How Eight States Use Line Extension Programs to Connect Unserved Residents to Broadband

Initiatives bridge the gaps from individual homes and businesses to existing networks.

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Leverage Partnerships to Ensure Fiber Broadband Success

By exploring available resources and identifying funding and partnership opportunities, broadband deployers can provide community residents and businesses with broadband access quickly and efficiently.

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Get Connected at More Broadband Showstopper Events

The 2023 Broadband Communities Summit paved the way. Now consider these top events to learn even more about opportunities for funding, investment, deployment and technology innovation.

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Communities, MDU Owners Overcome New Challenges to Narrow the Digital Divide

Last year, Broadband Communities Summit attendees anticipated soon-to-flow federal and state money. This year, the Summit provided a space to prepare for those now in-process developments and covered issues well beyond the deployment of high-speed broadband. Affordability and access to training and devices were all part of a broad push toward digital inclusion and digital equity. Following are some highlights.

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Providers, Regulators Vie for Consistent Broadband Permitting

Uncoordinated and slow permitting processes could have a chilling effect on service providers and communities seeking to expand broadband to more homes and businesses.

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Westminster Fiber Network in Maryland Sets Growth Path

In partnership with Ting, the Westminster Fiber Network is thriving thanks to careful planning, hard work and luck.

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What Will Fiber Disrupt Next? Find Out at Fiber Connect 2023

Fiber Connect 2023 will bring together industry leaders and others who want to learn about the possibilities and challenges of building fiber-based broadband for homes and businesses.

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Editor's Note: Permitting Consistency Needed to Ease Broadband Builds

Permitting delays can inhibit competition in high-density areas.

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Work-from-Home Doubled to More than 20% Post-COVID-19 – but Not Everyplace

Almost everybody has a facile opinion about the future of remote work. It turns out that the future will vary widely by industry and job function, existing housing stock, a region’s workforce age and household size. Here’s a roadmap. I’ll show the way in even greater detail in future issues.

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Bringing FTTH Broadband to Remote and Rugged Areas

A difficult build on Block Island in Rhode Island provides seven lessons for successful deployments from mountains to islands.

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The Great Economic Leveler: Municipal Broadband Provides Digital Equality to Rural America

Municipalities are taking a do-it-yourself approach to bring access to communities that remain underserved by large incumbent telcos and cable operators.

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A2D Sets Path to Bring Digital Equity to Georgia’s Clayton County

A2D, an African American-owned and operated open-access fiber provider, looks to fill in Georgia’s forgotten broadband gaps.

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Sterling Ranch, Lumen Make Fiber Broadband Part of 21st Century Living

The master-planned community takes a fiber-first broadband approach to support an urban/suburban lifestyle in Colorado’s rapidly growing Douglas County.

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ALLO Gives Alternative High School a Digital Future

Bay High, a Lincoln, Nebraska, alternative school, enhances digital inclusion in the classroom and at home with ALLO’s gigabit fiber connectivity service.

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Communities Thrive on Fiber

The presence of fiber opens new job opportunities and economic value for communities.

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Combining Regional Carriers Is Becoming More Common

Asset sales and mergers are increasing, even as federal money is about to pour into new and improved broadband deployments. Policy has yet to keep up. More guidance and rulemaking may be needed, not less.

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Editor's Note: Making Community Broadband Work for You

Broadband is helping communities close the digital divide and manage their transformation across multiple domains: business services, wholesale service opportunities, education and economic development. Learn more at the Broadband Communities 2023 Summit.

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2023 Trends in the Broadband Industry

A growing crop of competitive players is emerging to shake up the broadband market with a new set of fiber-based symmetrical services for consumers and businesses.

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ReConnect3 Final Results: The USDA Gets the Job Done

In this third and final round of awards from more than $2 billion authorized in 2018, the USDA remains a reliable deployer partner.

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Editor's Note: Challenging the Broadband Status Quo

Service providers and communities are creating new paths to ensure a bright broadband future.

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Westfield Gas + Electric (WG+E) Sets Broadband Pace for Western Massachusetts

The electric provider offers new fiber-based broadband and economic development opportunities for underserved residents and businesses. It could serve as a model for other nonurban areas across the U.S.

