The collaboration known as the Gigapower joint venture, forged between AT&T and private equity investment giant BlackRock in May, lent new legitimacy to the open access approach, which separates the provision of broadband services from the network operator.

• On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  7 Layers to the Open Systems Interconnection Model and Open Access Networks
  One-hundred-and 66 Billion Dollars of American Semiconductor Investment
  56 States and Territorial Broadband Offices Implementing BEAD
  4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence

Another major operator venturing into the space is T-Mobile, which is set to become the primary tenant in a recently established $500 million partnership between Tillman FiberCo and private equity firm Northleaf Capital Partners.

The joint venture will allow T-Mobile to offer fiber Internet services to customers in markets across Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas, all without investing a dime in the infrastructure.

In an industry long characterized by a preference for vertically-integrated ownership and control, incumbent providers are pivoting towards a model that emphasizes sharing networks.

What are open access network?

In an open access network, broadband infrastructure is owned by one entity, which can be either a public or a private entity and is often operated by a separate network operator. The network operator leases or shares the infrastructure with multiple retail internet service providers.

One can think of an open access network as a real-world implementation of the 7-layered Open Systems Interconnection model by the International Organization for Standardization. The OSI model is a broader construct for understanding the physical layer, data link layer, network layer, etc., in internet networking.

However, understanding the basics of the “layer cake” approach helps conceptualize the unique business and technical dimensions behind open access networks.

In an important contribution to this discussion, Broadband Breakfast’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit on December 5 demonstrated exactly how many forms open access networks can take. After a keynote presentation on the “Past and Future of Open Access Networks” by COS Systems Mikael Philipsson, a panel delved into diverse perspectives on such networks in the U.S.

The panel emphasized the differences and variations in several last-mile broadband deployments, including those of SiFi Networks, UTOPIA Fiber, Google Fiber, municipalities like the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority and what panelists called the “utility lease model.”

In other sessions at the summit, panelists voice the belief that shared infrastructure is poised to become more common in broadband networks.

Regarding the AT&T-BlackRock joint venture of Gigapower, AT&T President of Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives Erin Scarborough highlighted scalability as a pivotal factor guiding AT&T’s choices, speaking at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event in September.

Although Scarborough emphasized AT&T’s preference for the ownership model, she noted the agreement will allow the company to expand outside its traditional footprint.

“The model used by the joint venture will make sense to other ISPs, gain a lot of traction, and help break down historical biases telecos have had about not controlling all the assets,” predicted Gigapower CEO Bill Hogg during the event.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert has also publicly acknowledged potential network capacity limitations for the company’s fixed wireless access service. At a conference in San Francisco in September, he said the open access model offers a “capital-light way to enter [the fiber] business and take advantage of [T-Mobile’s] embedded customer base and fantastic brand.”

Traditionally pioneered by municipalities

The large telecos appear to be displaying a newfound openness in their approaches to achieving growth. However, the open access model has historically been pioneered by  municipalities, city-owned utilities, and cooperatives in the U.S.

Founded by a consortium of 11 Utah cities in 2004, UTOPIA Fiber expanded its fiber footprint across five cities in Utah this year. UTOPIA now offers its 10 Gigabit services to residents in 19 cities spanning four states. The government organization completely funds the open access builds and network operations through subscriber revenue.

The acceptance of open access might gain new traction through the Washington state legislature. This year, a bill would require all state funding from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, nearly $1 billion, to be used to build open-access networks in the state. The bill did not pass in 2023, but 14 of Washington’s 28 Public Utility Districts are committed to deploying citywide open access networks to improve access to telecommunications services. Initiatives like the one to build countywide dark fiber led by the Lewis County PUD are happening across the state.

In Vermont, 22 communities partnered with Great Works Vermont Internet to build open access fiber that is expected to serve 30,000 locations.

A number of city’s collaborated with SiFi Networks this year to announce citywide open access fiber builds. The company set an ambitious goal to pass 40,000 homes per month in early 2023.

For example, the network in Placenta, California will see 20,000 homes, businesses and institutions served by open access, alongside 70,000 households in Oceanside, California. The company announced agreements to partner with Cleveland, Ohio, Saratoga Springs, New York, and Sugarland, Texas this year.

How will the momentum behind open access networks – from telco giants to scrappy innovators to persistent municipalities – play out in 2024?

See “The Twelve Days of Broadband” on Broadband Breakfast

• On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  56 States and Territorial Broadband Offices Implementing BEAD
  4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  One-hundred-and 66 Billion Dollars of American Semiconductor Investment
  56 States and Territorial Broadband Offices Implementing BEAD
  4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence
• On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
  7 Layers to the Open Systems Interconnection Model and Open Access Networks
  One-hundred-and 66 Billion Dollars of American Semiconductor Investment
  56 States and Territorial Broadband Offices Implementing BEAD
  4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
  $3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
  24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
  And One Artificial General Intelligence

Run under the name NoGovInternet.com, the thrust of this campaign hinges on the argument that the government should steer clear of having a role in providing internet access.

Its primary target is UTOPIA Fiber, a coalition of municipalities with a hand in serving 60,000 broadband customers across 20 cities in Utah.

Fronting the campaign is Utah’s former House Speaker Greg Hughes, a Republican from the fast-growing city of Draper along the Wasatch Front.

During a FOX 13 News interview in December, Hughes raised concerns about government bodies regulating internet speed and pricing.

On its end, UTOPIA denounces what it considers “misinformation” driving the campaign and dismisses Hughes’ assertion suggesting the entity’s ability to control internet speed or access.

According to UTOPIA’s chief marketing officer Kim McKinley, the coalition of localities comprising UTOPIA Fiber lack control over either aspect.

“We don’t make any of those choices. The privately owned service providers are the ones who make those choices,” McKinley told KSL in an interview. 

Fifteen private internet service providers utilizing UTOPIA’s open access network are responsible for establishing price points and providing various speed packages. Proponents say this system allows for market-driven competition and consumer choice, ensuring a diverse range of options for users across the network.

Hughes also highlighted concerns about potential financial risks for cities partnering with UTOPIA. The campaign references hurdles encountered during UTOPIA’s launch 15 years ago.

“Some of UTOPIA’s early initiatives proved problematic, requiring some cities to step in to help cover bond payments,” said McKinley. 

“Since 2009, though, after implementing new operating procedures, network demand has always been sufficient to cover bond costs.”

As the largest, and fastest-growing open access network in the United States, UTOPIA has long been the target of groups opposed to public broadband initiatives.

In May, Bountiful, Utah voted unanimously (5-0) to collaborate with UTOPIA to extend fiber broadband to all residents after a years-long process. This initiative was met by a cable-funded group launching a petition opposing the city’s efforts. The opposition campaign ultimately failed as hired signature collectors couldn’t gather sufficient support from registered voters.

“We are being used as this example across the country for how to successfully do municipal fiber,” UTOPIA’s CEO Roger Timmerman told Fox 13. 

“The private company’s don’t like that much, so we are seeing these attacks trying to scare cities from doing that same thing, saying ‘There’s a lot of risk, there’s a lot of cost.’” 

The American Association for Public Broadband, a proponent of public broadband, issued a statement in response to the ads, labeling them as “dark money attacks” and attributing them to “big cable.”

Hughes affirms that there are currently no ongoing legislative endeavors tied to the Domestic Policy Caucus campaign. Furthermore, there is no active attempt to dismantle the current agreements between UTOPIA and its partner cities, he said.

He asserts that the responsibility for broadband and fiber development should remain with private companies. He’s vigorously advocating to spread this message.

Republicans have historically held opposition to municipal broadband initiatives, like that of UTOPIA Fiber, and proposed laws at times that aim to restrict or impose limits on municipal broadband initiatives citing arguments emphasizing free market principles, suggesting that government involvement in broadband provision might hinder competition or private investment. 

However, opponents argue that such laws limit consumer choice and prevent communities from obtaining high-speed internet access that might not be available or affordable from private providers.

At its peak, around 19 states in the U.S. had laws that effectively banned or restricted municipal broadband networks to varying degrees.

Though there are currently no attempts to dismantle UTOPIA, legislation has targeted the organization before.

Notably in 2014, a bill introduced by State Rep. Curt Webb, R-Utah, H.B. 60 was aimed at dismantling UTOPIA, reports Community Networks. 

As the bill was then written, it wouldn’t have just prevented UTOPIA from building to people willing to pay for it. It also would have required the shut down of any existing services and prohibited UTOPIA from maintaining their backbone that links cities together.

The open access session at the Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit Tuesday delved into diverse perspectives on such networks in the U.S., and emphasized differences and variations in several last-mile broadband deployments.

For example, SiFi Networks President Scott Bradshaw emphasized the importance of citywide infrastructure deployment with more than one internet service provider. In the 40 U.S. cities in 11 states in which SiFi operates, SiFi is the network operator, with a least a few ISPs offering services to consumers.

SiFi uses private financing to build, own and operate the network infrastructure – unlike several other models discussed on the panel.

For example, one alternative approach discussed was the utility-lease model, pioneered in Huntsville, Alabama, in a collaboration facilitated by the Broadband Group and the city’s Huntsville Utilities and Google Fiber.

On the panel, Broadband Group President Jeff Reiman touted the benefits of this public-private partnership, while also acknowledging that it was not truly or fully open access.

Under the Huntsville arrangement, the city utility had deployed fiber for smart grid purposes and chose to lease excess capacity to Google Fiber to improve local connectivity. Huntsville Utilities built a dark fiber network to pass everyone. But the city did not put in the drops, or the home-by-home connections.

Huntsville Utilities owns the system’s fiber backbone, but Google Fiber owns the line-to-home connections, manages all hookups and delivers internet services.

Is that open access?

SiFi’s Bradshaw took issue with that Huntsville model. He highlighted the critical juncture in which an ISP installs its electronics to the home. He said that that was the exact moment that the network could no longer considered open access.

Allowing service providers – in this case, Google Fiber – to install electronics hands control back to the ISP, and jeopardizes customer choice if that ISP exited the market. A truly open access network would ensure that no one ISP can control the customer base, said Bradshaw.

But in defending the utility-lease model, Reiman argued that it has proven to bring some of the benefits of open access: Competition and improved service options.

In fact, all Huntsville residents saw that as a result of the utility-lease arrangement, “When Google Fiber entered Huntsville, Comcast and AT&T immediately upgraded all of their infrastructure.”

Springfield’s City Utilities, in Missouri, followed a similar framework. There, the city leased its unlit fiber network on a nonexclusive basis to internet service provider Lumen Technologies, previously CenturyLink.

Weighing in on the exchange, moderator Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said: “There’s a fair number of people who would say we still get some of the benefits of open access, and perhaps the ones that a community values the most, even if they give control of the electronics away.”

“I am a proponent of critical infrastructure being publicly accountable,” continued Mitchell. “But I can’t deny if I talk to Huntsville Utilities and they are happy with what they’ve done.”

Still other variations on open access

The panel agreed that open access, in its pure or three-tier form, describes a network in which a public or private entity builds and/or owns a broadband network complete with fiber drops; a network operator manages connectivity on a lit network; and multiple service providers sell services to individual customers or businesses.

The term ”wholesale broadband” is broader one. It refers to a high-capacity internet provider reselling services on its network through other, more limited retail customers.

Mikael Philipsson, CEO of COS Systems and the keynoter at the Summit,  recounted his experience in Sweden in which gigabit symmetrical connectivity is now available to 98 percent of citizens, and about 60 percent of customers are purchasing their broadband on open access networks.

In his view, open access is centered on providing a range of services to customers, allowing them to switch providers and services as needed.

Robert Bridgham, executive director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority, exemplified the hybrid nature of the authority’s approach. It offers backbone service while also serving as an ISP.

“We are allowing proprietors to use our backbone, but we also provide end-user services. So we are effectively an ISP and an open access provider. Is it wholesale, is it open access? We don’t limit ourselves,” he said.

“You can see with my fellow panelists, we all have a little bit of a different variance,” said Bridgham, who said he found it fascinating that four experts could offer such distinct interpretations.

But as a whole, all panelists agreed that utility-lease, wholesale, and open access networks (whether constrained or completely open) all inject much-needed competition into a traditionally vertically-integrated model.

“The economics of neutral hosts are, I think, almost inevitable,” said Jonathan Adelstein, managing director at DigitalBridge Investment Management, which invests in shared telecommunications infrastructure.

“Towers are the primo example, but it moves down the line,” he said at the Broadband Breakfast Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit. “Particularly middle mile fiber is already neutral host, essentially.”

“Neutral hosts” own telecom towers and allow multiple wireless carriers to attach their equipment to them. Middle mile fiber cable, which connects local networks to internet exchange points, is typically used in a similar way, with multiple providers using the same strand to transfer data.

Another prime use case for shared infrastructure is indoor wireless connectivity, said Greg McLaughlin, CEO of AEX Automation Exchange, a company that provides software for fiber network operators.

