Telecommunication

As 3G cellphone networks disappear next year, people using older devices could be left without a lifeline. Tracfones, flip phones, Jitterbugs and even older-style smartphones will no longer be able to make calls once the networks are taken down.

As military and civilian agencies eye the use of fifth-generation wireless tech, officials representing both agree that a key to success is ensuring interoperability between networks and devices through open standards. So far, the Department of Defense (DOD) has led the government’s effort to trial 5G by offering its bases to telecommunications companies as testing grounds for the technology.

Leichtman Research Group found that the largest cable and wireline phone providers in the US – representing about 96 percent of the market – acquired about 890,000 net additional broadband Internet subscribers in Q2 2021, compared to a gain of about 1,260,000 subscribers in Q2 2020. These top broadband providers now account for about 107.4 million subscribers, with top cable companies having about 74.7 million broadband subscribers and top wireline phone companies having about 32.7 million. Overall, broadband additions in Q2 2021 were 71 percent of those in Q2 2020.

Two utility cooperatives in South Carolina – one electric, the other a telephone co-op – have teamed up and are now cooperating to bring fiber-to-the-home Internet service to members living in Anderson, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens, and Spartanburg counties. The Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative (BREC) partnered with WCFIBER, a subsidiary of the West Carolina Telephone Cooperative.

The conversation around 5G usually fails to address how it will likely exacerbate the already deep digital divide.

Public-interest groups have agreed to drop their challenge to Verizon's proposed $6.9 billion purchase of TracFone Wireless after the company agreed with their conditions. Public Knowledge, Access Humboldt, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the California Center for Rural Policy, and Communications Workers of America submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission August 11 withdrawing their objections to the deal, contingent on the Federal Communications C

President Biden’s bid to inject government deeper into the private sector is getting its first big test in the broadband industry. The $1 trillion infrastructure bill would wire communities across the country that companies haven’t reached and subsidize bills for low-income households. Private companies would be required to publish details about their products, much like nutrition labels, and offer low-cost service plans if they take federal funds to help build networks.

Ziply Fiber is bringing gigabit-speed fiber Internet service to 14 additional markets across Washington and Oregon. This latest expansion, which includes both suburban and rural towns, is in addition to the 22 new market builds announced in Spring 2021. This brings the total number of fiber expansion markets since Ziply acquired the Northwest operations of Frontier Communications in 2020 to 52.

It’s quite possible that Dish Network could strike a network service agreement with a rural or regional US operator, along the same lines as it did with AT&T. Granted, the deal with AT&T is on a bigger scale, but the same principles apply.

AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said supply chain issues would likely prevent the operator from reaching its goal of delivering fiber to 3 million new locations in 2021.