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Editor's Note: Creating a New Fiber Broadband Labor Pipeline

As municipalities and service providers pursue fiber expansions, a larger labor force is required to transition plans from paper to reality.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Surviving and Thriving in 2023

Don’t look to a polarized Congress, possibly deadlocked FCC, or a chance for peace in Ukraine to make your business plans work. Fortunately, you may not have to. At least a partial cure lies in good contingency planning and exploration of new financing methods. Here’s how to get it done.

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Public-Private Partnerships Are a Win-Win for Communities And Broadband Providers

P3s have the potential to accelerate fiber buildouts that could create new job and revenue opportunities.

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Riverview Tower: Empowering Residents with Low-Cost, Reliable Connectivity

In Cleveland, Ohio, the senior citizen residents of Riverview Tower can now access high-speed broadband for telehealth appointments and other everyday uses thanks to DigitalC, a nonprofit wireless broadband provider. Broadband Communities thanks Katie Grootegoed, director of strategic partnerships and empowerment at DigitalC, and Jeffery Patterson, CEO of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, for helping gather information for this profile.

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Strengthening the Broadband Labor Workforce

Industry organizations, unions and service providers turn to vocational schools and community colleges to ramp up fiber and broadband installer training programs.

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Choosing the Right Fiber Provider for Your Community

When evaluating potential providers to determine if they have the experience and expertise to successfully bring fiber connectivity to a town, asking the right questions is essential.

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How Do Government and Broadband Providers Connect the Nation?

Public-private partnerships are a powerful way to build broadband infrastructure and close the digital divide.

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GTT and Otoe-Missouria Tribe Put Residents, Businesses on New Broadband Path

In rural north-central Oklahoma, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe is working to deliver quality broadband to families and businesses.

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Block Island Takes Responsibility for Universal Fiber Broadband Connectivity

In partnership with Sertex Broadband Solutions, the small island off the coast of Rhode Island is building a universal fiber network.

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Q&A with Nokia’s Sandra Motley: How Broadband Enables New Consumer, Business Opportunities

Broadband Communities recently talked to Sandra Motley, president of fixed networks at Nokia, about how the company helps large and small providers make the most of their fiber-based broadband deployments. She also shared her vision of fiber-based broadband and the ways broadband can enable new education and employment opportunities.

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2023 Buying for Ultra-Broadband Builds and Services

The best sources of equipment, software and services for delivering voice, video, data and more

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False Flags and the FCC’s Broadband Map

Current maps exclude nearly every small business in the rural U.S. That’s a big deal.

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Closing the Digital Divide Through Open Ecosystems

To achieve an end-to-end 5G experience in rural markets, providers should consider an open ecosystem model that fosters collaboration between the best network equipment vendors, data center operators, service providers and other stakeholders.

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Labor: The Underlying Problem in Fiber Deployment and How to Solve It

Manufacturers and service providers are pursuing product solutions that require less skilled labor and reduce the overall time of deployment with craft-friendly designs.

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Albuquerque Finds Fiber Fit With Vexus Fiber

The growing New Mexico city employs Vexus Fiber to build a communitywide fiber broadband network to support residential broadband and business and smart-city applications.

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Pharr, Texas, Takes DIY Approach to Build Gigabit Fiber

A South Texas border town is building a citywide fiber network to enhance educational opportunities and attract business customers.

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Ellensburg, Washington, Taps Consolidated to Elevate Its Broadband Status

Consolidated Communications has entered a public-private partnership to transition the city’s copper-based DSL residential and business customers to a new, fiber-based network.

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Bandwidth Hawk: USDA ReConnect 4: Tips, Tricks, and What You Have to Know

For loan and grant applicants, the USDA Rural Utilities Service has made it as easy as possible to reuse material from previous, unsuccessful applications.

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Editor's Note: Communities Come to the Broadband Starting Line

Cities prioritize broadband to drive economic development by attracting and retaining businesses and residents.

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Communities, MDU Owners Set New Broadband Destinies

Speakers at the Broadband Communities 2022 Summit, held in Houston in May, agreed that every community wants – and needs – great broadband. How best to deliver it to MDUs, master-planned communities, underserved towns and rural areas is still debatable. Following are some highlights of speaker presentations.