“It just doesn’t make sense economically to build multiple networks in there when one network is more efficient and better utilizes spectrum,” he said.

David Bronston, special counsel at Phillips Lytle LLP, where he works with telecommunications providers on permitting, pointed to the New York subway system.

“You can’t get a more shared infrastructure than transit wireless in the New York City subways, which has all the carriers on it and a WiFi system,” he said. “When you come back from work everyone is on their phone. Shared infrastructure works.”

Shared last mile fiber networks, which provide connections to individual homes and businesses, are also set to become more common. AT&T closed a deal in May with investment giant BlackRock to build a 1.5-million-location open access network, meaning other internet providers could use the infrastructure to provide service to customers. 

Gigapower, the firm set up to manage the network, has been in talks with state broadband offices to scoop up funding from the Joe Biden administration’s $42.5 billion broadband expansion effort. States will start awarding grants under that program sometime in 2024.

The session was moderated by Drew Clark, editor and publisher of Broadband Breakfast. 

COS Systems CEO Mikael Philipsson, and former CEO of GlobalConnect, highlighted at Broadband Breakfast’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit Tuesday how Sweden’s gigabit broadband strategy drove an open access “fiber race” in the Nordic nation, from which he said the U.S. can learn.

Philipsson called for U.S. network engineers to “plan for 100 percent,” saying if municipalities start to cherry pick which homes they build to, it will result in a fraction of the population likely never being served.

When GlobalConnect was planning its wholesale fiber network, it built fiber to the smallest, most rural locations first, then invited all ISPs to provide services over the network on equal terms, he said.

The Swedish government’s broadband strategy adopted in 2016 encouraged rapid investment and innovation. The government had several initiatives and strategies to encourage private investment in broadband networks, including subsidies and grants for private investment in rural areas, the promotion of public-private partnerships, and encouraging open access networks.

Today, 60 percent of the Swedish market has adopted internet service that utilizes the open access model, with the other 40 percent choosing a vertically-integrated fiber or cable offering that still relies on a wholesale fiber backbone. Due to consumer demand, even the former incumbent, Telia, adopted the open access model in order to maintain its competitive advantage.

Lessons along the way on the open access path

But there were hard lessons learned along the way, Philipsson said, including labor shortages and permitting issues that caused buildouts to stall for 12 to 15 months at a time.

“It’s going to be more expensive and take a longer time than you think,” warned Philipsson.

Fifteen years earlier, leaders of GlobalConnect were deciding whether to pursue an intensive infrastructure rollout. In what would become a defining moment, the team decided to challenge incumbent providers who at the time owned 99 percent of the physical infrastructure in the country, launching a fiber-to-the-home wholesale network with private backing.

The company’s move kicked off a land grab across Sweden, as infrastructure providers raced to compete for a share of the wholesale fiber market.

“It was a fight on the street to get customers,” recalled Philipsson. “We rolled tractors out on the street as a marker to say ‘We will serve this part of the town.’” Within five years, GlobalConnect had addressed two million households across Sweden with a fiber offering, and built its wholesale network to pass one million homes with a 70 percent take rate.

The positive effects of adopting the wholesale model across Sweden were sweeping for service providers, infrastructure providers, and residents, alike. Service providers with big ambitions were able to launch their services nationally with no capital expenditures, he said. Competition drove providers to become more customer centric, offering differentiated pricing models and expanded offerings to separate themselves, he added.

“Partner up with your former competitors, perhaps,” said Philipsson. “Sharing infrastructure is really the end game for digital infrastructure, just like all the other infrastructures.”

Speaking at the U.S. Broadband Summit here on Thursday, state broadband officials expanded on the challenges they face in ensuring broadband deployment.

Sandeep Taxali, broadband program advisor with the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access, said that New Mexico’s $745 million allocation under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program falls short of the $1.3 to 2.5 billion that the state would need for full fiber deployment.

If the state chose to solely install fiber, underserved communities would be left out, he said.

“We want to lead with fiber but we also recognize that advanced fixed wireless and hybrid fixed wireless and fiber and satellite have a seat at the table for the very high cost remote areas where fiber is just going to not allow us to get the mission done,” Taxali said.

Jade Piros, director of Kansas Office of Broadband Development said her state is likely chosing to do 75% fiber model and 25% other technologies. Uncertainty of the cost from broadband providers make it difficult to have a standard cost calculation.

“We have to get everybody connected, and that’s why we require a lot of flexibility in shifting our expectations and the willingness to work closely with providers and be responsive to what they’re telling us,” Piros said.

Edyn Rolls, director of broadband strategy at the Oklahoma Broadband Office, expressed optimism that all of the underserved residents in her state would be reached, despite having what she said was an estimated $500 million shortfall.

“We will find the technologies that are going to be less expensive and achieve the needed model,” Rolls said. “We are trying to reach universal access. That is the goal.”

Connect20 Summit

Register for Digital Infrastructure Investment in Washington on December 5, 2023!

In a discussion called “Building Beyond BEAD,” a reference to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grant program at VON Evolution, a tech and telecom summit, panelists highlighted the critical role of funding for digital infrastructure investment.

Joe Plotkin, business development director for New York fiber provider Stealth Communications, explained how the city’s underground conduit system dates back to the 1880s. This legacy infrastructure helps new entrants like Stealth run fiber by providing conduit access through an established system long occupied by incumbents like Verizon and Altice.

Above ground, pole attachment policies also stymie broadband competition, according to David Gilford, head of policy and strategic partnerships at Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, a company that builds technology-enabled infrastructure, backed by institutional investors including Alphabet.

Gilford advocated for greater sharing of “scarce” pole real estate among competitive carriers looking to deploy fiber and wireless infrastructure.

Plotkin and Gilford explored these challenges at a panel organized and moderated by Broadband Breakfast CEO Drew Clark at VON Evolution. They examined how private capital can help bridge broadband gaps as an alternative to, or extension beyond, government funding programs like the $42.5 billion BEAD initiative.

While BEAD will expand service to unserved and underserved areas, Plotkin noted it may have limited impact in locations deemed served. He gave the example of old apartment buildings in New York City that lack modern wiring, leaving residents with poor broadband options.

Gilford explained companies like SIP make investments in physical infrastructure like shared radio access networks and other wireless components. But his company does not build the lower-level fiber networks itself, instead partnering with both municipalities and private providers like Stealth.

Plotkin emphasized fiber remains the “gold standard” for reliable, high-capacity broadband versus other technologies like satellite. But innovations are still needed in running fiber the “last 50 feet” into residences and businesses, including affordably wiring older apartment buildings.

The panelists named immersive extended reality environments, two-way video calling, cloud computing and connected vehicles as emerging applications dependent on robust fiber and wireless networks.

Editor’s note: Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners makes investments in physical infrastructure like shared radio access networks and other wireless components, but does not actually invest in fiber routes or cell towers, as was stated in a prior version of this story. Additionally, SIP is not best described as a venture capital spin-off of Google, but as a technology-enabled builder of infrastructure backed by institutional investors including Alphabet. The story has been corrected.

Register for Digital Infrastructure Investment in Washington on December 5, 2023!

Growing up in an underserved area, I witnessed the transformative power of connectivity and its potential to uplift communities. As Zayo’s Chief Product Officer, I am passionate about utilizing technology to connect people and businesses. My role involves leading the company’s product strategy and roadmap, with a strong focus on developing innovative products and services that expand internet access. Through our recent funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Middle Mile Grant Program, Zayo is taking decisive steps to connect communities and pave the way for a more inclusive and connected future. I’m proud to be a part of this effort.

Zayo’s transformative middle-mile projects

The $92.9 million in funding represents a major milestone in our commitment to closing the digital divide. With these funds, we plan to undertake three projects extending network infrastructure across eight states and over 2,100 route miles. These projects have been carefully selected based on needs-based criteria, such as current broadband speeds, rural and socio-economic indicators, to ensure we can significantly affect marginalized communities. Fiber is the foundation for broadband for all. Connecting these regions can bridge the technological gap and create a pathway for better economic prospects and educational resources.

Oregon-California-Nevada Project

The first project aims to build a high-capacity fiber route spanning over 622 route miles — or fiber optic cables linking locations along a specific route — to connect communities in Oregon, California and Nevada. Our primary goal is to connect these underserved communities and benefit households, businesses and anchor organizations in Oregon, California and Nevada.

El Paso to Dallas Project

Our second project involves constructing a high-capacity, middle-mile fiber route stretching over 644 miles to establish broadband in rural areas across Western Texas, from El Paso to Dallas. These areas currently lack fiber networks with the capacity to serve entire rural communities.

Dallas to Atlanta Project

The third project focuses on creating additional network connectivity exit ramps along our existing unique, five-state route between Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia, covering 822 route miles.

Network connectivity exit ramps are crucial access points and off-ramps for data traffic, facilitating seamless connections and providing enhanced flexibility to customers. By optimizing network efficiency and streamlining data transfers, they lead to improved user experiences and higher performance for businesses across industries. These exit ramps add value by meeting evolving digital demands and solidifying Zayo’s position as a leader in innovative, future-ready network solutions.

We targeted these areas in particular because the median broadband access speed is at or less than 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) down * 25 Mbps up. We’ve observed that a significant percentage of the population in these regions falls under the federal poverty rate, and many school districts have a high level of participation in the national school lunch program. Additionally, 36 schools are within 1,000 feet of the fiber routes, meaning they’ll benefit from improved connectivity, enabling them to access essential online resources, support remote learning initiatives and enhance educational opportunities for students and faculty alike.

​​Connecting communities one project at a time

Zayo’s middle-mile mission is built on partnerships with government entities and local ISPs. These collaborations foster economic growth within the state and ensure broadband connectivity for underserved areas. Our strong relationships with local ISPs, cultivated over years of working together to interconnect on our network, allow us to identify and address the specific needs of each community. We are actively working with ISP partners and local broadband offices to identify other potential underserved areas.

Fiber is the perfect solution for connecting underserved areas because it is a long-lasting, reliable, scalable infrastructure asset. Fiber can connect the edge to the core and support a wide range of applications, including 5G, cloud computing and enterprise networking. With the support of our partners, we aim to foster a collaborative ecosystem around fiber, ensuring equal internet access for all communities and preventing them from becoming isolated broadband islands.

This funding is a step forward in our mission to help transform remote education, telemedicine and public safety communication. We understand that connectivity is both a technological endeavor and an essential tool for empowerment and economic development. Internet access is a fundamental right, and my mission is to provide reliable bandwidth to these communities, foster economic growth and level the digital playing field.

As Chief Product Officer at Zayo, Bill Long leads the company’s overall product strategy, financials, and roadmap. He has nearly two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry with expertise in interconnection and infrastructure services, enterprise and wholesale voice, and business and product development. Prior to joining Zayo, Bill served as senior vice president of product management and was responsible for the overall growth and profitability of Equinix Interconnection and was Voice President of Voice Services at Level 3 Communications. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.

The India-based company, which is officially Sterlite Technologies Limited, announced a $100 million investment in the plant after Narendra Modi, the country’s prime minister, visited with President Joe Biden in June of this year.

According to the company, the plant will facilitate $150 million annually in optical fiber exports from India. 

The company is one of several to announce investments in American fiber-optic cable manufacturing, with major manufacturer Corning announcing a new North Carolina plant in June and Prysmian converting a Tennessee plant from copper to cable production.

Nokia also announced in August a Wisconsin plant that will manufacture electronic components necessary for deploying fiber networks.

The investments can be attributed in part to a provision of the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act: The Build America, Buy America rule, which places two requirements on federally funded projects. It requires that 55 percent of the component cost must be spent with American suppliers, and materials must be manufactured in the United States.

Ahead of the disbursement of funds under the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, broadband providers will be looking to source infrastructure equipment from vendors that comply with the rule.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is proposing a partial waiver to the BABA rule for BEAD-funded projects. The waiver would do away with the 55 percent component cost rule, as the semiconductors and integrated circuits that make up much of the cost of fiber equipment are manufactured in Southeast Asia.

The comment period for the proposed waiver is open until September 21.

“I think that when the time comes for BEAD, this platform will be a perfect fit,” Bill Hogg, the company’s CEO, said at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event. 

That’s because consumers could still choose from multiple internet providers offering different services at different price points, all on BEAD-funded Gigapower infrastructure, Hogg pitched. The traditional ISP-owned infrastructure model would only bring service from the provider that won a state contract to expand their network, he claimed. 

“They like the idea that multiple ISPs will be able to bring choice to their constituents,” he said of state broadband officials. “They don’t have to pick a winner or a loser.”

Gigapower, a joint venture between AT&T and the investment firm BlackRock, is already slated to build a 1.5-million-location open access network. That means it will own and operate a fiber network while allowing multiple internet service providers to use that network to connect individual homes and businesses.

Spawned from the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act, the BEAD program allocates $42.5 billion to subsidize broadband infrastructure – primarily fiber – in areas that still lack adequate internet service because of geographical barriers or low population density. After submitting initial proposals by the end of the year, states will be able to start doling out this money to fund projects.

