Infrastructure

The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity announced more than $10 million in Completing Access to Broadband program projects to connect 2,762 households and businesses in Cherokee, Clay and Macon counties to high-speed internet. These projects will be funded by more than $7.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT and nearly $2.6 million from selected broadband providers: 

Increasing broadband deployment has been a critical component of the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a central aspect of the recent wave of funding aimed at modernizing the country’s infrastructure. However, achieving the goal of those federal commitments will require a new degree of public and private sector collaboration, and one issue in particular is causing a disproportionate amount of uncertainty: the attaching of lines for broadband to utility poles. To better understand pole attachment challenges and begin to identify possible policy solutions, The Pew Charitabl

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2025 will be 0.366 or 36.6 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the FCC. The FCC calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications re

Network performance is never more front-of-mind than when a natural disaster strikes and connectivity is a lifeline to first responders, family and friends. But many service providers operate in regions where extreme heat or cold can create year-round challenges to managing their network infrastructure. Kim Bowman-Scott, VP of field operations, west; and Ron Wilson, director of network service operations for Optimum, say extreme heat can cause the most network management headaches.

It was initially viewed as a "once in a lifetime" funding effort, a moonshot geared toward connecting all Americans to the Internet after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the extent of the digital divide in the US.

Conexon Connect, the internet service provider formed by rural fiber broadband leader Conexon, continues to extend access to high-speed internet across rural America.

unWired Broadband, a leading high-speed Internet provider in California, announced today it has begun construction on its state-of-the-art NextGen Fiber Internet network in Gustine, CA. This multi-million dollar project will deliver Internet speeds up to 5 Gbps and beyond to the entire City of Gustine, totaling nearly 2,500 addresses.

Minnesota’s push to bring high-speed internet to every corner of the state could hit a roadblock.

The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) Program, which announced a second round of broadband grants for $701.9 million earlier in 2025, has updated its list of grantees to include seven new awards. The awards now cover more than 76,000 locations in Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Carson, Coleman, Colorado, Edwards, Falls, Fannin, Irion, Karnes, Kenedy, Liberty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Roberts, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.

Crown Castle agreed to sell its fiber segment for $8.5 billion following a more than year-long strategic review of the business. The communications infrastructure owner and operator said it plans to sell the small cells part of the business to EQT Active Core Infrastructure, and the fiber solutions segment to Zayo Group Holdings. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026. Crown Castle said it plans to use the cash proceeds to repay existing debt and fund anticipated share repurchases. Crown Castle aims to focus on its U.S. tower operations.