Fiber

With most states scheduled to submit their final proposals to the National Telecommunications & Information Administration by September 4, state broadband offices have been releasing provisional BEAD awards for the last several weeks, with new announcements occurring nearly every day. Impact: As of the end of August, 30 states had released their subgrantee selections using …

BEAD Funding Still Leans Toward Fiber As Deadline Nears Read More »

With the BEAD program’s Benefit of the Bargain round well underway, trends have started to emerge that illustrate how states plan to navigate the new rules implemented by the Trump Administration. Impact: Though the round hasn’t ended yet, not everyone is happy with how states have decided to navigate the revamped process, with SpaceX particularly …

SpaceX Unhappy with Benefit of the Bargain Round, Wants More Funds Read More »

The FCC signed off on the $5.1 billion ($7 billion Canadian) merger between Bell Canada parent company BCE and Ziply Fiber without any conditions despite current tensions in the U.S.-Canada relationship that could have upended the deal altogether. Impact: The approval, which followed closely on the heels of the FCC greenlighting two T-Mobile transactions, sets …

Canadian Operator Gets Clearance to Acquire Ziply Fiber Read More »

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration finally released a new notice of funding opportunity for the $42.5 billion federal BEAD program on June 6. Impact: As expected, the program’s fiber preference has been eliminated in favor of a more technology-neutral approach, although in this case technology neutral seems to …

BEAD Changes Throw the Entire Program into Disarray Read More »

Though less out of the blue than the Charter-Cox merger announcement on May 16, the news less than a week later that Lumen had agreed to sell its Mass Markets fiber business to AT&T still made a significant impact. Impact: After several months of negotiations, AT&T will acquire the majority of Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber …

AT&T Acquires Lumen’s Mass Markets Fiber Assets for $5.75B Read More »

Frontier continued to grow its fiber presence in 2024, adding fiber subscribers and expanding its fiber footprint while waiting for its acquisition by Verizon to close by early next year. Impact: In general, Frontier has been relatively quiet since shareholders approved the Verizon deal in November. It hasn’t held an earnings call either of the …

Fiber Propels Frontier to “Landmark” Year in 2024 Read More »

Lumen finally appears ready to move forward with a potential sale of its consumer fiber operations, according to a Reuters report that broke on December 20 and said the company has hired Goldman Sachs to gauge potential interest in Lumen’s consumer fiber assets. Impact: For now, Lumen is mostly in the exploratory phase of a …

Lumen Puts Sale Tag on Consumer Fiber Read More »

In an update to its convergence strategy at its Dec. 3 Analyst & Investor Day, AT&T set an aggressive new goal to pass at least 50 million fiber locations by the end of 2029 while sunsetting much of its legacy copper network. Impact: The new fiber passings goal builds on AT&T’s previous deployment strategy to …

AT&T Goes Bigger with Fiber to Drive Convergence Goals Read More »

NTIA has thus far approved initial BEAD proposals from 51 states and territories, including the District of Columbia, but it’s still not clear when those states will finally get to the point where they can start distributing money to fund broadband deployments. Impact: The initial proposals include Volume I and Volume II and well as …

The Wait for BEAD Funding Drags On Read More »