Gigapower is actively looking to add more service providers to its lineup, Hogg said. 

“We fully intend to have other ISPs on the network,” he said. “We’re having good discussions with potential future tenants.”

Benefits of open access

AT&T will be the first tenant on the open access network, part of its deal with Blackrock. The telecom is looking to reach more people as quickly as possible, said Erin Scarborough, its president of broadband and connectivity, but building out fiber is costly and expensive. Making use of a network outside the company’s existing infrastructure will make it easier to expand into new areas and was a key motivator for investing in the project.

“That’s one of the key tenets of this agreement and why we were looking to do it,” Scarborough said.

The open access model is a departure from the norm in American telecommunications. There are regional open access networks like Utah’s UTOPIA Fiber, but large ISPs have traditionally opted for the security of owning and operating their own networks. 

“When you start thinking about operating more efficiently with less capital, sharing networks has always made sense,” Hogg said. “We think that this model is going to break down the historical bias telecos have had about not controlling all the assets.”

Despite the company’s investment in the project and first-provider status, Scarborough and Hogg were emphatic that AT&T will not have a management role over the network.

“We are the network operator,” Hogg said of Gigapower. “We own the assets. We own the negotiation for the commercial terms.”

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – AT&T and BlackRock’s Gigapower Joint Venture

In December 2022, AT&T and BlackRock, through a fund managed by its Diversified Infrastructure business, jointly invested  in the Gigapower joint venture that is expected to build fiber connectivity to an initial 1.5 million customer locations beyond AT&T’s current footprint. Notably, AT&T will rely on a commercial wholesale open access platform, where multiple providers share space and compete for customers over the same fiber infrastructure. Could Gigapower alter the historical reluctance of U.S. telcos toward such networks? How will the deployment impact open access projects throughout the United States? Get the facts from this special Broadband Breakfast Live Online event.

Panelists:

• Bill Hogg, CEO of Gigapower
• Erin Scarborough, President, Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives at AT&T
• Adam Waltz, Managing Director at BlackRock Infrastructure
• Roger Entner, Founder and Lead Analyst of Recon Analytics
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Adam Waltz is a Managing Director in BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Fund focused on investments in digital infrastructure opportunities across fiber networks, data centers, and wireless infrastructure. He serves as a Board Director at Gigapower, BlackRock’s joint venture with AT&T to develop a commercial wholesale open access platform on a state-of-the-art fiber network.

Bill Hogg leads Gigapower, an open access, wholesale fiber broadband company that builds and operates fiber solutions lit for fast connectivity and designed for network resiliency and reliability. Bill retired as President, AT&T Technology Operations, and was responsible for all planning, investment, engineering, construction, delivery, and assurance of AT&T’s wireless and wireline networks. Previously, Bill served as President-Technology Development, responsible for the development of AT&T’s products and services, digital experiences for customers, and systems supporting the operations across AT&T’s networks and services.

Erin Scarborough leads the team responsible for AT&T’s efforts to connect more Americans to greater possibility through fiber and wireless 5G investment initiatives, participating in government funding programs and public private partnerships. She and her team are taking a strategic, state-by-state approach working closely with state and local governments as they assess their broadband access, affordability and adoption needs. She also leads the combined broadband and mobility product management teams and has cross-functional responsibility for product profitability, pricing, customer experience, product design, multi-year roadmaps, development, and value-add services across the product portfolios.

Roger Entner advises telecom, media and technology companies on strategic and tactical business as well as public policy issues to allow them to compete better in the marketplace. Some of the challenges he helped to address are mobile market trends and business drivers and how to position themselves for growth and profitability, TMT convergence, bundling, changes in media consumption, software-defined networking, transition from MVNO to MNO, as well as providing the evidence and arguments for light touch wireless regulation and spectrum allocation for 5G. Under Roger’s leadership, Recon Analytics has launched the fastest and most agile telecom insights service based on more than 400,000 respondents across consumer mobile, home internet and business telecom customers.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation in the webinar.

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – AT&T and BlackRock’s Gigapower Joint Venture

In December 2022, AT&T and BlackRock, through a fund managed by its Diversified Infrastructure business, jointly invested  in the Gigapower joint venture that is expected to build fiber connectivity to an initial 1.5 million customer locations beyond AT&T’s current footprint. Notably, AT&T will rely on a commercial wholesale open access platform, where multiple providers share space and compete for customers over the same fiber infrastructure. Could Gigapower alter the historical reluctance of U.S. telcos toward such networks? How will the deployment impact open access projects throughout the United States? Get the facts from this special Broadband Breakfast Live Online event.

Panelists:

• Bill Hogg, CEO of Gigapower
• Erin Scarborough, President, Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives at AT&T
• Adam Waltz, Managing Director at BlackRock Infrastructure
• Roger Entner, Founder and Lead Analyst of Recon Analytics
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Adam Waltz is a Managing Director in BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Fund focused on investments in digital infrastructure opportunities across fiber networks, data centers, and wireless infrastructure. He serves as a Board Director at Gigapower, BlackRock’s joint venture with AT&T to develop a commercial wholesale open access platform on a state-of-the-art fiber network.

Bill Hogg leads Gigapower, an open access, wholesale fiber broadband company that builds and operates fiber solutions lit for fast connectivity and designed for network resiliency and reliability. Bill retired as President, AT&T Technology Operations, and was responsible for all planning, investment, engineering, construction, delivery, and assurance of AT&T’s wireless and wireline networks. Previously, Bill served as President-Technology Development, responsible for the development of AT&T’s products and services, digital experiences for customers, and systems supporting the operations across AT&T’s networks and services.

Erin Scarborough leads the team responsible for AT&T’s efforts to connect more Americans to greater possibility through fiber and wireless 5G investment initiatives, participating in government funding programs and public private partnerships. She and her team are taking a strategic, state-by-state approach working closely with state and local governments as they assess their broadband access, affordability and adoption needs. She also leads the combined broadband and mobility product management teams and has cross-functional responsibility for product profitability, pricing, customer experience, product design, multi-year roadmaps, development, and value-add services across the product portfolios.

Roger Entner advises telecom, media and technology companies on strategic and tactical business as well as public policy issues to allow them to compete better in the marketplace. Some of the challenges he helped to address are mobile market trends and business drivers and how to position themselves for growth and profitability, TMT convergence, bundling, changes in media consumption, software-defined networking, transition from MVNO to MNO, as well as providing the evidence and arguments for light touch wireless regulation and spectrum allocation for 5G. Under Roger’s leadership, Recon Analytics has launched the fastest and most agile telecom insights service based on more than 400,000 respondents across consumer mobile, home internet and business telecom customers.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

Randy Everett, chief information officer for First Electric Cooperative Corporation, said that electric co-ops can provide stability to employees and give them a sense of fulfillment in their job. 

Bringing fiber to the home in areas that have been historically left behind is an important mission, he said. When people hear the stories of people finally getting connected after years of no internet, they want to be part of that and have a part of that gratification that comes from making a difference in other people’s lives, said Everett. 

Everett advised electric co-ops to hire local talent to design and build broadband networks to avoid having to build networks from scratch. He suggested that hiring local talent can help make the project more time and money efficient. 

Local talent can design, acquire necessary material and manage the project in a more efficient way, he said. “Go out and find the talent that has been there and has done this work and just give them the tools and get out of the way.” 

Robby Theodore, outside fiber plant manager for First Electric Cooperative, agreed. “Thankfully we’ve been able to pull different talent from different areas with experience,” he said.  

Industry leaders have reiterated a call for more workforce training and development at Fiber Connect. Experts expressed concerns over the lack of skilled labor to build out internet networks, especially in light of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment funding that will make its way to states in the upcoming years.  

Some experts have touted electric co-ops as the ideal grantee for the BEAD program because they are well suited to build public owned networks that then can either be operated by the co-op or leased to private providers. Experts claim that fiber networks can reduce operating costs for electric co-ops as well as connect residents to the internet. 

Quantum computing refers to the technology that uses principles of physics to solve complex problems not solvable by computers. According to Jim Ingraham, representative for EPB, the provider of energy and connectivity for smart city in Chattanooga, Tennessee, quantum computing is the “new future.” Technology is evolving, is real and is well-invested, he said, claiming that it behooves the industry to be aware of coming demands on broadband networks because of it.  

Networks need to be more resilient, reliable and flexible for coming adoptions, stated Ingraham. Networks have to be clean, affordable and implement advanced computing on a fiber system. 

“The rate of innovation and adoption is accelerating, there is no doubt about that,” said Ingraham. “It is happening more rapidly, rapidly, rapidly.” Already, quantum computers are available, and innovators are continuing to improve their processes, he continued. 

“Right behind [quantum computers] is coming a quantum network,” said Ingraham. “It will take time. Quantum internet will evolve… we will stop talking about kilobits, megabits, even gigabits. We will start talking about qubits.” Qubits process data not in a linear way, but instantaneously, he explained. 

Thus, quantum computing can make unimaginable applications possible for the future, he said. He predicted that virtual reality will evolve to become a 360-degree, holographic-based world in which virtual reality blends seamlessly with reality. “it will not be an equipment based system,” he said, referring to new virtual reality headsets released earlier this year by Apple. 

Chattanooga, Tennessee is considered by some as the country’s best connected smart city when it became the first U.S. city to offer fiber internet through EPB’s fiber network. EPB announced in November its partnership with Qubitekk, a provider of quantum optic-based cybersecurity solutions, to launch the nation’s first commercially available quantum network. 

Quantum networks, like traditional networks, transmit information between nodes. Instead of sending classical bits, however, quantum networks send quantum bits – or qubits – each of which is comprised of a single photon. Unlike the classical binary bit, which is limited to a “1” or a “0”, a qubit has unlimited values. 

“Today we have what we believe to be the country’s first quantum communications network that is commercial,” said Ingraham. “We believe that this can be an engine for innovation in this new quantum world.” 

He added that total annual quantum start-up investment hit the highest level of all time in 2022 at $2.4 billion, though it only grew one percent year over year.  

Broadband networks allow co-ops to share data that keeps them more efficient on the electric grid, said William Graves, fiber optic network manager at MidSouth Electric Cooperative in Texas. 

High-speed broadband connectivity enables the smart grid, a network that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, to ensure that electricity is being managed in the most efficient way, said Graves.  

Pete Hoffswell, superintendent of broadband services at Holland Board of Public Works in Michigan added that fiber can connect city systems – such as parking meters – to avoid backlog that occasionally occurs on less efficient networks.  

Smart infrastructure will be critical as demand for power increases as use-cases continue to grow for electric vehicle charging, smart home technologies, and more, said Hoffswell. He added that connectivity is more than just connecting renewable energy systems, it is now about building a smart city. 

“Smart cities are full of smart people, smart people want their cities to be smart,” he continued. Consumers will make more demands on network providers and this demand will change the way that the networks operate, he said.  

Hoffswell added that investor-owned utilities can cover a huge space in the co-op broadband space. Co-ops have the necessary capital for large broadband projects and are a good match for fiber, he said.   

William Davidson, director of strategic initiatives at NextEra Infrastructure Solutions in Florida, said that providing fiber services to customers provides incremental value to the cooperative. He added that cooperatives have the unique ability to be patient with long-term projects that take years to break even.

Some experts have touted electric co-ops as the ideal grantee for the $42.5 billion BEAD program – which funds are expected in 2024 – because they are well suited to build public owned networks that then can either be operated by the co-op or leased to private providers.  

There will never be an end to the need for more bandwidth for improved latency, said Chief Marketing Officer of optical and cloud-controlled software DZS Gunter Reiss. Reiss pointed to the emerging virtual reality market and electronic gaming market as examples of an increased demand for latency, referring to time it takes for data to travel between the sender and receiver. 

Applications drive the demand for bandwidth for speed and latency, said Reiss, claiming that latency is essential for future applications. Providers should be focused on the customer experience by being aware of all the devices that customers have and the latency that exists on those devices, he concluded. 

The average American household has over 20 devices connected to the internet in the home, added Matt Collins, chief commercial officer at cloud and software platform provider Calix. The large number of devices on a network hikes up demand for better latency, he said. 

Fiber networks that are being built need to have the capacity to support whatever future applications will drive its adoption, said Jeff Manning, vice president of product and network strategy for Shenandoah Telecommunications Company. 

“From the provider perspective, the conversation about speed is not as important as it was in the past,” said Manning. Providers should focus on improving the experience that the customer is having with the bandwidth that they are provided, he said. “Understanding how people are using that speed is the critical point.”  

Valerie Buckingham, chief marketing officer of software-as-a-service company Plume Design, added that it is important that providers frame connectivity in terms of speed as a way to meet consumers where they are. People don’t understand what latency is, she said, urging providers to remember that consumer experience is the most important aspect of the business.  

