Infrastructure

The South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) announced that broadband deployment is continuing at a rapid pace and, while construction is still underway statewide, only 28,724 Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) remain unserved or underserved and lack an investment commitment. Of the remaining BSLs, 21,466 are residential, 5,469 are business, and 1,789 are Community Anchor Institutions. These totals represent 1.1% and 2.9% of the statewide residential and business BSLs, respectively.

When was the last time you thought about the fiber optic cables and satellites that keep you connected to the internet — making it possible to stream shows, book doctor’s appointments, send emails or read this article? Or the network of monitors throughout reservoirs, aqueducts, pipes and treatment facilities that enable us to drink and wash in clean water? When many people hear the word “infrastructure,” larger projects like bridges, roads and dams might come to mind. But unlike hard infrastructure, digital infrastructure is often invisible to even its most frequent users.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has indicated he’ll make fundamental changes to the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. These changes, such as giving a stronger preference for satellite internet, could force states to restart their broadband grant programs. On April 3, a group of 115 state legislators from 28 states sent Secretary Lutnick a letter requesting that any BEAD changes be optional rather than mandatory.

More than a billion dollars worth of government incentives to boost rural Hoosier broadband access could get tangled in the utility pole attachment fight between Indiana’s electricity providers and telecommunications companies—prompting a major potential amendment and several hostile exchanges at a committee hearing. “For three years of my life, I have been trying to get the utilities and the telecoms to agree,” the committee’s frustrated leader, Rep Ed Soliday (R-4), began. “… And so, we now are here.” “The loser in all of this is the rural person who needs broadband,” he said.

A new lawsuit from fiber operator Metronet accuses officials from the City of Colorado Springs of blocking the company's fiber network construction efforts in the city. The reason? The city's utility is building its own, rival fiber network.

When it comes to using AI, Comcast firmly believes it has a leg up on the fiber competition due to its DOCSIS 4.0 technology, according to chief network officer Elad Nafshi. Nafshi argues that because Comcast has embedded AI that’s “literally feet away from the customer” with real-time pattern detection capabilities, the operator can pinpoint “exactly” where there is interference in the network. Comcast started rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 in fall 2023, offering con

Frontier Communications CFO Scott Beasley knows a thing or two about finance. After all, he’s spent the past four years guiding the operator from bankruptcy to not only profitability but a $20 billion acquisition by telecommunications giant Verizon. As the data center industry rolls full steam ahead into a high-cost building boom, he’s got some words of wisdom: look into asset-backed securities. Unlike other funding vehicles, ABS use income-generating assets as collateral. ABS vehicles have historically been used by tower companies to raise money for new projects.

Jim Stritzinger, Director of the South Carolina Broadband Office, likes “to think of the work we’re doing as an Olympic relay race.” The first leg, he said, was the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The second leg was federal funding like the US Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Loan and Grant Program and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The third leg was the American Rescue Plan Act.

Recipients of Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) grants have expressed worries that years of planning to bring internet to underserved rural households could be stymied by the Trump administration’s shift in the program’s direction.

Rep Dave Taylor (R-OH-02)  introduced the Expanding Appalachia’s Broadband Access Act, which aims to increase access to broadband for rural communities across Appalachia. The Expanding Appalachia’s Broadband Access Act will direct the submission of a request to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study on the capabilities of low-orbit satellites operated under the purview of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).