telecompetitor

CenturyLink said that it will invest “several hundred million dollars” in edge computing, following in the footsteps of AT&T and Verizon. AT&T and Verizon both have mobile businesses and with the advent of low-latency 5G networks, they and other mobile carriers are recognizing the need to minimize the distance between mobile users and the cloud. CenturyLink’s entry into edge computing suggests that the edge compute market may be like the fiber backhaul market— a mobile-driven opportunity even for non-mobile carriers.

Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy was not surprised by -- but is not enthusiastic --  about some aspects of the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which would essentially replace the Connect America broadband funding program for the nation’s larger price cap carriers. His concerns relate to the proposed reverse auction, which would be used to award program funding. In the Connect America Fund program, price cap carriers had a right of first refusal on Connect America Fund (CAF) support for their local service territories.

At one time it looked like the high-speed broadband network built 10 years ago by EPB (formerly the Electric Power Board) in Chattanooga would be an island of gigabit connectivity, as the state of Tennessee had rather restrictive laws about what types of entities could offer broadband and where. But things have changed, as J. Ed Marston, EPB vice president of marketing, explained in an interview about new EPB gigabit partners. The state now allows municipalities and electric cooperatives to offer broadband, Marston noted.

Rural broadband was a hot topic for the opening session at the Independent Show, an event put on by cable industry organizations ACA Connects and the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) aimed at smaller cable providers. “It’s something everybody realizes they need to do but traditional finances don’t work,” commented Todd Shurz, President and CEO of IN-based cable and broadband provider Schurz Communications, in reference to the higher costs of deploying broadband in rural areas.