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Copper Valley Telecom (CVT) plans to deploy gigabit fiber-to-the-home broadband service to the village of Tatitlek (AK) and surrounding communities of the Chugach Census Area of Alaska. The project on the southern coast of the state in the Prince William Sound area is being financed with a $16.5 million grant from the U.S.

There has been a lot of chatter in the broadband industry recently, particularly as the election approaches, about whether the speed with which Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding is rolling out is too slow. But Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, said the timeline doesn’t bother her too much. “There’s been enough money flowing into the system that I’m not concerned that it’s taken three years.” Bloomfield named two primary reasons why the BEAD funding process so far has been worth the time spent.

For Nevada, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program will essentially be the third and final phase of a plan to make high-speed service available to everyone in the state, explained Brian Mitchell, broadband director for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT). That final phase will be funded not only through the $417 million in BEAD funding coming to the state but also through other sources. Phase Three of the three-phase High-Speed Nevada initiative aims to make high-speed broadband available to the 53,000 unserv

Rural broadband consolidator LICT Corporation has received a $100 million revolving credit facility from CoBank, a key rural broadband lender. LICT keeps a low profile, but the company, which trades over the counter on the pink sheets, is an important player in the rural broadband market. The five-year revolving credit facility extends the term of an existing facility through 2029 and increases the facility from $50 million to $100 million. LICT currently has 11 subsidiaries in multiple states.

“You are walking on a street and generative AI can tell you, ‘I just found a great restaurant that aligns with your tastes, and you haven’t eaten Italian in a month!’” That’s an example that Kaveh Vahdat—Founder and CEO at RiseAngle and Founder and President at RiseOpp—used to describe the future with artificial intelligence. RiseAngle is a game-creation platform and RiseOpp is a fractional marketing agency, both powered by generative AI.

Comcast said it would comply with recommendations from BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) about its business Internet service ads. The challenge, brought by AT&T, related to the claim that “Comcast Business Internet has speeds up to 12x faster than Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.” The claim was made on television and radio ads, and in direct mail. NAD made two recommendations.

When it comes to connectivity, Connecticut (pun intended) is in the enviable situation of having 99 percent of its locations already powered by broadband. But statewide usage statistics—from the American Community Survey and providers’ adoption data—showed that only about 87 percent of its locations actually subscribe to internet.

Charter Communications, SpaceX’s Starlink, and Verizon announced how they are providing free internet and wireless phone communications—and financial and other resources—to residents in areas affected by Hurricane Helene. Charter announced that last week it had opened close to 90,000 Spectrum out-of-home Wi-Fi access points in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and bordering areas.