Experts have raised similar opinions, claiming that network attributes like reliability, in-home Wi-Fi, resiliency, security and latency will play an increasingly important role in consumer demand in the future.  

“AEX offers network operators unparalleled scalability,” said Greg Mclaughlin, the company’s new CEO. “Throughout comprehensive managed services and tested and proven integrated [operations support system and business support system] software, AEX’s complete solution enables operators to efficiently plan, build, maximize, operator and support both greenfield and brownfield networks with remarkable speed.” 

Mclaughlin said in a press conference that the software will allow providers to automate their systems and hand off the hard work to AEX so they can focus on building out their networks with maximum efficiency. 

Jim Sanders, vice president of sales and marketing, said that the company seeks to make it as easy as possible for internet service providers to get internet out to unserved and underserved communities as fast as possible by providing solutions to minimize upfront heavy lifting. 

AEX helps open access fiber network operators, which lease fiber infrastructure to deliver services to the end user. The software services offered by AEX include a network operations center, equipment supply, installation and commissioning, technical support, virtual internet service provider and service desk. Additionally, AEX directly supports operator customers, acting as the single point for all network queries and technical issues. 

John McLauchlin, vice president of implementation at AEX, said at the press conference that the company’s “support structure provides efficient escalation, granting appropriate access enabling our trained professionals to deliver a superior customer experience.” 

Mclauchlin added that the company’s success in helping to build open access networks in South Africa has given AEX the expertise to do the same in the United States. AEX says that its software platform talks to all different entities on the network to centralize communication and simplify the process of operating a network.

A core necessity needed to support remote workers is high-speed Internet connectivity. Remote workers count on their Internet service provider to deliver the connectivity needed to keep up with and manage the applications required to have a successful workday in a remote environment. Fiber Internet is the best solution to provide the “enterprise-level” performance and reliability needed to support this paradigm shift.

Why is a strong remote work culture important and what are best practices?

Just like the work culture in the office, there are many benefits to developing a work culture that considers the remote nature of the environment:

• A strong and consistent remote work culture can unite employees and give them a shared sense of purpose.
• Remote work culture prepares organizations for future success.
• Remote work culture can build long-term relationships using the right environment.

Since the pandemic, companies have been working hard to create a remote work culture and a lot of best practices are coming out of that work:

• Create an environment of trust — To create a healthy remote work company culture, it’s important to communicate all the high-level decisions with teams to show employees that they are trusted completely to manage their work and are not being left out of the conversation just because they are not in the office.
• Share the company’s mission and goals — Creating an optimum and high performing remote teamwork culture becomes easier when everyone understands the mission and goals an organization is trying to achieve. It can work as a constant reminder for employees to always know what they are trying to accomplish as a team.
• Define the company’s remote work policy — Remote work or flexible work can mean different things to different people. As a result, a company needs to be as specific as possible about the organization’s remote work policy so the employees know exactly what to expect. More clarity will only lead to smoother remote work and better culture.
• Make face-to-face meetings a priority — While there is no replacement to meeting your team members directly, regular video calls can help close the communication gap. Team managers should hold regular one-on-one meetings with employees to build better connections, establish trust, and celebrate their individual accomplishments. Another simple thing — encourage team members to switch on their video during team meetings. Face-to-face communication helps workers get to know each other in a better way.
• Collect regular feedback and make changes accordingly — It is always a good idea to ask remote employees for their feedback regularly so that they can tell you what’s working for them and what just isn’t. Many are new to the remote work culture so feedback is invaluable.
• Use the right tools — The long-term success of remote work also depends on whether you’re using the right tools to manage work. Such things as video conferencing, a digital workplace platform for collaboration, or instant messaging are essential to supporting the remote culture workers’ needs. Having the right tools makes a difference, but just as important is having high performing bandwidth to make those tools perform optimally.

Broadband connectivity is the technological backbone for building a remote culture

All kinds of technology tools are popping up to better support the remote worker from online video conferencing to digital workplaces to cloud-based data management tools. As a result, greater broadband bandwidth that is reliable and secure is necessary to support the delivery of a quality remote culture and work environment. There are four reasons why:

• Performance Needs to Be Comparable to That in the Office – Just because one is remote doesn’t mean poorer network performance than the enterprise is okay. Companies are demanding commercial grade Internet performance at home, too.
• Remote Enterprise Applications Demand More Bandwidth — New, advanced applications requiring greater network speeds that could only be available at the office need to be attainable by remote workers.
• Scalability Is Paramount — Broadband connectivity needs to be able to scale as more remote workers require access and applications require greater bandwidth and performance.
• To Duplicate In-Person Culture, Bandwidth Needs to Do More — Bandwidth needs to be fast enough to support technologies that can more closely duplicate in-person culture, such as AI, real-time interactive streaming, and human resources applications that analyze unique types of data about the employee experience and interaction, often in real time.

While technological innovations will continue to change and improve the cultural experience for an organization regardless of where an employee works, the demand for higher performing, more reliable, and more secure bandwidth will be needed. Fiber is the only technology that can meet these demands today and scale to meet even greater demands in the future.

Scott Sampson is an experience executive with extensive knowledge in all aspects of telecommunications and IT and is one of the industry’s leading experts on fiber to the home. He has worked with companies such as Arrow Electronics, ULA, and Rio Tinto, as well as a successful sale of a company he co-founded. Sampson is known for building high-achieving teams. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.

On the same day as Nokia’s announcement of a manufacturing facility with Sanmina Corporation, a research note from New Street Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin, the Nokia plant, a new Corning plant and a limited waiver of Buy America rules for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program expected later this summer will now make it possible for BEAD subrecipients to comply with the Buy America mandates.

At the ceremonial announcement of the facility on Thursday afternoon by Kamala Harris, the vice president was joined by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Senator Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

“For years, manufacturing was the foundation of the economy here,” said Harris. Between 1990 and 2010, America lost more than 6 million manufacturing jobs, she said, claiming that the Biden Administration would reverse this process and give Americans “what they really need.” 

“We are determined to create jobs in America and keep jobs in America, all of which leads us to today,” said Harris. Nokia is set to hire up to 200 new employees, build parts that are needed to connect people to high-speed internet, and onshore American manufacturing, she said. There is no limit to what we can achieve for nation, Harris concluded. 

Raimondo celebrated the investment, saying it is the most sophisticated technology to be made in the United States. She concluded, “where is it written that we can’t manufacture in America? Nowhere.” 

CEO says: ‘Nokia gets the job done’

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said at the announcement that the electronics will be available in 2024 and will help the deployment of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. “Nokia gets the job done,” he said, saying that the company has worked to invest in American jobs since the announcement of the BEAD program. 

“We don’t plan to stop here,” Lundmark claimed, saying that the company will invest in more manufacturing plants in the coming years. 

“The America worker is the best and most productive worker in the world,” added Sanmina CEO Jure Sola, to applause. He expressed their gratitude for the partnership with Nokia and hope for the future that the company will continue to grow

Nokia’s announcement is the latest of domestic manufacturing announcements spurred by the Biden Administration’s Made in America policies which seeks to support America’s manufacturing economy. 

“Across the high-speed internet industry, most electronics products are not currently manufactured in the U.S., but Buy America provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are driving the onshoring of new manufacturing, particularly ahead of implementation of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program,” said the White House. 

Other companies and analysts comment

Although Nokia’s announcement is the first of its kind to manufacture core electronic components of its fiber equipment in America, several fiber providers have announced similar investments in American manufacturing. 

Corning, producer of optical fiber and cable, announced in June that it is opening a new manufacturing campus of passive optical equipment, rather than electronics, in North Carolina. Although the company declined to comment on Nokia’s announcement, a Corning spokesperson said of their North Carolina investment that it “is part of a series of investments by Corning in fiber and cable manufacturing totaling more than $500 million since 2020. Altogether, these investments nearly double Corning’s ability to serve the U.S. optical cable market – ensuring strong U.S. supply of optical fiber and cable to support network buildouts fund by the federal government’s BEAD program.” 

Robert Conger, senior vice president of technology and strategy for fiber provider Adtran, told Broadband Breakfast of the Nokia announcement that “Adtran has been manufacturing networking equipment right here at our headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, for nearly 30 years. With our state-of-the-art facility and broad fiber networking portfolio that covers solutions ranging from the optical core to the customer premise, we’re one of the only vendors already primed to help service providers comply with Build America, Buy America.” 

The Commerce Department is expected to release a limited BEAD Buy America waiver by late August, say industry sources.

According to Levin, “while the limited waiver still must be filed and ruled on, we [New Street Research] feel confident that the BEAD program will not hit any speed bumps related to the Buy America provisions.” 

This follows comments by industry leaders urging NTIA action on Buy America waivers to enable effective BEAD build outs, claiming that not doing so will add complexity to an already complicated supply chain. 

Other private investments

Provider of broadband network equipment CommScope recently announced a $60 million investment toward expanding its U.S. fiber optic cable manufacturing in North Carolina. The investment is set to create more than 250 new jobs over the next five years and create a fiber optic cable designed for rural networks. 

Prysmian, a manufacturer of fiber optic cable, announced that it will invest $30 million to convert its Tennessee copper cable facility into a fiber optic cable manufacturing plant.  

Buy America requirements ensure that 55 percent or more of iron, steel, fiber and construction materials as part of federally funded programs are manufactured in the U.S. The requirements follow the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act which invest in American manufacturing for semiconductors and green energy plants. 

According to the White House, the private sector has already invested more than $500 billion in new domestic manufacturing for semiconductors, electric batteries, electric vehicle charging, rail manufacturing, water parts and more. 

The announcement, which is set to be made with Vice President Kamala Harris and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is specifically focused on providing U.S-manufactured electronics products and optical modules for use in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.

The Finland-based telecommunications company is partnering with Sanmina Corporation to manufacture products in Sanmina’s manufacturing facility in Kenosha. The announcement makes Nokia among the first telecom equipment manufacturers to announce that core electronic components of its fiber equipment will be made in America.

Requirements under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s BEAD program state that program recipients must source at least 55 percent of their components by cost from the United States, either manufactured, produced, or mined in the country.

This requirement is part of President Joe Biden’s Made in America agenda which seeks to support the country’s manufacturing economy. The regulation will increase the requirement to 75 percent by 2029, according to Biden.

Manufacturing to begin as soon as 2024 on a range of core products

The manufacturing of the company’s fiber-optic broadband electronics products will start in 2024, according to Nokia. Production is expected to bring up to 200 new jobs to Wisconsin’s state. Nokia said it will be able to supply its products and services to critical BEAD projects.

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said that the company is “committed to connecting people and communities. However, many Americans still lack adequate connectivity, leaving them at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing work, education and healthcare. Programs like BEAD can change this.”

“By bringing the manufacturing of our fiber-optic broadband access products to the U.S., BEAD participants will be able to work with us to bridge the digital divide. We look forward to bringing more Americans online,” Lundmark continued.

Jure Sola, chairman and CEO of Sanmina, said that the company is “excited to partner with Nokia to support their efforts to build robust and resilient high-tech fiber broadband networks that will connect people and societies. By continuing to invest in domestic manufacturing, Nokia and Sanmina will be able to help create a sustainable future for the industry, one that drives job growth and ensures the fiber products produced embody the quality and excellence associated with American manufacturing.”

The announcement comes a week after Biden’s “Made in America Week” that celebrated supporting American works and domestic businesses. The Biden Administration’s Investing in America initiative is investing billions of dollars into the United States’ domestic manufacturing. Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act which invest in America’s electric vehicle and green energy plans and semiconductor manufacturing.

Biden ran his presidential election campaign on his initiative to move companies onshore, defend American supply chains, and create more jobs. According to the White House, the agenda has “already attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment and created nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs in everything from semiconductors and electric car batteries to clean energy technology and more.”

Industry experts have called on the NTIA to provide clear guidelines on the implication of Buy America requirements for BEAD projects, claiming that the requirements spread uncertainty surrounding the impact of the funds due to the increased complexity of an already complicated supply chain. The NTIA has already issued waivers for its $1 billion Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure program to exempt certain construction materials from the requirement list. NTIA head Alan Davidson, however, indicated that getting such exceptions for BEAD-funded projects would be very difficult.

Municipalities currently do not have the expertise or capacity to operate a network which is where internet service providers come in and form a partnership, Perlitz said. However, in the future, artificial intelligence and machine learning will simplify the operation and the system will become a utility and managed by a municipality, he said.  

Perlitz predicted that migrating into a full utility format may take decades. He urged municipalities to invest in networks now in preparation for the “long game.” 

The cost of capital in building infrastructure is a lot cheaper for municipalities than for private, for-profit service providers, Perlitz said. Municipalities do not need high margins to pay off investors and aim to operate a zero-sum game with no profits.  

Nonprofits are good recipients of grants, he added, claiming that the government should consider how they can motivate a municipality to enter into the internet.  

Many experts claim that a utility-based broadband model is the only solution to bridge the digital divide, claiming that utilities understand how to operate large infrastructure projects that connect hundreds of homes and have core internal communication capabilities.  