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Fiber Connect 2022: A Focus on Fiber Growth, Public-Private Partnerships and the Middle Mile

The Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in Nashville in June, highlighted many fiber community success stories and innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. In addition to highlighting fiber’s role in delivering symmetrical broadband speeds to residents, the show considered the growing role of municipalities, electric cooperatives and vendors. It also looked at the ways alternative providers build middle-mile networks to connect the dots of last-mile networks throughout states and communities.

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2022 Fiber-To-The-Home Top 100

Broadband Communities’ list of fiber-to-the-home leaders and innovators for 2022.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Federal Broadband Funding: Time to Act

Deadlines are arriving thick and fast for massive NTIA funding programs.

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Editor's Note: Fiber’s Moment Is Now

New sources of federal funding combined with a base of bandwidth-hungry applications are prioritizing fiber-to-the-home investments.

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Deployment Speed Is Key to Funding Access

An automated design and optimization approach will improve the network design process.

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Municipal Broadband: Using Today’s Technology to Support Communities’ Futures

Municipal broadband gives everyone an equal opportunity for access to fast, affordable internet and provides various other benefits to communities, from keeping taxpayer money local to future-proofing infrastructure.

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Dos Palos-Oro Loma School District Bridges Homework Gap

A two-phase deployment of 4G fixed-wireless access technology will provide broadband internet connectivity to help underserved students in California’s rural Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District conduct remote learning.

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Ezee Fiber Bolsters Montgomery County Hospital District’s Emergency Response Capabilities

Upgrading network connections to 10 Gbps provides network redundancy for network backup and a path to accommodate future growth.

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IQ Fiber Gives Underserved Jacksonville, Florida, Market New Gigabit Hope

The competitive provider launches an effort to install new fiber-to-the-home services in Florida’s underserved broadband market.

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Smithville Blankets Jasper, Indiana, With Gigabit Broadband

A citywide fiber network helps drive diversity and enable new broadband options for existing and incoming residents and businesses in a city known for furniture manufacturing.

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Bandwidth Hawk: New Broadband Deployments for New Housing? Yes – but Don’t Believe Everything You Hear.

Despite high housing prices, the nation is building lots of new housing where it is needed. Young folks can’t get mortgages, so rental prices spike. It’s ugly. The upshot? There are still great opportunities for broadband deployers.

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Editor's Note: Broadband Builds Reflect Diverse Community Interests

Communities’ broadband efforts drive diversity and enable more work, education and entertainment choices.

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Overcoming Broadband Disconnection During Disasters

How a company focused on space flight provides a critical connection during times of crisis.

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Reducing Subscriber Loss With Connected-Home Intelligence

By proactively focusing on maintaining quality of experience, service providers can thwart costly customer churn.

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Washington Court House, Ohio, and Horizon Advance Community With Broadband

The Ohio city seizes an opportunity for residents and businesses to establish reliable connections in an age when broadband access is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

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LAMB FTTH Network Fulfills Local Consumers’ Needs in Sterling, Mass.

The Sterling Municipal Light Department sets out to build a fiber-to-the-home network that thinks beyond profits and aims to fulfill the community’s broadband needs.

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Colorado Springs Utilities Establishes Citywide Fiber Foothold

Construction will begin this year on a citywide fiber network, anchored by Ting Internet, expected to pass more than 200,000 addresses and enable smart-city applications.

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Opposing Local Broadband Projects Is Anti-Competitive

Faulty FCC broadband mapping prompts incumbent broadband providers to challenge a New Hampshire county’s community broadband efforts.

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INCOMPAS Policy Summit Calls for Consistency, Fairness in Rolling Out Broadband

It is a transformational time for broadband in the U.S. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will dole out $42.2 billion to states to provide funding for new projects. During the INCOMPAS Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., a group of Congressional leaders, service providers and public advocacy groups discussed the impact of federal funding and how to drive new competition in the multiple-dwelling-unit market.

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The Road to Apprenticeship Is Paved With Fiber

The need for fiber technician training comes at a time when new broadband projects in local communities can access government funding for infrastructure builds.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Financing Just Got Extra Complicated. Broadband Communities Has Your Back!

In the last issue, I concentrated on the regulatory and technical issues embedded in the evolving rules for handing out $42.5 billion in new federal broadband infrastructure funds. Before that, I talked about labor and materials shortages. In this issue, I discuss the financial planning issues for prospective deployers.

