General

Broadband Bytes, February Issue 1

For this week’s Broadband Bytes, the first 3 articles are interesting in that they cover topics that ISPs must deal with and factor into their budgets outside the scope of what we usually deal with (price and labor costs).This article gives a good summary of the challenge process for BEAD, which most states are currently evaluating or will be soon. 1. What exactly is the BEAD challenge process what steps must ISPs take to make sure they are not building in a location that is covered by another BEAD-funded service provider? And why does the BEAD challenge process matter to ISPs? Tarana Wireless hosted a recent webinar to address these questions for ISPs. Read More 2. Seven telecom organizations filed comments to the FCC Tuesday opposing an electric utility association’s reconsideration petition, which attempts to remove some of the pole attachment reforms the FCC adopted in December.  The December ruling requires pole owners to share in the costs of preparing utility poles for replacement even if they are considered “grandfathered” – meaning they were installed or existed before certain regulations were enacted. This ruling found that when an attacher requests access to a pole that is out of compliance with current safety standards, replacing the pole is “not necessitated solely” by the attacher’s request, and both the pole owner and the attacher who wants access to a pole must share in replacement costs. Read More3. The Georgia House passed a measure on 2/13/24 that would exempt certain federal grants for broadband investment from state income taxes, passing by a vote of 162-1. If enacted, the legislation would waive state income taxes on any grant acquired through the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program or the American Rescue Plan Act, retroactively effective from January 2022. The bill must now pass through the state Senate. Read More4. Fixed Wireless Access providers, led by T-Mobile and Verizon, added nearly one million Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter last year while many wireline rivals moved in the opposite direction by losing thousands of customers. Nevertheless, Gregory B. Maffei, President & Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Broadband Corp., believes that FWA providers can’t sustain their growth curve because their networks do not have sufficient spectrum capacity. Comcast President Michael Cavanagh has said his company is focused more on competition from fiber network overbuilders than FWA providers. Read More5. LTD Broadband has filed a petition for review of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to deny its funding as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. LTD was initially the largest winner in the FCC’s 2020 RDOF auction, securing over $1.3 billion in planned support over a decade from the $ 9.2 billion program.However, in August 2022, the FCC rescinded LTD’s award, citing failure to meet eligibility requirements in several states and doubts about the company’s ability to deliver high-speed internet to the designated areas. In March 2023, the owners of LTD created a separate entity, GigFire, which operates under a services agreement with LTD. Read More6. Where the first 3 articles cover non-traditional cost factors for ISPs, this article reinforces the importance of the labor savings and cost savings our solutions offer:Rob Laudati, who joined the executive team at Render Networks last year, said fiber network builders often face ballooning labor and material costs, leading to fears that some projects may become unprofitable. Despite resistance to new technology in the telecommunications industry, many firms eventually reach a tipping point caused by market pressures that cause them to look at new solutions to increase efficiency. Read More7. The following funding was just announced. The majority of the funds will be to ensure clean water access. But there is $42M from USDA ReConnect Round 4 that is going to two awardees in Florida: Suwannee Valley Electric Co-op $17,800,000 and IBT Group $24,200,000. The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled a $772.6 million investment on February 21st to fund 216 projects in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands which will enhance rural broadband connectivity and digital skills, ensure access to clean water, and bolster economic growth in underserved communities. A sum of $42 million is coming from the USDA’s Reconnect Program. The program offers both loans and grants to help cooperatives, telecommunications companies, and local governments cover the costs associated with deploying high-speed internet networks in underserved communities. Read More   Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD,and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift.

Apr 01, 2024

General

Broadband Bytes, March Issue

This edition of Broadband Bytes includes articles on fiber penetration in the U.S. market, a new definition of broadband speeds, RDOF, and the impact on BEAD, municipal broadband, and broadband “nutrition” labels.1. Fiber now passes about 51.1% of US households, and fixed wireless access continues to make inroads. But cable is still the top tech for delivering broadband. Fiber network deployments have reached a milestone as they now pass more than 50% of US households, according to recent data from the Fiber Broadband Association and RVA Market Research and Consulting…fiber lines now pass nearly 78 million U.S. homes, up 13% from a year ago. Read more2. After nearly a decade, the FCC is finally raising the bar with a new definition for broadband of 100/20 Mbps. The upgraded definition for fixed broadband service could influence billions in federal and state broadband funding…and marks a substantial departure from its old benchmark of 25/3 Mbps, set in 2015. Read more3. The German news outlet Handelblattis reported that T-Mobile is about to enter a joint venture with Lumos Networks to build fiber networks in the U.S. T-Mobile would invest at least $1 billion in the joint venture (JV), according to Handelsbatt’s sources at T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom. Initially, the JV plans to build fiber-optic connections in Virginia. Read more4. RDOF defaulters hinder state BEAD programs. There is a lot of talk about how the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) might make a mess of things with the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) program. That’s because if a location is covered by an RDOF award, then it’s ineligible for a BEAD grant. Read moreUnfortunately, many RDOF awardees have officially defaulted on their obligations to build fiber, or they just haven’t made any progress in deploying the fiber. As a result, the locations that were supposed to be covered by RDOF could be left empty-handed. Read more5. Altice USA has joined a growing list of companies that have told the FCC they will not deploy high-speed broadband to areas for which they won funding in the 2020 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. The company said it will relinquish 18 census block groups in Louisiana. Altice already had deployed service in parts of the area for which it won funding.The company said in a letter to the FCC that it was making the move to ensure that remaining unserved areas would be eligible to receive funding to receive symmetrical gigabit service through federal programs such as the BEAD program. Read more6. Municipalities can apply for BEAD. Will it matter? Despite (those opposed to) public broadband, municipalities will be allowed to vie for money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Whether they’ll win BEAD grants or even bother trying, however, is still anyone’s guess… Public networks have seen opposition from incumbent providers and political adversaries. According to Broadband Now, 16 states have legislation that either restricts municipal broadband or bars it entirely. Read more7. And here is a municipal public broadband success story: Longmont Colorado Municipal Network Now Connects Customers Outside the City. Longmont’s fiber-optic internet service NextLight has now…expanded to serve customers beyond the Longmont city limits.When Longmont residents first voted in 2011 to let Longmont provide municipal internet service, the ballot issue allowed it to be built anywhere in the Longmont Power & Communications electric service area, which included some outlying neighborhoods. However, the bond issue that funded the initial build from 2014-2017 could only be used for construction within Longmont city limits. Colorado widened the potential options for growth in 2023 when it repealed the state’s restrictions on municipal broadband, allowing communities to explore all their choices and permitting municipal networks like NextLight to grow without being limited to a particular service footprint.  Read more8. The FCC’s new broadband ‘nutrition’ labels are designed to inject clarity into the often confusing process of shopping for broadband. As previously reported, The FCC has introduced a new regulatory requirement for internet service providers (ISPs) to display “broadband nutrition labels.” The initiative is a key component of the wider Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and mirrors the concept of nutrition labels on food products, providing a standardized format for ISPs to present critical information about their broadband services.The labels aim to enhance transparency and promote fair competition. ISPs with more than 100,000 subscriber lines are required to comply with the new labeling regulations by April 10, 2024. Smaller ISPs have a slightly extended timeline, with a compliance deadline set for Oct. 10, 2024. Read more   Broadband Bytes is a regular feature by David Levine of UCL Swift. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, a certified BICSI RCDD,and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.He currently works as a Business Development Manager for UCL Swift.

Apr 11, 2024