In an open access network, broadband infrastructure is owned by one entity, which can be a network operator or a municipality or other form of cooperative governance. The network operator leases the infrastructure to internet service providers. 

Gabe Gomez, vice president of customer experience at ISP Syringa networks, said that Syringa chose to operate on an open access network due to the network’s policy that limited the number of ISPs and maintained a strong vetting process for those providers. 

The potential take rate in a network is higher when the network operator limits the number of ISPs on the network, said Gomez. Having too many providers makes it difficult to get the market share and investment an ISP needs to provide a good experience to the customer, he continued.  

“If you have too many ISPs, some will lose,” he added, and customers will end up paying for it with bad experiences and poor customer support.  

Although an open access model is considered the “gold standard” by some network operators, including Utah-based UTOPIA Fiber, some commentors are concerned that the model will reduce ISPs to price-war strategies to eliminate competition and retain market share.

According to Gomez, limiting providers is a sustainable solution to price gauging concerns. 

Chief Marketing Officer at UTOPIA Fiber Kim McKinley told Broadband Breakfast that its network, however, does not have price gouging concerns, stating that the company views both provider and end user as its customers and does what it can to protect each. 

UTOPIA Fiber hosts 18 ISPs on its residential network competing for customers. Although hosting many providers on a single network does not work for small communities, the model is successful in UTOPIA’s cities and it supports small local ISPs while providing variety to the end users, said McKinley. 

Furthermore, UTOPIA’s model gives small and local providers a shot to compete with the larger companies they otherwise would not have been able to compete with, she added.  

George Templeman, president of network access partnerships at open access network operator SiFi Networks, said that the open access model provides customers with access for a diverse choice in ISPs that provide high-quality service.  

The model is cost effective, environmentally friendly, and provides customers with the best experience, Templeman said, touting one-time builds and sustainable fiber infrastructure.  

Network attributes like reliability, in-home Wi-Fi, resiliency, security and latency will play an increasingly important role in consumer demand, said Jason Livingood, vice president of technology policy, products and standards at cable company Comcast. 

“The industry needs to get off its speed fixation,” agreed Dan Grossman, senior analyst at semiconductor analyst TechInsights. “Fiber wins on reliability, latency, consistency, and brand image.” He argued that providers should be using those metrics for brand positioning rather than speed claims, as it is no longer “all about speed.” 

“Who needs [multiple Gig speeds]? Who could possibly use it?” said Grossman. Most people who buy these speeds are “wasting their money,” he argued. 

Photo of Dan Grossman

Nokia rolled out a 25-gigabit symmetrical PON in January. A PON service can support multiple clients from a single router by splitting a fiber-optic strand from an optical line terminal. It differs from an active optical network which dedicates each end user their own fiber line by an electrically charged switcher that manages the signal distribution from the fiber line to service the end destinations. 

Despite Nokia representatives claiming that deploying 25G PON is ideal for providers that want to provide customers with 10G or higher speeds and ensure future applications will be supported by their networks, Grossman argued that it will be years before 25-gig services are needed.  

American providers are ahead of global efforts on deploying XGS-PON which delivers 10G symmetrical speed, said Grossman. He predicts that 10G will be the solution to small business and residential fiber for the foreseeable future. 

Although household internet traffic continues to grow, the annual rate of growth is slowing, claimed Grossman. This means that there is an expanding gap between what consumers pay for and what they will need and use, he claimed. 

“Increasing capacity was a proxy for improving the quality of the customers” for several decades, said Livingood. He claimed that the country is at the point of diminishing returns for extremely high-capacity levels.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Panelists

• Gary Bolton, President and CEO, Fiber Broadband Association
• Jason Livingood, Vice President of Technology Policy, Products and Standards, Comcast
• Dan Grossman, Senior Analyst, TechInsights
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist resources

• BITAG Report
• Fixed Wireless Technologies and their Suitability for Broadband Delivery (June 2022); CTC Report on costs of fiber construction (see page 43 onward)
• Comcast Innovation Fund
• Comcast Innovation Fund Annual Report (2022)

Gary Bolton serves as president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association — the largest trade association in the Americas dedicated to all-fiber-optic broadband. With more than three decades in the telecom industry, Bolton joined the Fiber Broadband Association as president and CEO in 2020 after serving on the association’s board as vice chairman, treasurer and vice chairs of public policy and marketing committees. Prior to taking the leadership role at the Fiber Broadband Association, Gary spent 11 years at ADTRAN serving as vice president of global marketing and government affairs. Gary has been highly involved in Washington, particularly on FCC and Congressional proceedings and international trade issues.

Jason Livingood serves as vice president of technology policy, products and standards at Comcast. As part of this role, he coordinates Comcast’s efforts to develop open standards, spur research and development by leading the Comcast Innovation Fund and engaging with universities around the world, apply research and standards to initiate new network and services’ concepts, and engage with governments, regulators and other external key stakeholders. Jason joined Comcast in 1996 to help the company launch high-speed Internet services and has also been instrumental in the creation and launch of Comcast’s business class internet services, Xfinity Voice, Xfinity Home and Xfinity WiFi.

Dan Grossman has a wealth of expertise in fixed networks, both as an industry analyst and as a technologist. His engineering background and mindset combined with his business acumen gives him unique insight into the interplay between use cases, technology, and business strategy. At TechInsights, his focus is on research and client services in the fixed services and equipment market, including fiber-to-the-premises, fixed wireless access and optical networks, from both the service provider and vendor perspectives. Prior to TechInsights, Dan was principal at his consulting firm, NetAccess Futures, a contributing analyst at Heavy Reading and an associate at Interisle Consulting Group.

Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

In all, 35 projects were announced by the Commerce Departments, and these projects will cover 350 counties in 35 states and Puerto Rico. The $930,021,354.34 in federal funds roughly half of the $1,778,482,043.99 in total project costs supported by the federal funds.

Join Broadband Breakfast for a discussion of the Middle Mile Funding Awards in our Broadband Breakfast Live Online event on June 21, 2023.

“The Middle Mile program is a force multiplier in our efforts to connect everyone in America,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, in a news release.

With a total of $1 billion available for middle mile grants, these awards are just a small foretaste of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Funds – $42.5 billion – to be awarded. That process will kick off in two weeks, when NTIA is set to announce the state funding allocations.

“Middle Mile infrastructure brings capacity to our local networks and lowers the cost for deploying future local networks,” Davidson said. “These grants will help build the foundation of networks that will in turn connect every home in the country to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service.”

The states receiving the largest funds for these middle mile projects are Alaska ($89 million), California ($73 million), Texas ($72 million), Michigan ($61 million), New Mexico ($50 million), Nevada ($44 million) and Kansas ($43 million).

Notable awards

The largest single federal award was to QSH Parent Holdco LLC in Alaska, which received an $89 million award to support a $151 million project. Other large single-project awards include the California Department of Technology, which received a $73 million award to support a $188 million project, and the Peninsula Fiber Network in Michigan, which received $61 million to support an $88 million project.

See table below for full awards.

Zayo took the prize for the company or organization with the largest aggregated federal award. The broadband fiber company received three awards totaling $92 million: $55 million for a Texas project in the counties of Loving, Borden, Parker, Andrews, Tarrant, Gaines, Martin, Winkler, Shackelford, Fisher, Dallas, Scurry, Palo Pinto, Stephens, El Paso, Culberson, Dawson, Reeves, Jones, and Hudspeth; $24 million for a project in Oregon, and $13 million for a second East Texas project that also serves Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia.

Zayo’s total project costs are $91 million in Texas, $48 million in Oregon, and $20 million in East Texas.

New Mexico ENMR Telephone Cooperative received the $50 million to support a $102 million award, the State of Nevada received the $44 million to support an $87 million award, and the Kansas Department of Commerce received the $43 million to support an $87 million project.

A quick analysis of the awardees by Broadband Breakfast appeared to show that about half of the 35 awards were to private companies, and the other half roughly evenly split among pure government entities, utilities, cooperatives, and other economic development or quasi-public entities. One of the 35 awardees is to a Tribe.

Additional details

Awardees have been waiting nearly nine months for these decisions. Applications for the program were due by September 30, 2022. More than 260 applied for $7.47 billion in funds.

The middle mile program will “lower the cost of access and increase bandwidth,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Much like how the interstate highway system connected every community in America to regional and national systems of highways, this program will help us connect communities across the country to regional and national networks.”

• The projects will deploy more than 12,000 miles of new fiber that will pass within 1,000 feet of 6,961 community anchor institutions.
• All projects are primarily for fiber future-proof fiber as the primary technology.
• Grants span from $2.7 million to $88.8 million, with an average award amount of $26.6 million.
• Additional grants will be announced on a rolling basis, NTIA officials said.

Below are the awards, sorted by federal funds received. Full information is available at the NTIA’s web site.

The state was awarded a $5.6 million planning grant in November for the development of statewide plans for deployment of high-speed internet and digital equity. The public comment period for the plans is open until July 6. 

Louisiana was the first state to publicly release its five-year and digital equity plans in May. It received a $2.9 million planning grant in August. Maine released its plans on June 1.  

Utah’s digital connectivity plan outlines the next steps that the state will take to identify and utilize public private partnership models and develop a middle mile prioritization strategy to reach all unserved and underserved areas of the state. 

It identified the Utah Department of Transportation as a key agency for expanding middle mile in the state. UDOT’s management of state and federal rights-of-way makes its partnership critical for providers to close middle mile gaps, read the plan.  

The plan also outlined plans for tribal consultations with the eight tribes within its borders to collaborate on broadband planning initiatives and implementation timelines. Several tribes received federal Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program funds which the Utah Broadband Center will provide technical assistance for.   

Unlike Louisiana’s plan, Utah did not specify its plans to establish a challenge process for its state broadband map. Louisiana stated in its proposed plan that it will adopt the model challenge process as provided by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration.  

Middle mile investment

Portions of BEAD funds can be used to invest in middle mile infrastructure provided it connects last mile infrastructure to end users. Utah anticipates using BEAD dollars to expand its middle mile network. The state has adopted a unique fiberoptic sharing model through its partnership with UDOT to build and operate middle mile infrastructure. 

UDOT owns fiber optic networks along interstate highways to connect traffic cameras, road signs, weather stations and other sensors to its traffic operation center and provide instantaneous traffic updates. It partners with providers to access each other’s fiber lines, which allows for traffic operations and broadband service to expand.  

The partnership “utilizes the pathways to reach the doorsteps of the communities that otherwise would have been cost-prohibitive,” read the state’s plan, outlining its intent to maximize the partnership with BEAD funds. 

This unique partnership has made all the difference in Utah builds, said Nicole Cottle, board member of the Utah Infrastructure Agency, UTOPIA Fiber’s financial arm at an Internet for All event Wednesday. Middle mile is often the most difficult infrastructure to build and UDOT’s partnership makes it that much easier, she said.  

The sharing model opens more funding opportunities to broadband because of its unique connection with transportation, added Lynne Yocom, fiber manager at UDOT. Federal programs intended to support transportation infrastructure can have cascading effects on broadband, she said. 

She called the model the “Utah way” of partnering. 

Digital equity plan

Utah established in its digital equity plan several goals that it will work to achieve with its BEAD allocations, set to be announced June 30. The first goal is community coordination and resource discoverability in which the state will establish long-term coordination with communities to manage a statewide network of practitioners to support capacity building. 

The state will cultivate community training opportunities for Utah residents by providing funding for a digital navigator training program. It will work with universities and colleges to provide educational benefits and paid internships for digital navigators. 

Utah’s state broadband office will ensure the longevity of its programs by prioritizing support for projects with a high likelihood of ongoing local investment. It will also maximize locally available resources by standardizing programs that recycle, refurbish and redistribute existing devices. 

The plan is similar to Louisiana’s which focuses its efforts on how it will design future grant programs to prioritize access and affordability for covered populations by enlisting online resources, community centers, libraries, and other resources to promote and host events that educate communities on available programs. 

ConnectLA will also provide funding to community anchor institutions to purchase laptops, tablets and hotspots to serve residents. Uniquely, Louisiana will create a publicly available digital equity dashboard that will track clearly defined access and affordability metrics such as service availability, speeds, and prices in unserved areas.  

A PON service can support multiple clients from a single router by splitting a fiber-optic strand from an optical line terminal. It differs from an active optical network which dedicates each end user their own fiber optical line by an electrically-charged switcher that manages the signal distribution from the fiber line to service the end destinations. Both technologies are solutions for fiber-to-the-home network connections, but PONs are often preferred by providers because of the lower cost of deployment.

The 10-gigabit symmetrical PON, or XGS-PON, and the symmetrical 25G PON are evolutions of Gigabit PON, which only provides 2.5 Gbps downstream and 1.25 Gbps upstream.  

The industry is beginning to face capacity issues with GPONs which are still being widely deployed, said Eckard. He said that more and more services are requiring higher capacity and the demand will continue to increase as applications evolve to fill capacity capabilities. 

