Internet/Broadband

AT&T and Verizon continue to aggressively eliminate staff. You have to wonder where the bottom will be in staffing levels. Both companies are currently actively striving to eliminate copper networks, with Verizon is much further along with this effort than AT&T. However, Verizon is slated to merge with Frontier sometime this year, which will bring new employees and a return of a lot of copper networks that Verizon had ditched to Frontier in the past.

The state of California is opening its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program application window for prequalification and application submissions, and ending on October 2 for submission of the final proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the program federally. The BEAD Program has allocated $1.86 billion to California for bringing high-speed internet to unserved and underserved residents. Applicants must meet a 25 percent match requirement on proposals.

Missouri was the first state to ask the Federal Communications Commission to return Rural Digital Opportunity Fund broadband funding awarded to providers in the state who later defaulted on their awards.

According to co-op leaders, synergies between electric service and fiber broadband at cooperatives are improving safety, reliability, and even workplace culture. “Electric co-ops deploying fiber broadband for future-proof high-speed internet and grid communications are reporting wide-ranging benefits that are serving their members’ needs now and into the future,” said National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Broadband Director Cliff Johnson. At Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, safety improvements were a primary goal when it launched a b

It was to be one hour of oral arguments about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Universal Service Fund (USF) program, considering whether Congress delegated too much of its authority when it created the program in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Instead, U.S. Supreme Court justices spent more than two and a half hours peppering attorneys with questions about the nature of USF, whether the statute fails to set limits on the amount of funding it can collect and whether those fees are, in fact, taxes on the American public that Congress never debated.

This country has long valued ensuring connectivity for all—regardless of income, location, or circumstance. The Universal Service Fund or USF has been an essential part of that promise, providing the funding necessary to connect millions of Americans. Whether through a phone line, broadband connection, or both, access to communications has been critical for economic opportunity and equality. When we invest in connectivity, we invest in people. We invest in their futures.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated cases Nos.

Fixed wireless access has steadily gained popularity in the U.S. over the past four years and now the service has more than 11.5 million subscribers—and that’s just counting the FWA subscribers from the big three nationwide operators. Today, FWA is considered a viable broadband competitor, and its traction with customers has caused many cable operators to lose customers to FWA. 

It’s fairly obvious by now long-haul fiber and data center connectivity matter for AI innovation. But where do last mile fiber-to-the-premises deployments factor in? Network automation is perhaps the most apparent use-case, but fiber operators are also be well-positioned to house future AI edge applications.

In March 2025, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick launched an effort to change key elements of the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which Congress established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.