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In prep for the next generation optical fiber backbone necessary for the deployment of 5G, Verizon has agreed to a minimum purchase agreement with Corning worth at least $1.05 billion. The purchase includes fiber optic cabling and associated hardware. The deal calls for Corning to provide up to 20 million kilometers (12.4 million miles) of optical fiber each year from 2018 through 2020, with a minimum purchase commitment of $1.05 billion. Verizon will use those fiber assets for a fiber network architecture that supports 5G, 4G, and its Fios FTTP service. Verizon says they wanted to hedge against a possible shortage in fiber supply and thus wanted to lock-up a commitment with Corning.

An uncommon model for municipal broadband network deployment comes from Eugene (OR) where the local utility company is partnering with the city and other entities to build the network, dubbed EUGNet. The entities involved in the partnership to create EUGNet include the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB); the city of Eugene; the Lane Council of Government, an association of local governments in Lane County; and the Technology Association of Oregon.

In an effort to encourage local businesses to connect to the network, a substantial portion of connection costs will be subsidized for those who sign up during the initial construction period, explained Matt Sayre, director of EUGNet partner Technology Association of Oregon. “During the downtown construction project, the one-time connection fee for each building is $2,000,” says the EUGNet website. “After that time, property owners will have to pay the full cost of their connection, which we estimate will be about $10,000 per building.”\ EUGNet hopes to connect about 120 buildings in downtown Eugene. Funding for the project comes primarily from Eugene’s Downtown Urban Renewal District.

CenturyLink and Frontier apparently see the current Federal Communications Commission administration as potentially sympathetic to their concerns about business data services regulation. The carriers asked the commission to grant them non-dominant business data service status, arguing that they do not dominate that market because they have ample competition. The move comes just a few months after the previous FCC administration in October attempted to impose FCC oversight on packet-based business data offerings and indicated plans to continue to regulate time- division multiplexing(TDM)-based business services from incumbent carriers such as CenturyLink and Frontier based on price cap regulation.

A West Virginia Broadband Bill introduced in the state house of representatives aims to spur broadband competition and deployment by allowing local communities to form cooperatives to build broadband networks. House Bill 3093 also would re-establish a state broadband enhancement council charged with collecting data about internet speeds, seeking and dispensing non-state funding and grants, and making recommendations to the legislature. Additionally, the bill includes rules about the use of conduit, microtrenching and pole access, and would prevent broadband providers from making false claims about the speeds their broadband service is capable of delivering.

Importantly, the bill is designed to require no state funding. Nevertheless,a local media outlet expects the bill to face opposition in the state senate, considering that the senate president also works as sales director for Frontier Communications, which already has expressed concerns about whether the bill would achieve its intended goals.

Telecommunication companies are likely to use a mixture of technologies — including fixed wireless, copper bonding and vectoring – to meet deployment requirements of phase two of the Connect America Fund (CAF), said Kurt Raaflaub, head of strategic solutions marketing for broadband equipment supplier Adtran.

While fiber-to-the-home would be the most future-proof broadband upgrade, Raaflaub doesn’t see it as being cost-effective for CAF II deployments, at least not on a widespread basis. He noted that carriers will be able to meet CAF II broadband speed requirements with these other technologies. CAF II requirements range between 10 Mbps downstream/ 1 Mbps upstream and 25/3 Mbps, depending on deployment costs. “You have to leverage what you have,” Raaflaub commented. While CAF II applies specifically to the nation’s largest price cap carriers, requirements are similar for smaller rate of return carriers who get funding through the high-cost Universal Service Fund to serve many of the nation’s most rural areas.

Fixed broadband is “on thin ice” in the US as the mobile first generation may be fueling broadband cord cutting, according to ReportLinker. Although the majority of households still access the Internet via fixed connections (cable, telecommunication, fiber, etc.), nearly 4 in 10 said they usually use mobile for home Internet access, according to the research.

ReportLinker points to Census Bureau data as further evidence of broadband cord cutting. According to the Department of Commerce agency’s report, the number of US households that rely solely on mobile devices and wireless network connectivity for Internet access doubled to 20 percent between 2013 and 2015. The shift is particularly strong among young adults.

Wireless carriers, known as competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (CETCs), who currently receive Universal Service funding in areas that will no longer be eligible for support will have that funding phased out over a two-year period beginning one month after completion of an upcoming mobility fund reverse auction. Details about the CETC support phase-out are included in an Federal Communications Commission order adopted Feb 23 and released to the public this week.

Areas are ineligible for funding if at least one company offers LTE service in the area at speeds of at least 5/1 Mbps without CETC support. The FCC estimates that about $300 million of the $483 million in USF funding that currently goes to wireless carriers, excluding Alaska, is for areas that will not be eligible for support. The FCC was not persuaded to extend the phase-out period to five years, despite concerns expressed by some wireless carriers that failure to do so could leave some areas without service, at least for some time. That would occur if the winning bidder does not currently offer service but instead must build a new network and if current carriers opt to pull out of the market when funding is cut back or cut off. The Rural Wireless Association also argued that, based on previous FCC documents, CETCs had expected to continue to receive funding for a longer period. Companies subject to the two-year CETC support phase-out will receive two-thirds of their traditional support level in the first year and one-third in the second year.

A new mobile broadband experience took place in New Orleans (LA) March 8, with the unveiling of Sprint Gigabit LTE. The new service, which is seen as an evolutionary step towards 5G, delivers much faster mobile broadband, with some caveats. Sprint and its technology partners, Qualcomm and Motorola, say this is the first commercial deployment of Gigabit Class LTE in the US. Sprint is using their 2.5 MHz spectrum for the service, of which they have very deep holdings – over 204 MHz, 160 of which are concentrated in the top 100 US markets.

The state of New York awarded nearly $212 million in funding to bring broadband to parts of the state where service is not available today or is only available at low speeds. The broadband funding awarded went to 26 companies, including cable companies, municipal networks, and cooperatives, as well as to traditional telecom companies including FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications, and TDS Telecom.

Awards were made in phase two of the New NY Broadband Program. Funding recipients also must contribute some funding of their own, yielding total anticipated investment of more than $268 million. New NY Broadband is an ambitious program announced in 2015 that allocated $500 million to make broadband available throughout the state. Except in the most rural areas, operators are required to deploy service supporting speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream. For the most rural areas, the minimum speed target is 25 Mbps downstream.

ARRIS will acquire Ruckus Wireless and ICX Switch business from Broadcom subsidiary Brocade Communication System for $800 million in cash, as well as unvested employee stock awards. The deal is contingent upon Broadcom successfully completing the acquisition of Brocade Communications, which owns both ARRIS’ acquisition targets. Acquiring Ruckus and ICX Switch will further expand ARRIS’s presence in wired and wireless networking technology and markets beyond the home to encompass the education, public venue, enterprise, hospitality and MDU market segments. Off the back of acquiring Ruckus and the ICX Switch business line, management intends to create a business unit dedicated to marketing innovative wireless networking and wired switching technology that can meet the needs of various industry sector verticals. ARRIS previously acquired Motorola and Pace. “We’ve set an aggressive growth strategy for ARRIS that includes expanding our technology breadth and depth with a focus on wireless broadband,” said CEO Bruce McClelland.