Telecommunication

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded AT&T a $182 million Task Order agreement to support its domestic and international wireless and wireline connectivity needs. Under this Task Order, AT&T will continue to provide wireline voice and data services to USAID domestic locations while significantly expanding the scope of services it provides. AT&T will consolidate USAID’s disparate networks onto the company's global IP voice network and provide mission-critical connectivity in support of an additional 90 USAID international locations.

Comcast wants the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that it can continue its Lift Zone pilot project beyond the 2022 expiration of a waiver it obtained from an E-rate program rule. The FCC agreed in October to let Comcast test expanding its Lift Zone diverse broadband access program from community centers so libraries that receive E-rate funding. It did so by extending its pandemic-related waiver of the prohibition on gifts from providers to E-rate school and library recipients until June 30, 2022.

Analyst firm GlobalData tipped cable to lose ground to fiber over the coming years as competition among broadband providers peddling multi-gigabit services intensifies. Tammy Parker, principal analyst at GlobalData, said the multi-gigabit marketplace is already heating up despite the fact that very few households actually require such speeds.

President Joe Biden‘s $1.7 trillion-plus Build Back Better legislative package has more than $1 billion for various better broadband building programs. According to a draft copy of the framework unveiled October 28, it includes:

Regional US operator Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) kicked its fiber plans into high gear, raising its expansion target by 50 percent and aiming to reach 450,000 serviceable addresses by 2026. At the same time, however, the operator said it would pause further expansion of its Beam Internet fixed wireless access service. Shentel CEO Chris French cited “strong momentum” behind its Glo Fiber product's business development, construction and sales as driving factors for the move.

WOW! Internet, Cable & Phone, a leading broadband service provider, announced the completion of the sale of its Chicago (IL), Evansville (IN) and Anne Arundel (MD) service areas to the Astound Broadband group for $661 million. The completion of the Astound Broadband transaction follows WOW!’s completed sale of its Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio service areas to Atlantic Broadband, announced in September 2021. Combined, the two transactions have generated gross proceeds of $1.8 billion, enabling WOW!

The Federal Communications Commission opened the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program filing window for providers of advanced communications service with 10 million or fewer customers to seek reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred in removing, replacing, and disposing of Huawei and ZTE communications equipment and services.

The US Senate unanimously passed the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 (H.R.3919), introduced in June by Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Steve Scalise (R-LA), that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from reviewing or issuing new equipment licenses to companies on the FCC’s “Covered Equipment or Services List” that pose a national security threat.  The Secure Equipment Act would prevent equipment manufacture

Consolidated Communications is on pace to exceed its 2021 goal for gigabit-capable fiber upgrades after the independent telco reported that it had achieved 97,000 upgrades in the third quarter. The figure, reported as part of the company’s third quarter earnings, comes after Consolidated reported 76,000 fiber upgrades in the second quarter this year and 46,000 in the first quarter as it embarked on a goal to reach almost 2 million fiber upgrades by 2025.