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Editor's Note: Communities Explore Broadband Through Partnerships of Different Stripes

Partnerships in many U.S. communities are making successful broadband rollouts and expansions possible.

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Fiber Will (Mostly) Dominate Broadband in 2022

Broadband Communities asked industry colleagues what will drive broadband in 2022. Hint: Fiber will play a starring role for most industry players.

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Carrier Network Disaggregation Reaches an Inflection Point

Given the benefits of reduced costs and increased flexibility, it’s no wonder more service providers are considering or are in the midst of investing in network disaggregation.

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400G Optical Allows Providers to Deliver More With Less

Offering high performance at a relatively low cost, the advent of 400G ZR/ZR+ pluggables could be the next disruption in IP in the optical networking market.

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Realizing the Long-Term Value of Connectivity

Open community infrastructure can provide enormous societal value by enabling services that haven’t been dreamed of yet.

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2022 Predictions for Home Networks

A look at what’s ahead for Wi-Fi, fixed wireless access, the IoT ecosystem, low-latency services, video services and the services edge – and how advancements in each will transform customer experiences.

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Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Expanding Broadband in Wyoming

Visionary Broadband sets an ambitious mission to make internet connectivity available to everyone in the Cowboy State.

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Southern Tier 8’s Broadband Plan To Drive Economic Growth, Improve Quality of Life in New York State

A regional planning board syncs up with local providers to bring fiber-based broadband to the state’s hardest-to-reach communities.

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Fort Collins Lights Up Community-Owned Broadband Utility

The Colorado city is blazing a new fiber-based broadband path to improve the quality and reach of broadband for residents and businesses.

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Gigabit Opportunity Act Could Bridge Rural to Urban Broadband Divide

COVID-19 has highlighted how the U.S. lags global competitors in critical infrastructure, including rural broadband.

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How States Are Using Pandemic Relief Funds to Boost Broadband Access

States are poised to leverage pandemic funding to enhance broadband availability and affordability for residents and local businesses.

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Broadband Funding: Are You Ready to Apply?

Service providers and communities have a plethora of federal funding sources they can tap into to expand broadband. But what’s the best method to ensure providers can meet needs today and into the future?

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Bandwidth Hawk: Big Federal Money Ahead … But Proceed with Caution

Here’s a roadmap for reviewing your deployment plans in these exciting but strange times.

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Editor's Note: Broadband Investments Will Overcome Logistical, Supply Challenges

In this first issue of 2022, Broadband Communities looks ahead to how the industry will adapt to changes and challenges and pursue opportunities, especially given new funding sources.

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Q&A with Shirley Bloomfield: How Broadband Will Drive a Rural Renaissance

The CEO of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association shares her vision for the rural broadband industry.

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Service Providers, Industry Partners Push Broadband Forward

At the Broadband Communities Summit 2021, participants shared stories and expertise about new methods to build broadband to rural markets, new trends in broadband for MDUs and new applications for broadband, such as precision agriculture. Following are some highlights of conference sessions.

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2022 Buying for Ultra-Broadband Builds and Services

The best sources of equipment, software and services for delivering voice, video, data and more

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GIS Moneyball: How GIS Can Help Lay the Foundation for an Effective Broadband Launch

Use geographic information systems to improve business with data and analytics.

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Building Broadband During Component and Worker Shortages

Completing broadband builds requires competent fiber optic techs, but training them requires understanding how they learn.

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Broadband Expansion Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Rural broadband providers have an opportunity to expand and upgrade their networks using both fiber and wireless technology in unserved and underserved rural areas, with priority given for higher speeds and faster deployment in unserved and poverty-stricken regions.

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Why a National Conversation on the Digital Divide Is Needed Now

Broadband accessibility is not just about building network infrastructure. It is also a matter of digital literacy and affordability.

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Building Community Connections For the Virginia Commonwealth

Virginia utility Craig-Botetourt Rural Electric Cooperative (CBEC) deploys a fiber-to-the-premises network to improve rural broadband across the Virginia Commonwealth.

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Cincinnati Bell, Three Kentucky Counties Collaborate on FTTH Plan

Cincinnati Bell’s pact with the counties will increase digital equity in Northern Kentucky.