Providers need to ensure that they are building the right type of network to support these new applications, he said, pointing to the recently released Apple virtual reality headset set to be released early next year as an example of increasing capacity demands. 

Deploying 25G PONs is ideal for providers that want to provide customers with 10G or higher speeds and ensure future applications will be supported by their networks. He predicted that businesses will be the first adopters of 10G and higher speeds.  

Eckard also said adopting next generation PONs on fiber networks will also ensure that providers get the most from federally allocated programs like the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. That money is expected to be allocated to the states by June 30. 

According to network operators, XGS-PON is the preferred standards and networks are being upgraded to meet the standard. 

Nokia is a sponsor of Broadband Breakfast.

The NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, an offspring of the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, is expected to deliver $42.5 billion to the states by June 30 for infrastructure that needs to be built within a handful of years. Funding priorities under BEAD will be given to “projects designed to provide fiber connectivity directly to the end user,” according to an NTIA document.

“I do think some of the BEAD policies put a bit too much of a thumb on the scale for fiber,” Carr said in an interview with John Foley, managing director of Safer Building Coalitions, at the Wireless Tech and Policy Summit in Washington.

“In the case of fiber, where it could take potentially years to get fiber built out, not to mention significant delta in funding,” said Carr. “It can take anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 to run a mile of fiber.”

He said fixed wireless access can sometimes provide “robust high-speed service” while still remaining within budget.

Despite the NTIA’s clear acknowledgement of a fiber preference in its infrastructure deployment effort, Carr has long advocated for the use of fiber alternatives in rural regions, where high-speed internet is still a luxury in some parts. In 2022, Carr criticized the FCC for rejecting full grants to satellite broadband service provider Starlink and fixed wireless service provider LTD Broadband from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

“We should be making it easier for unserved communities to get service, not rejecting a proven satellite technology that is delivering robust, high-speed service today,” read the statement. “To be clear, this is a decision that tells families in states across the country that they should just keep waiting on the wrong side of the digital divide even though we have the technology to improve their lives now.”

Among the summit’s panelists, former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein also raised skepticism that the program’s intended beneficiaries, those living in rural regions, would see any tangible benefits from a fiber priority strategy.

“Policy makers, I don’t think, are always thinking about how actually consumers are living on the ground,” he said. “The thing that isn’t so obvious sometimes is the affordability factor that not everybody can afford to have a fiber connection and a broadband connection over their handset.”

This isn’t the first time telecom experts raised concern about BEAD’s fiber-focused expansion. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association released a report in February calling fiber-prioritized financing “a bad policy” due to its potential to raise implementation costs and slow down the rollout timeline.

The open access fiber infrastructure will be owned by the city but operated by UTOPIA Fiber, which will then lease the fiber to internet service providers. 

City council members expressed their resounding support for the program. We believe that the estimates of take rates are conservative and reasonable when compared to like communities, said City Manager Gary Hill, pointing to neighboring town Centerville that has 49 percent take rate on its city-owned network. 

Bountiful will issue $43 million in bonds to fund the program, announced the city. The debt service for the bond will be paid for using system revenues with any excess revenue invested into affordability assistance, city council members said.  

The initial contract term is 10 years with buildout expected to take 2-3 years. The city anticipates that it will make profit on the investment within four to five years of operation. 

In 2022, at the request of residents, the city issued a request for proposals that were released to potential fiber providers to build and operate a city-owned network. In January, Bountiful officials began contract negotiations with UTOPIA. 

“The purpose of the City’s involvement with fiber is to provide a competitive marketplace for internet service providers through an open access network,” read the city’s statement.  

The announcement comes months after West Haven, Utah announced its contract with UTOPIA Fiber for a city-wide network. 

In December, AT&T and BlackRock announced the formation of their joint venture, Gigapower LLC, to operate and deploy a fiber network to 1.5 million customers using a commercial open access platform.  

The deal between the companies closed Thursday. According to the press release, the new company’s goal is to “create the United States’ largest commercial wholesale open access fiber network to bring high-speed connectivity to more Americans.” 

“We believe fiber connectivity changes everything. That’s why we’re already one of the biggest investors in fiber in the United States,” said John Stankey, CEO of AT&T in a statement.  

“The demand for high-speed connectivity is unprecedented, and through this innovative partnership with BlackRock, one of the world’s foremost investors in infrastructure, we’re able to connect even more people and businesses, accelerating our efforts to help close the digital divide,” he said. 

Gigapower will enable AT&T to expand its fiber reach beyond its traditional areas and spread across the country, read the press release. BlackRock brings significant expertise and capital to support the buildout. 

The company expects to expand into Las Vegas, Nevada and areas of Arizona as well as Northeastern Pennsylvania and parts of Alabama and Florida that are currently outside of AT&T’s service areas. 

Christopher Sambar, executive vice president of AT&T, said in a Connect (X) event Wednesday that the company has already invested millions of dollars to build the most expansive fiber network in America.  

Between 2018 and 2022, AT&T invested $120 billion into the US economy via capital expenditures, he said, making the company one of the largest capital investors in America. 

Fiber is the backbone of wireless and 5G technology, he said. It is essential that the industry builds the foundation of fiber to support 5G and enable further innovations in the technology. 

According to Sambar, well over 170 million customers are being serviced with high-speed 5G networks and close to 300 million are serviced with speeds close to 5G.  

“If we’re going to solve the digital divide, we need to use the utility model,” stated Josh Leonard from engineering company Burns and McDonalds. 

A utility model, sometimes dubbed municipal broadband, is broadband infrastructure owned by public entities. Service is provided to residents by service providers that lease publicly owned networks in an open-access system.  

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, most state and city officials understand that broadband needs to be the fourth utility – after water, gas and electricity – said Leonard, but they do not treat it as such. 

Utilities understand how to operate large infrastructure projects that connect hundreds and thousands of homes, said Sean Stokes, partner at Keller and Heckman law firm. Utilities already have a core internal communication capability and already have essential infrastructure in place such as utility poles. 

Although utilities rarely want to be an internet service provider, Stokes continued, they are uniquely positioned to effectively run the network and lease it to providers. Open access enables partnerships with entities that want to be investors but don’t want to operate or be a provider, said Ashley Poling of fiber network software company COS Systems. 

Building single-use fiber, as many ISPs do when connecting communities, harms communities by requiring multiple digs in the future. The goal is to build capacity for all current and futures once, said Franciso Arbide of NextEra Infrastructure Solutions 

Does so allows more flexibility to add providers, eliminates issues if providers have poor service, and put pressure on non-performing providers, said Arbide. 

Entities looking to invest in large-scale infrastructure investments are not making realistic assessments of the actual cost of deploying infrastructure, cost and time to access utility poles, increased cost and delay in supply chains, and labor shortages, said Stokes. The best solution is to utilize the assets that utilities already have in their toolbelt, he said. 

Experience is the number-one priority when looking to build a broadband project, agreed Seema Patel of Chapman and Cutler. “Having experience in the industry is really going to be critical,” she said. 

“This infrastructure-based utility model is what succeeds,” said Poling. “The states that understand this will really achieve almost 100 percent digital equity. Others will not.”

Counties are energized to bring broadband to the community, said Greg Puckett, Mercy County commissioner in West Virginia. They are the people on the ground who hear the complaints of the community members. 

In one rural county, towns desperately needed broadband to keep their residents and remain a functioning town, added Doug Maglothin, CEO of network operator Diamond State Networks.  

County governments know how to get public infrastructure done unlike cities and towns, added John Garamendi of Calaveras County, California. Counties are accustomed to authorizing, planning, and building large infrastructure programs and know how to navigate the problems associated, he said.  

Americans were given a “gift” when the federal government acknowledged the power and understanding that counties have of their communities by directing states to allocate federal grant funds to localities, said Puckett.  

Counties are “the one level we’ve identified… that has the ability to do all the necessary build out,” added David Kramer from provider Altafiber. Counties “have a view of what they want to do,” he said. 

“We have to do more at a regional level, not just focus on states,” he urged.  

In an oopen access network, broadband infrastructure is owned one entity, which can be a network operator or a municipality or other form of cooperative governance. The network operator leases the infrastructure to internet service providers. In essence, an open access model brings competition to monopolizing incumbents to the benefit of the user, said Ben Seo from marketing firm Harrison Edwards.

An open access network empowers communities because it gives consumers the power they need to hold providers responsible, continued Seo. Because the model enables direct competition, consumers can use their dollars to demand certain services from their providers.

Although the model is touted as the “gold standard” by UTOPIA Fiber and other network operators, some commentors are concerned that the model will reduce ISPs to price-war strategies to eliminate competition and retain market share.

Price gouging “is a concern” for UTOPIA, said Timmerman. “The providers are stakeholders for us, if the providers are not successful, we have failed,” he said. The company has taken measures to ensure the long-term scalability of its providers. The ISPs on UTOPIA’s network are limited to one price change a month.

According to Timmerman, the rules have resulted in providers finding other ways beyond price to differentiate themselves and their services to consumers. In fact, the most expensive provider on its network is also the fastest growing because it has positioned itself in the public mind as reliable and trustworthy.

We need all types of providers on the network to meet the needs of all the niches of the market, he said. There are providers that focus on connecting multi-dwelling units, those that target government buildings, those that connect school systems, and others that have specialties to fit the needs of the market.

“The network operator does have the responsibility to get involved in [pricing] to protect the ISPs and assure them that they can sustain their business long-term,” agreed Greg Wilson, founder of South African open access model AEX, Automation Exchange

Open access invites innovation in the customer experience, added Seo. Instead of driving down prices unreasonably, it incentivizes providers to find ways to improve the customer experience, enhance lives, and listen to the needs of the consumer. As a result, an open access model sells the product better, he said.

Furthermore, small, local providers are drawn to open access because it alleviates them of the necessity of investing in high-cost infrastructure. In that way, they can focus on selling reliable service to the consumer, said Timmerman.

An open-access model, sometimes dubbed the “wholesale model,” is characterized by two separate entities owning and operating the infrastructure. It allows several different service providers to compete on the same infrastructure and seeks to lower costs for the end user. 

The “pre-conference” event was organized was organized by the Coalition for Local Internet Choice, the American Association of Public Broadband and Broadband Breakfast.

Cities seeking to capitalize on federal funding and improve its broadband connection hope to mitigate partnership risks but also must consider the feasibility of owning broadband infrastructure, said Sean Gonsalves, senior researcher for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  

Communities are clamoring for a workable model and in a private-sector-led effort, while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there is a strong desire that the community has considerable say in important issues, Gonsalves continued. 

As such, many states are encouraging the implementation of PPP’s rather than municipal builds to balance the municipality’s capacity of infrastructure control and broadband’s promised return on investment, said Gonsalves. 

An open-access model also addresses the question of whether governments should be involved in the kind of service provided by internet service providers, added Mitchell Shook, CEO of ISP Advanced Stream Broadband. Service providers can enter homes and provide direct service whereas governments may not have the capability to maintain such service, he said.  

Broadband continues to increase in importance for city governments, said Roger Timmerman, CEO of UTOPIA Fiber. UTOPIA is built on an open-access model in which it owns an expansive fiber network which is then leased to ISPs that take service to the end user.  

From a city perspective, the city itself is the most critical anchor for a fiber network as the network supports critical public safety and service systems, continued Timmerman. These systems include wildfire and vandalism surveillance which are already being deployed in some cities, according to the fiber company. 

“If a city has fiber infrastructure, they are in position to support smart city applications on demand,” Timmerman said, claiming that in a few years, these applications may be nearly as important as residential uses.  

Not all industry leaders agree with this assessment, however. In a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event in December of 2021, Jim Baller, partner at law firm Keller and Heckman, rose concerns that such a model forces providers to engage in a price war that will ultimately limit – and potentially erase – profitability for all players involved. Baller is also president of CLIC.

Industry leaders at Connected America on Tuesday agreed that fiber deployment should be prioritized with other technologies supplementing as needed, although some differed over where that line should be drawn.

“The public policy goal is to push fiber as far as we possibly can,” said Scott Woods, vice president of Ready.net and former senior executive at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“As a neutral host provider, we look at this from the lens of building the elements that can ultimately serve the end user,” said Victoria Lambeth, founder and CRO of ZenFi Networks. “And in many cases, that means delivering fiber all the way to the [premise], but in some cases that may be using a host of alternative solutions… it’s not one size fits all.”

Dense urban environments with plenty of fiber can still struggle to connect a significant unserved and underserved population, Lambeth added. For example, nearly one-third of New York City households lacked in-home broadband in 2021, according to city data.

While panelists discussed the many challenges associated with closing the digital divide, they also expressed optimism about the historic federal funding supporting broadband deployment and adoption.

Service providers have a responsibility to be “good shepherds of these once-in-a-lifetime but finite dollars that we’re being given,” said Esther Northrup, assistant vice president for market expansion at Cox Communications.

