Ownership

Frontier Communications CEO Nick Jeffery said the company's fiber securitization will give it funding through the end of its target year of 2025, and a “very clear path” to hit 10 million fiber passings. In August, Frontier closed its fiber securitization notes offering as part of a $2.1 billion financing, a significant jump from its initial goal of raising $1.05 billion.

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), a membership cooperative of rural electric and telecom providers, has acquired Pivot Group, a marketing and customer experience (CX) agency that serves rural broadband providers. NRTC traditionally has focused on technology, helping members plan, deploy and manage technology investments.

Dish Network defended its request for more time to buy 800 MHz spectrum from T-Mobile, telling a Washington (DC) court that it boils down to the final judgment the court approved in 2020. Dish originally was supposed to exercise its option to purchase the spectrum by June 30, 2023, but received an extension.

LICT completed its spinoff of Michigan Broadband on August 31, 2023. The spinoff company is now known as MachTen. LICT, a rural broadband consolidator with operations in several states, withdrew from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program due to “substantial cost increases and other significant changes within the organization since we first participated and won in the RDOF public auction.”

Northeast broadband provider Archtop Fiber has completed its acquisition of GTel, which will allow Archtop to expand its network in more than five townships across New York’s Columbia County. GTel currently has more than 2,500 customers on a 300-mile fiber network.

Missouri-based Gateway Fiber is stretching its legs outside of the state to break ground on fresh fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects in Minnesota. In February 2023, Gateway Fiber was acquired by CBRE Investment Management in part to help finance FTTH build-outs as the team prepares for national expansion. John Meyer, Chief Marketing Officer at Gateway, said that the team found that the Minnesota specifically markets around Minneapolis, fit into its internal formula. Meyer said that the decision to enter Minnesota next was unrelated to the state’s federal grant monies.

Great Plains Communications is undertaking significant network rollouts across the Midwest, announcing earlier in August 2023 that it will build fiber in 16 new urban and rural communities in Nebraska. CEO Todd Foje said these markets are all areas where Great Plains will upgrade its broadband services with fiber, with construction slated to start by late fall 2023. Some of the expansion markets are in the Omaha metro area, such as Gretna, La Vista, Papillion, and Ralston, while others are considered “small

Fixed wireless access (FWA) provider Starry Group Holdings has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a smaller, more narrowly focused privately held company. The implementation of Starry’s reorganization plan completes a process that began in February 2023 when the company filed voluntary petitions for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and entered into a restructuring support agreement with lenders hold

T-Mobile told a Washington (DC) court not to grant Dish Network’s request for more time to purchase T-Mobile-s 800 MHz spectrum, essentially saying a deal’s a deal and other potential buyers are in the wings. Dish asked the US District Court for the District of Columbia to give it 10 more months to get the financing together to buy T-Mobile’s 800 MHz spectrum for about $3.6 billion. Dish cited the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and other macroeconomic conditions that led to substantial inflation and rising interest rates since a Final Judgment was issued in April 2020.

The US Copyright Office is undertaking a study of the copyright law and policy issues raised by generative AI and is assessing whether legislative or regulatory steps are warranted. The Office will use the record it assembles to advise Congress; inform its regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering these issues. The notice of inquiry (NOI) seeks factual information and views on a number of copyright issues raised by recent advances in generative AI.