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Billings, Montana/TDS Telecom Pact Enables Better, Competitively Priced Broadband

Tapping TDS Telecom to build an FTTH network will supply Billings residents with competitively priced broadband and make the city a stronger draw for residents and businesses.

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Florida’s Fort Pierce Utilities Authority Revitalizes Community With Fiber-Based Broadband

The public utility is expanding its community network as part of a plan to close the digital divide, promote long-term business growth and make Fort Pierce a smart city.

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Fiber Connectivity Advances Nonprofit Organization’s Mission, Community Diversity: 716 Ministries in Buffalo, New York

The nonprofit organization 716 Ministries becomes the first FTTH community partner of Greenlight Networks in Buffalo’s changing West Side.

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The Vicious Cycle of the Supply Chain in Fiber Broadband – Is an End in Sight?

Broadband supply chain issues the pandemic caused are holding up providers’ fiber-to-the-home rollout plans.

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Bandwidth Hawk: About $50 Billion for New Broadband Deployment

Forget the politics. There are issues yet to solve: mapping, disbursement rules, and training enough folks to build new deployments over the next five or six years.

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Editor's Note: Revitalizing Communities With Broadband

Communities see broadband as a linchpin for a multitude of opportunities – creating jobs, working remotely and attracting and retaining businesses.

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A Franchise Model May Be the Key to Providing Rural Broadband

In a franchise model, regional service providers purchase brand rights from more prominent IT providers. This model provides a host of benefits for local carriers, large deployers and customers, and helps drive regional economic development. It may also be useful for MDU owners financing their own broadband.

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Novus Shakes Up Canada’s MDU Broadband Market with Multi-Technology Approach

The Canadian MDU broadband provider finds competitive footing with gigabit connectivity across fiber and existing building wiring media.

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Scaling Wi-Fi Mesh Coverage in Dense MDUs

Service providers can improve Wi-Fi coverage and performance in MDUs by using open-source, intelligent mesh software and incorporating backhaul technologies with existing wiring infrastructure.

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Fiber Extension Technology Offers Cost-Effective Option for Gigabit MDU Broadband

Service providers can ensure a high-quality broadband experience for MDU customers by turning their attention to home networks and reusing existing in-building infrastructure for broadband access.

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Managed Wi-Fi, Bulk Services and Smart Apartments

MDU owners and managers can use managed bulk Wi-Fi services and smart features to attract and retain residents.

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MDU Providers, Multifamily Developers Set Broadband Performance as a Priority

As property owners look to distinguish themselves and attract and retain residents, they must ensure their broadband performance is consistent.

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MDUs Win with Fiber-Based Broadband

Multifamily property owners, tenants and service providers all benefit from fiber as the number of bandwidth-intensive services and applications rise.

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MDU Buildings Reach New High

Private construction of multiple-dwelling-unit buildings continues to rise and will hit a new record this year, with about 532,000 housing starts expected. That represents a significant opportunity for broadband deployers.

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Providing a Turnkey Broadband Experience: Reflection St. Pete

Reflection St. Pete, a new condominium community that’s part of a downtown renaissance in St. Petersburg, Florida, will offer residents a high-speed, instant-on broadband experience. Broadband Communities thanks Rachael Manzanares, sales associate with Keller Williams Developer Services; Amber Bennett, Reflection St. Pete sales associate; Nick Hansen, CEO and managing member, Poli Solutions Consulting; Angelo Cappelli, CFO, Poli Solutions Consulting and Quantum Fiber for helping develop this profile.

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New FBA Training Program Prepares People for Rewarding Fiber Careers

The FBA Optical Telecom Installation Certification (OpTIC) program teaches hands-on skills. Newly trained techs can help expedite fiber builds across the country, delivering much-needed high-speed internet.

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Fiber Connect 2021: A Focus on Fiber, Open Access, Community Broadband And Public-Private Partnerships

The Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in Nashville in July, showcased many fiber community success stories and a variety of innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. As one of the telecom industry’s first in-person trade shows since the pandemic began, it highlighted fiber’s role as the preferred way of delivering symmetrical broadband speeds, state and federal funding mechanisms, open-access, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks and pricing. It also brought to light how broadband newcomers, particularly municipal broadband providers, need to overcome political and lobbying challenges from incumbents and think tanks, and the significance of public-private partnerships.