“It’s on us as an industry to be very thoughtful about how we’re deploying our own capital dollars in order to serve our customers, but ultimately to serve those communities,” Lambeth agreed.

Woods noted the importance of being realistic about the timeline for broadband deployment, urging stakeholders to not “think we can do it in three years, when in actuality it’s going to take 10 or 15 or 20 years.”

“Let’s be intentional about how we go about making sure our plans are defensible, making sure the costs are justified and making sure that we have a plan to ensure that no other community has to go through not having connectivity during a pandemic,” he said.

This planning process should involve careful consideration of the data, Woods added. “We really have to get into the granular level to determine where broadband is and is not so that we can effectively and efficiently be able to invest the resources.”

On a broader level, panelists discussed the need for community and private sector involvement to ensure network longevity.

“There are so many other layers of services, digital literacy services, that need to be layered on top of that in order to maximize that investment for the community,” Lambeth said. “We often talk about the physical nature of connectivity, but at many points, it’s this affordability [and] adoption issue that ends up being the greater issue.”

Private sector involvement will also play a key role in enabling continued deployment beyond the expiration of federal funding, Woods said.

The company said it will concentrate nearly $50 million toward the production to drive broadband infrastructure in rural areas. It announced a new fiber cable called HeliARC that it said is smaller and lighter weight that will allow for faster installation to rural homes.

“We will produce more cost-effective and easier-to-deploy fiber-optic cable, add new jobs and simultaneously strengthen the supply chain in America,” said CommScope president and CEO Chuck Treadway in a press release.

Meanwhile, in Catawba County, N.C., optical communications manufacturer Corning also held an event Wednesday to announce the formal opening of its newest optical cable manufacturing campus, also focused on rural and underserved communities.

Corning noted that its investments in manufacturing will “help meet the rising demand for broadband connectivity driven by public and private.”

Standing in front of warehouse workers with machine whirring, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is touring the state’s facilities, said “That is the sound of made in America.”

The announcements are being paraded by the White House as a key part of its strategy to not just connect the entire country with high-speed internet, but to ensure that the infrastructure supporting it is made primarily inside the country.

In his State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden emphasized that his administration would focus on ensuring that fiber cables that go toward federally-funded projects will be made in America. Following the address, the White House Office of Management and Budget released a document proposing rules for implementation of the Build America, Buy America provision in the infrastructure bill.

Critics responding to the proposal have said if waivers are not granted for certain parts of the fiber optic cable, it could jeopardize the four-year timeline for builds using money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The money is expected to be allocated to the states by June 30.

Earlier this week, the White House announced the “Investing in America” tour starting Tuesday in Durham, North Carolina, to highlight key components of the infrastructure bill and the semiconductor-focused Chips and Science Act.

On Tuesday, Biden toured a Wolfspeed semiconductor factory in Durham. The company in September announced plans to invest $5 billion over 20 years in Chatham County.

“Fiber to the home is truly full fiber — and that means every individual unit, whatever that might be,” said Erin Scarborough, senior vice president for broadband strategy at AT&T. “Connectivity to every single human is really what we’re talking about.”

Universal technology access can empower learning and development everywhere from college dorm rooms to prison educational programs, Scarborough added.

Bringing fiber to multi-dwelling units presents a challenge in that it requires the participation of building owners, said Bryan Rader, MDU president for Pavlov Media.

However, Rader argued that fiber installation ultimately benefits the owners as well as the inhabitants. “If you look at any of the studies in the apartment ownership industry today, the number one amenity is internet,” he said. “And if you don’t have great internet — or fiber internet — residents will actually pick a different address.”

An ideal full-fiber future would include at least two provider options for each household, said Raj Singh, CEO of Velankani Communications Technologies, Inc.

In order to encourage competition and investment, government funding programs should set flexible requirements, Scarborough said.

In addition to expanding broadband access, Scarborough emphasized the importance of actively considering affordability and adoption.

“For every human that or household that doesn’t have access to broadband today, two more don’t subscribe,” she said. “And why is that? Well, it’s likely because of affordability.”

Rader noted that digital literacy is a critical factor in adoption. “Success is connecting the customer, educating the customer, making sure they know how to utilize the fiber — that’s the missing piece,” he said.

Panelists acknowledged the role of other technologies in areas where last-mile fiber deployment would carry an extremely high cost. Achieving universal connectivity will require a “cocktail of technologies” — including 5G and fixed wireless in addition to fiber — as well as partnerships between public and private entities, Scarborough said.

But the experts largely agreed that fiber comes with unique benefits, such as long-term sustainability. Even when the initial buildout costs are high, the goal of careful fiber deployment is to create “a pathway with some foresight that allows you to upgrade, change, absorb things that you didn’t foresee,” said Scot Bohaychyk, solutions manager at Emtelle.

In November 2019, Lewis County PUD received a $50,000 grant from the Community Economic Revitalization Board to study the county’s broadband shortcomings and determine whether taking direct action to address them made sense. In early 2020, the PUD formed the Lewis County Broadband Action Team to further study community needs.

Those inquiries found what most U.S. communities know too well: concentrated monopolization had left county residents overpaying for substandard, expensive, and spotty broadband access unsuitable for modern living.

In response, the Lewis County PUD announced in 2021 it would be building an 134-mile-long fiber backbone and open access fiber network for around $104 million. Around $23.5 million of that total will be paid for by a recently awarded grant by the Washington State Department of Commerce, itself made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act.

In December of 2021, Lewis County PUD public affairs manager Willie Painter was a guest on our Community Broadband Bits podcast in which he discussed the PUD’s vision of deploying fiber across the county’s 2,450 square miles, which is home to about 75,000 Washingtonians, or about 30,000 households. Painter noted then how the PUD’s “shovel ready designs and estimates” is what “empowered our utility to be very competitive in going after state and federal grant dollars to help fund these construction deployments.”

The latest development to have emerged since we last reported on Lewis County PUD, is who the PUD selected as a partner to build the network. The network will be built as part of a 25-year public-private partnership with ToledoTel. While ToledoTel will install, supply and maintain a new fiber optic network connecting more than 2,300 homes and businesses in the Winlock area, Lewis County will ultimately own the final build.

ToledoTel is currently in the engineering and design phase of the project, and has stated it will provide an additional $2.35 million in matching funds for the project, which is slated to be finished before 2026.

Details of the arrangement were finalized in January, and county leaders state that ToledoTel will have exclusive access to the infrastructure for up to three years. After that, ToledoTel will be required to open the network to competitors at a wholesale rate, boosting competition and driving down costs in a residential broadband market largely dominated by Comcast.

Photo of Lewis County PUD building courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

“There’s the convenience, there’s business purposes; all those are really vital and becoming more and more a part of everyday life, and we want to provide those services to everyone in Lewis County that we can,” Lewis County Manager Erik Martin told The Chronicle. “This project is really the beginning, in terms of getting service out to folks, and we want to focus on getting broadband out to all rural areas and all residents of Lewis County.”

A 2021 survey by the WA Department of Commerce found that 64 percent of state households reported download speeds slower than the base FCC definition of broadband, currently a paltry 25 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream, 3 Mbps upstream. The state is currently considering raising the base definition of broadband to 100 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream.

A local survey by Lewis County PUD found that more than 77 percent of survey respondents had broadband speeds well below the acceptable federal definition of broadband, despite nearly 98 percent of county survey participants considering broadband access an essential utility.

Lewis County is one of many PUDs in Washington State taking full advantage of a flood of new grants — and recently-eliminated Washington State restrictions on community broadband — to belatedly expand access to affordable fiber across the state.

This article by Karl Bode originally appeared on the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks project on March 13, 2023, and is reprinted with permission.

“Fixed wireless in certain cases is kind of nice, it’s a nice catch product where we have a copper customer that we’re going to get to in the next 12 to 24 months,” said Pascal Desroches during Deutsche Bank’s annual media, internet and telecom conference.

“But long term, it’s not a solution we want to put a lot of resources behind. Why? It’s because it’s not a great product and the customer ultimately is going to reject it,” he said. “That is our belief. When you look at the amount of bandwidth that is consumed in the home, over time the customer’s experience is going to degrade and we don’t think it’s a product that we want to spend a lot of resources on.”

AT&T CEO John Stankey said early last year that fixed wireless still plays an important role for rural Americans.

Fixed wireless products use cellular airwaves to deliver internet to the home. It is a product that AT&T delivers to customers in rural and remote areas, which are regions that are otherwise financially difficult to connect with fiber.

It also has been the subject of reports and at the center of heated debates over whether governments should plow federal funds into such builds in an effort to connect the entire nation to high-speed internet. When the Federal Communications Commission, for example, announced its initial awards from its $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, critics panned its decision to award large amounts to fixed wireless technologies because of alleged unproven high-speed promises.

On review, the commission even revoked the RDOF money initially awarded to LTD Broadband – one of the largest initial recipients of the fund – because it didn’t think it was “reasonably capable of deploying a network of the scope, scale, and size” required by its bids.

Last week, fixed wireless service provider Starry filed for bankruptcy.

Fiber favored by federal government’s broadband build

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is the administrator of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, has already said that it favors fiber builds, but state recipients of the funds must consider all types of builds. The NTIA is expected to deliver the funds to the states by June 30.

“Candidly, we’d much rather take our resources, focus on deploying more fiber,” Desroches said, adding the company is exploring using spectrum to experiment and deliver new services.

“Let’s not get distracted by chasing empty calories in the near term,” he said.

On that front, Desroches said the company has exceeded its own expectations on how far it can drive fiber in its own footprint, saying that it is penetrating at twice the level compared to the first year of its plan. The company said it expects to bring 30 million or more households inside its footprint fiber over the “next several years.”

“This is a product that is durable, the maintenance associated with it is much more attractive than our copper footprint,” Desroches said.

Desroches also said the company’s joint venture with investment firm BlackRock to build fiber outside of its footprint could be expanded if things prove out as the company expects. The two companies are splitting the equity investment equally.

And the plan to plow fiber inside and outside of its footprint is expected to be accelerated, he said, with the money coming from the NTIA’s BEAD program.

“We are going to be able to capitalize on that money coming to the marketplace over the next several years at an accelerated pace versus if we had just done it ourselves,” he said.

Broadband policies present a promising opportunity for bipartisan collaboration, said Marissa Mitrovich, vice president of public policy for the Fiber Broadband Association. “These are the issues that impact every single American, and they’re not a partisan issue — everyone needs access to affordable, reliable broadband.”

The most significant upcoming development to the national connectivity landscape will likely be the infusion of funding from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, expected to be allocated to the states by June 30. Many state entities have raised concerns about the national broadband map that will determine BEAD distribution, with several claiming they lacked the necessary time and resources to adequately challenge the map’s inaccuracies.

“The challenge process is important, but keep in perspective that this first go-around is really for state allocations — it is not the round that will really then determine where it is that’s unserved and underserved,” said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association.

Bloomfield also cautioned against becoming overly distracted by the “shiny new toy” of federal funding, noting the importance of reforming existing programs to ensure that new networks being built can be sustained and will remain affordable.

“If at the end of the day consumers can’t access and afford those networks, I’m not sure how far we’ve moved the ball forward,” she said.

One key program in need of reform is the Universal Service Fund, a multi-billion-dollar fund that subsidizes basic telecommunications services for low-income households and rural communities. The USF will likely run out of money during 2024, with some even predicting that this will happen during the first quarter of the year, said Grant Spellmeyer, president and CEO of ACA Connects.

Panelists at the Broadband Breakfast Live Online session on February 1, 2023.

“That means that we’re 12 months away from a real problem…There are 16 million households, 55 million Americans relying on that program right now,” Spellmeyer added.

With the future of the program — and the connectivity it provides to millions of people — in jeopardy, Congress may have the chance to play a crucial role in extending the program, Bloomfield said. “All Americans, regardless of where they live, should have access to comparable and affordable services.”

Industry experts disagree over whether fiber should be prioritized

The BEAD program’s prioritization of fiber over other broadband technologies has drawn both praise and criticism. Proponents tout fiber’s superior speeds and longevity, while others argue that emerging technologies should be given a chance to develop.

In November, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration — the Commerce Department agency responsible for administering the BEAD program — came under fire for its stated preference for fiber, which a group of Republican senators said was in “stark contrast to Congress’s tech-neutral intent.”

“Tech neutrality is critical… There are benefits of fiber, fixed wireless, satellite and traditional mobile,” said David Grossman, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association, at the Broadband Breakfast event.

“It’s going to take every tool,” Bloomfield agreed, noting that the best technology for any given area would depend on a broad range of factors. However, she emphasized the benefits of deploying fiber when possible. “We have this opportunity, and frankly, shame on us if we don’t actually put in future-proof technology the first time around.”

Fiber infrastructure will also support the rapidly growing demand for symmetrical gigabit speeds, Bloomfield added.

