Infrastructure

The expansion of broadband in the United States is at a critical inflection point.

Governor Patrick Morrisey (R-WV) announced that West Virginia has been granted a 90-day extension to submit its final proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

Whether from unintentional damage (common) or seemingly intentional 

Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted the launch of Phase 4 of New York State’s Municipal Infrastructure Program Request for Applications, making nearly $50 million available to support broadband infrastructure projects across the state. MIP connects unserved and underserved communities to high-speed internet through open-access and publicly controlled broadband infrastructure. To date, ConnectALL has awarded over $240 million, enabling the construction of almost 2,400 miles of fiber and connecting nearly 100,000 locations statewide.

At least two states—Maine and Minnesota—have contacted the U.S. Department of Commerce concerning the changes that may be made to the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. Minnesota’s suggestions about BEAD came via a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from Bree Maki, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development.

I keep seeing articles or podcasts speculating on what the new administration and Congress might change in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant program. This all seems like speculation to me since only a few people really know what might happen, and I don’t think they are the ones talking. There is one thing that definitely has occurred. A large chunk of the industry that was expecting to participate in BEAD is largely on hold—and feeling the stress. That group includes the many internet service providers that have filed or plan to file BEAD applications.

Lumen Technologies and Ciena have collaborated on a successful 1.2 terabit wavelength service trial across 3,050 kilometers (more than 1,800 miles) on Lumen’s Ultra-Low-Loss fiber network, the longest 1.2 Tbps non-regenerated signal across the globe. Lumen and Ciena used 800G interfaces to successfully test and qualify the services to support wavelength, Ethernet, and IP services over the 1.2 Tbps single carrier channel. According to Lumen, the successful trial is important because artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and security demands are pushing data transmission speeds to new limits.

Building advanced artificial-intelligence systems will take city-sized amounts of power, which has turbocharged electricity demand projections for the first time this century. Tech companies are pressing into unexpected parts of the country, far from traditional data-center markets such as Northern Virginia.

Military families living on Fort Eisenhower are now experiencing faster, more reliable internet thanks to the launch of Boldyn Networks’ Fiber to the Home service. The first phase of this major infrastructure upgrade marks a key milestone in improving the quality of life for over 109,000 military personnel, families, civilians and contractors on base who rely on strong digital connectivity for work, education, and daily life.

Though the broadband grant funding debate has occurred in earnest on this community for years and amongst the telecommunications and fiber industries, it’s hardly become a mainstream issue for water cooler conversation—until now.