Alabama

After weeks of negotiations, Brightspeed of Southern Alabama and the City of Foley (AL) have agreed to a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by the high-speed broadband company. Brightspeed claimed the City and its Utilities Board have created barriers that violated state and federal law.

Brightspeed has been awarded more than $213 million in local, state, and federal grants to deploy fiber broadband networks in 12 states.

Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) awarded nearly $53.5 million to continue the expansion of high-speed internet service in Alabama. The grant awarded to the Alabama Fiber Network, a coalition of electric and generation/transmission cooperatives, will help develop the second phase of the state’s “middle-mile” broadband network deployment. The project will impact 24 Alabama counties.

WOW! Internet, TV & Phone accepted a $2.39 million grant through the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) program. These funds represent an addition to WOW!’s contribution of $1.02 million, for a total investment of $3.41 million. WOW! will use the funds to extend its fiber network to serve nearly a thousand homes in Houston and Henry Counties in southeastern Alabama. The ADECA program works to positively impact Alabama communities through partnerships, grant programs, and services to spur community and economic development and enhance quality of life.

As energy companies around the country deploy fiber to improve grid reliability, they open the door to enabling broadband connectivity to previously unserved rural communities. Alabama Power has invested over $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades to add over 1,600 miles of fiber within its service areas since 2017.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with rural cooperatives, local organizations and Tribes to support high-speed internet deployment in 11 states. USDA is awarding $5.2 million in cooperative agreements through the Broadband Technical Assistance Program, which is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Alabama-based Dragonfly Internet was created in 2023 when ITC Holding Company bought a local fixed wireless provider and opted to change the name. Since then, Dragonfly has been upgrading the fixed wireless equipment that the previous company had deployed and expanding to unserved and underserved areas using a mixture of fixed wireless and fiber. “Our preference is to use fiber where we can,” CEO David Hartin said. “But there will be communities where fixed wireless will make a lot of sense to do.

Mediacom is proving that even though it's a cable and fiber provider, it's happy to use fixed wireless access (FWA), too. Mediacom will use Tarana’s next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) broadband technology in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina—states where it’s won funding from the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The operator’s required RDOF buildout target is 5,694 locations, said Thomas Larsen, Mediacom’s SVP of government and public relations.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Alabama’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion.

Alabama is getting a major open access fiber boost via private investment. Meridiam, an infrastructure investment firm, is kicking off a $230 million project to build an open access network that will reach 17 Alabama cities, including Selma and Demopolis. It aims to eventually cover 53,000 homes and businesses in partnership with Yellowhammer Networks, a fiber-to-the-premises network developer that’s financed by Meridiam. This is far from Meridiam’s first time riding in the broadband infrastructure rodeo.