabilities, which are compliant with the new 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standards.

Computer giant Microsoft has teamed up with RTO Wireless to provide broadband access to more than a quarter million people in rural New York state and Maine. It is the latest project in the company's Airband Initiative to connect rural areas to broadband partnerships with Internet service providers, and energy companies and others. The goal is to close the rural digital divide by July 4, 2022, including by making use of unlicensed spectrum in the so-called TV white spaces between TV channels.

The Federal Communications Commission has released an additional $36 million annually for 175 small rural carriers that opted to transition to receive broadband Universal Service support based on the alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM). In exchange, the A-CAM carriers have committed to more aggressive broadband deployment goals – although those goals are not as aggressive as those originally established for the A-CAM portion of the high-cost Universal Service program back in 2016.