Internet/Broadband

Ten counties across Northwest Colorado joined together for Project Thor, an open access middle mile network dedicated to transport and built for resilience using a series of concentric loops covering nearly 18,000 square miles, with other providers leveraging Thor for delivering last-mile internet access to a quarter-million people in the region. Using a combination of dark fiber and agreement with existing carriers, Thor has dropped bandwidth costs from $1.10 to under 25 cents a megabit.

AT&T reported first-quarter results that showed continued success in customer growth across wireless and fiber. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter totaled $38.1 billion versus $43.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, down 13.3% reflecting the impact of divested businesses, mainly U.S. Video in the third quarter of 2021 and Vrio in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as lower Business Wireline revenues.

While homes that get over-the-air (OTA) TV content continue to grow slowly, the greatest change over the last three years has been with broadband-only (BBO) homes—comprising 27% of TV homes in Q4 2021, according to Nielsen. In 2018, the percentage was 9%. This has come largely at the expense of homes with traditional cable TV and other TV services—so-called "Cable Plus." These make up 57% of U.S. homes, down from 76% in the fourth quarter of 2018. The remainder are OTA homes—now estimated at 15%, up from 14% three years earlier.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to open a proceeding to explore options for promoting improvements in radio frequency (RF) receiver performance, including through use of incentives, industry-led voluntary approaches, FCC policy and guidance, or regulatory requirements.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to strengthen the effectiveness of Wireless Emergency Alerts, including through public reporting on the reliability, speed, and accuracy of these messages. The FCC seeks comment on:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has made money for broadband and other infrastructure much less scarce than it normally is. Unfortunately, the real resources—labor and equipment—appear to be far scarcer than they normally are. Even with the additional money, the IIJA will not succeed if these constraints on real resources are not addressed. The only real-time solution is to waive the “buy American” rules on equipment and encourage more immigration to help ease the labor shortage.

Indiana granted an additional $189 million on a third round of projects to extend broadband service to rural areas of the state. The money will fund 154 projects to provide broadband infrastructure to more than 52,900 homes and commercial locations in 80 counties. The funding comes as part of the Next Level Broadband Grant Program, which is billed as the largest single state investment in broadband. Two previous rounds of funding awarded $268 million for broadband infrastructure for more than 74,800 homes and commercial locations. The program began in 2018.

Local governments all over the country are choosing internet service provider (ISP) partners and making grants from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to help bring better broadband. This blog is a warning to handle the awards of such monies in a way as to be safe from challenges from ISPs you don’t choose to fund.

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) announced the first of its Broadband Community Profiles designed to uncover the economic and societal impact that fiber broadband is having on rural communities across North America.

Elon Musk has lined up the funding he needs for his proposed takeover of Twitter. In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, Musk laid out his plan for the $46.5 billion worth of loans that will allow him to finance the buyout offer made on April 14th.