Spellmeyer pointed to a new ACA Connects study making state-by-state predictions for BEAD funding allocation and outlining two national deployment scenarios: a “baseline fiber” approach and a “maximum fiber” approach.

“It’ll be up to governors to decide how they want to approach the allocation of funding, but I think a whole lot of governors can deliver a whole lot of fiber,” Spellmeyer said. “And then there will be opportunities… in very high-cost areas for wireless to play a role as well.”

Mitrovich strongly supported fiber prioritization, noting that “what might be a little bit more investment on the front end is going to really save money in the long run — and create opportunity, whether it’s through jobs, access to healthcare, access to education.”

“We believe fiber is really the most important connectivity technology for consumers and how we’re going to connect America — and the only way this happens is if government and industry work together,” Mitrovich said.

Bipartisan privacy legislation may still have a chance

Although many policy proposals may struggle to gain traction in a politically divided Congress, Grossman was optimistic about the prospect of bipartisan privacy legislation.

“It’s something everybody can relate to, both sides of the aisle, and I think that that was reflected in the fact that we got to a ‘three corners’ bill last year,” he said, referring to the bipartisan House support and Republican Senate support garnered by the American Data Privacy and Protection Act toward the end of 2022.

The primary hurdle that stalled the ADPPA’s passage was its preemption provision, which was fiercely opposed by lawmakers from states with strong preexisting privacy legislation.

Tech associations and industry groups have been generally supportive of state preemption. “It’s very clear that a patchwork of 50 state laws is not workable — it’s burdensome, particularly for startups, [and] confusing for consumers,” Grossman said.

Bloomfield agreed, emphasizing the importance of “a national standard and uniform approach that really treats all online data consistently… so consumers know what their expectations are.”

Another contentious privacy debate at the heart of the ADPPA is whether individuals should be able to sue companies for infractions. The bill’s final version included a narrow private right of action — the product of significant bipartisan compromise.

However, Grossman rejected this agreement, arguing that “private right of action is hugely, hugely detrimental to the industry and to innovation.”

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 12 Noon ET – What Will the 118th Congress Do on Broadband and Big Tech?

Hampered by a new partisan divide, what will the 118th Congress be able to accomplish in terms of broadband and technology policy? In particular, what do broadband and technology industry groups see as realistic policy priorities under divided government? Many members of Congress want to sharply curb the power of Big Tech, including through a potential national TikTok ban. Another issue left unresolved from last Congress was the state of information privacy legislation. These developments take place against a backdrop of the largest federal investment in broadband ever. Will Congress have anything new to say about infrastructure investment, wireless communication or network neutrality?

Panelists:

• Shirley Bloomfield, CEO, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association
• Grant Spellmeyer, President & CEO, ACA Connects
• Marissa Mitrovich, Vice President of Public Policy, Fiber Broadband Association
• David Grossman, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Consumer Technology Association
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist resources

• Rural Broadband Providers Increasing Speeds on Fiber Networks, Annual NTCA Report Finds, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, December 5, 2022

Shirley Bloomfield is CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, the premier association representing nearly 850 independent telecommunications companies that are leading innovation in rural and small-town America. With more than 30 years of experience representing the country’s smallest telecom operators, Bloomfield is an expert on the role of federal communications policies in sustaining the vitality of rural and remote communities and the benefits rural broadband networks bring to millions of American families, businesses and the national economy. Bloomfield has a strong track record of leadership in aligning strategic partnerships among rural telecom companies, their larger counterparts, other rural utilities and federal agencies, advancing digital equity and economic opportunities for rural Americans.

Grant Spellmeyer oversees the daily operations and affairs of ACA Connects-America’s Communications Association, a 700-member, non-profit advocacy association dedicated to serving smaller- and medium-sized, independent broadband, phone and video businesses that serve more than 10 million broadband customers nationwide. ACA Connects represents its Members and advocates their concerns before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and other agencies in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining ACAC, Grant was vice president of government affairs for US Cellular where his primary duties included directing the federal and state legislative and regulatory efforts across the company’s 21-state operating territory on all policy matters.

Marissa Mitrovich is the Fiber Broadband Association’s vice president of public policy, leading their efforts before Congress, the White House and regulatory agencies in Washington, D.C. She brings more than two decades of experience in governmental affairs and telecom, including previous roles as the vice president of federal legislative affairs for Frontier and vice president of public policy for Verizon, where she interfaced with the administration and worked on state government affairs issues and corporate responsibility initiatives. Mitrovich also brings experience in workforce development and public-private partnerships from her time as vice president of program development for the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

David Grossman serves as vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association, where he is responsible for representing the association before the FCC, FTC and other government agencies, with a focus on broadband, spectrum policy, cybersecurity and online competition. David spent nearly a decade in public service, including serving as Chief of Staff to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Legislative Director and Senior Advisor for Technology Policy to Rep. Anna Eshoo of Silicon Valley, and as Technology Counsel to the U.S. House Small Business Committee under the leadership of Rep. Nydia Velázquez.

Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

OCG alleges that, for years, Verizon has been charging the telecom inflated prices to attach its fiber wires on Verizon’s infrastructure on Staten Island. OCG says in its complaint in late November that it only rents a small portion of the duct through which its fiber goes, yet it’s allegedly being charged as if it is using the full duct. It claims other service providers are also renting on the same conduit.

Despite “repeatedly” notifying Verizon of the “overbilling,” OCG said Verizon is allegedly refusing to modify the invoices to “reflect the correct billing rates based on the proportional share occupied” and is now threatening to boot the company from its entire network.

“Verizon has threated to terminate OCG’s occupancy license throughout all of Verizon’s network because OCG refuses to pay the improper charges as to certain conduits,” OCG said in its petition, despite claiming that it has made payment on certain of its licenses.

OCG added that Verizon has allegedly “only recently agreed” to conduct inspections, which have yet to be complete, on the conduit to confirm the complaint.

In response to the complaint filed last month, Verizon, which confirmed the inspections are still ongoing, said OCG has an alleged history of failing to pay its bills, and the two parties have been through a carousel of complaints, dispute resolution and more complaints.

“For nearly two decades OCG has engaged in a persistent course of conduct by which it fails to pay Verizon’s standard charges for conduit occupancy and other services, requiring Verizon to expend significant time, expense, and effort in collection attempts, litigation, and regulatory proceedings,” Verizon said.

“Those efforts typically lead, after a protracted period of time, to belated and sometimes partial payments,” the Verizon response adds. “And then the cycle repeats itself as OCG once again goes back to increasing its unpaid indebtedness.”

Verizon says OCG owes it roughly $400,000 in unpaid and “undisputed, past-due conduit occupancy charges,” which it says is equal to 15 months’ worth of undisputed billings. Verizon alleges there’s more unpaid money beyond the $400,000 that has been disputed by OCG and for which the parties are going through a dispute resolution process.

It adds that it estimates the monthly bill to OCG for conduit rental is roughly $27,000 per month, yet OCG allegedly only disputes about $2,000 a month on that. “In recent months only small and sporadic payments have been made against the undisputed monthly charges,” Verizon alleges.

The incumbent said OCG’s petition is ultimately a “red herring” because Verizon’s stipulations in the agreement are “based on a failure to pay undisputed charges. As a result, the issues set forth in the Petition are irrelevant to Verizon’s exercise of its right to terminate OCG’s occupancy.”

OCG filed its petition at the end of a 30-day deadline that Verizon gave it to make full payment of the undisputed amount and to make a commitment to continue making undisputed payments going forward or else it would terminate the agreement, according to Verizon’s submission.

“I always think of fiber going into a town as rippling,” said Sean Buckley, editor in chief at Broadband Communities. “It’s not just fiber to the home — it’s fiber to the tower, the business, the school, et cetera.”

Buckley and others were reacting to Broadband Breakfast’s 12 Days of Broadband, a monthly report that included articles about the 12 top issues for broadband in 2022. The first of the 12 days articles was about how “Fiber Finds Its Footing, Offering Future-Proof High Speeds,” by Drew Clark, editor of Broadband Breakfast and moderator of the Wednesday session. Clark said that the strength of the case for fiber was gaining momentum with the federal bipartisan infrastructure investment in broadband.

In many areas, smaller community broadband networks are challenging the monopolies held by large incumbent players.

“Lots of folks are fed up with sort of having no choice or having only one provider, and lots of communities are becoming much more aware of the community broadband model and are looking at exploring that,” said Sean Gonsalves, senior writer for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative.

Gonsalves pointed to Fairlawn, Ohio as a successful example of the community broadband model. The municipal network has been so successful that they recently upgraded all customers to a higher speed tier and simultaneously dropped prices, now offering a symmetrical gigabit connection for $55 per month.

Incumbent networks are sometimes hostile to emerging community broadband networks, Gonsalves said, citing an email where an incumbent network executive said their top challenge was preventing municipalities and nonprofits from accessing grant funding.

Some states will probably “shovel their hundreds of millions of dollars to the big incumbent providers, and then 10 years down the road, people will be scratching their head wondering why we still have the digital divide,” Gonsalves said.

Despite the significance of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, it is unlikely to be enough to give the whole country access to high-speed connectivity, panelists agreed.

In the coming year, it will be interesting to see whether states “adhere to the letter and spirit of the BEAD law, which says that you’re not able to exclude municipalities and the like from getting access to those to those grant funds,” Gonsalves said.

In some remote areas, fiber’s cost might outweigh the benefits

Federal funding is giving fiber a boost over competitor technologies, but it isn’t necessarily a universal solution.

Deploying fiber to rural areas can be extremely expensive, said Linda Hardesty, editor in chief at Fierce Telecom. For example, a company in Alaska received a $33 million grant to run fiber to just 211 homes and five businesses — meaning that the cost per passing would be more than $200,000, according to Fierce Telecom.

“That exorbitant cost is the reason why fiber has never been run to places like that before, because private companies couldn’t make a business model out of that,” Hardesty said.

Most rural fiber deployments cost far less than the Alaska project, but several other grant winners are undertaking projects that cost tens of thousands of dollars per passing, which Hardesty noted is still exorbitant compared to the typical deployment cost of less than $3,000 per passing.

Proponents argue that the long-term economic and societal benefits of bringing fiber to rural areas outweighs the upfront costs, Hardesty said.

“It’s more expensive to build bike lanes than it is per mile than it is to lay fiber,” Gonsalves said. “Roads, water systems, schools — these are all projects that municipalities take on all the time and so in my mind it’s not really a question of the cost per se. It’s really a question of political will.”

Setting aside the issue of cost, Hardesty questioned whether or not the government is responsible for deploying fiber to remote locations in the first place.

“The government helped get electricity to places that are really remote, and broadband is practically as much of a necessity now as electricity is,” she said. “But then others would say, if you choose to live in a really remote location… you’d have to pay for getting plumbing out there. So why should the government have to pay for your broadband?”

Another challenge in fiber deployment is the broadband workforce shortage, Buckley said. Several industry organizations and community colleges are working together to design and offer training programs, but there is still a need for skilled fiber technicians.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, December 28, 2022, 12 Noon ET – New Year Recap: Biggest Stories in Broadband

Join the Broadband Breakfast team and our guests to discuss the biggest stories in broadband in 2022. Plus, we’ll make predictions for what to expect in 2023. We’ll discuss:

• The first year of implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• How broadband and the hybrid workforce are adapting to the post-pandemic reality.
• The role of the national broadband map and challenges to it.
• Key moments in the ongoing fight about online content moderation.
• The future of broadband infrastructure development in the face of a number of workforce and supply chain challenges.
• And more!

Make sure to tune in for this special year-in-review Live Online.

Panelists:

• Sean Buckley, Editor in Chief, Broadband Communities
• Linda Hardesty, Editor in Chief, Fierce Telecom
• Sean Gonsalves, Senior Writer and Editor, Community Broadband Networks Initiative, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Sean Buckley is the Editor in Chief of Broadband Communities. Buckley comes to the magazine publishing and conference company after serving nine years as Senior Editor at FierceTelecom, a daily online newletter. He also oversaw FierceInstaller, a weekly publication chronicling trends in network installation. Prior to coming to FierceTelecom, Sean spent eight years at Horizon House publications, serving as senior editor and later as Editor in Chief of Telecommunications Magazine and Telecom Engine. He also had a one-year stint at Current Analysis tracking public sector IT trends.

Linda Hardesty is editor-in-chief at Fierce overseeing the telecom group comprised of FierceWireless, FierceTelecom and FierceVideo. She’s been a trade journalist since the mid-1990s covering the business and technology of telecommunications networks. Prior to Fierce, she wrote for SDxCentral, Communications Technology/CableFax and Cable World.

Sean Gonsalves is a longtime former reporter, columnist and news editor with the Cape Cod Times. He is also a former nationally syndicated columnist in 22 newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, Kansas City Star and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His work has also appeared in the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Washington Post and the International Herald-Tribune. In October 2020, Sean joined the Institute for Local Self-Reliance staff as a senior reporter, editor and researcher for ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative.

Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.