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2021 Fiber-To-The-Home Top 100

Fiber-to-the-home leaders and innovators for 2021

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How Telecom Infrastructure Players Will Help Bridge the Digital Divide

Connecting more parts of the world with affordable broadband will require collaboration between governments, businesses, service providers, telecom infrastructure companies and other players.

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Deploying Fiber Faster and Cost-Effectively With Microtrenching

This technique is gaining popularity across the country because it costs much less than other deployment methods and can be done in days instead of weeks.

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Creating a Frictionless Fiber Broadband Experience: Sunbridge in Central Florida

Offering homeowners instant-on, 10 Gbps, fiber-based gigabit service, Sunbridge, a master-planned community, stands out from other developments in Florida’s competitive real estate market. Our thanks to Alex Figuero, vice president of operations at Tavistock; Karlee Kunkle, senior communications manager at Tavistock; and Matt Hirsch, sales account manager at ADTRAN for helping compile this profile.

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Editor's Note: Going All in on Fiber

As broadband becomes a necessity, Broadband Communities’ Fiber-to-the-Home Top 100 winners are making big investment bets on expanding their FTTH network reach.

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Addressing Military Veterans’ Economic, Broadband Needs

State and local governments can leverage $350 billion in federal funding to provide immediate relief and long-term support for U.S. veterans and military spouses.

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Overeagerness Does Not Help Close the Digital Divide

Resolving broadband affordability and coverage issues for low-income families requires accurate, reliable data.

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Public-Private Partnerships Offer Digital Divide Solution

Communities seek to overcome the challenges of providing broadband to residents and businesses by leveraging federal funding and private capital, enabling risk sharing in the creation of networks powered by open-access infrastructure.

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Could Fixed Wireless Access Bridge the Digital Divide?

With the ability to be deployed more quickly than fiber at a possible lower cost – especially in rural, hard-to-reach areas – fixed wireless access offers service providers another tool to give more people access to internet connectivity.

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Q&A with Mignon Clyburn: How the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Unleashed a New Era of Competition

The former FCC commissioner looks back at the legacy of the legislation.

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How Providers Can Capture and Keep Deep Knowledge

Recording network data on a software-based system of record enables providers to capture and disseminate knowledge before it escapes the business.

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In His First 100 Days, Biden Proposes a Transformative, Lasting Broadband Plan

President Biden’s infrastructure plan could help communities build future-proof broadband networks that serve their distinct needs.

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Broadband Access Goes from Luxury to Necessity

The U.S. has finally gained ground on the digital divide. Let’s not lose it now.

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Fiber Connect: News From Featured Exhibitors

ANTRONIX’S LATEST NETWORK EXPANSION SOLUTION COMES TO MARKET Antronix, the market leading designer and manufacturer of broadband service products in North America, has announced its Inverse ...
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Fiber Connect: Featured Exhibitors

Contact these companies to learn more about their broadband solutions.

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Fiber Broadband Industry Faces Material and Labor Shortages

A shortage of fiber, chips, other materials and skilled labor could impact the expansion and rollout of new broadband networks.

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Overcoming Speed Bumps on the Road to Fiber

Transitioning to fiber may pose a number of installation challenges, but they’re easily outweighed by the need for symmetrical broadband.

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Public-Private Partnerships Bring Fiber to Rural New Hampshire

Westmoreland, New Hampshire, is one of many rural towns partnering with Consolidated Communications to provide Gbps FTTH broadband to businesses and residents.

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Saddleback Communications’ Fiber Network Serves as Blueprint for Advancing Tribal Broadband

The tribal provider makes good on 10-year plan to replace aging copper plant with fiber in a bid to create new opportunities for residents, students and businesses.

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Public and Private Rural Broadband Can Make Financial Sense

Community-based providers that understand the market and manage capital carefully find success where others have failed.

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In Maine, Rockport and Camden Set Fiber Broadband Vision for Region

The two towns devise a plan to bridge the state’s digital divide through collaboration, advanced tools and new federal and state funding.

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Fiber: The State of Legislation

The latest round of broadband funding proposals should focus on long-term effects and return on fiber investment with an emphasis on the economy, the environment and subscriber satisfaction.

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Editor's Note: Bridging the Main Street–Back Road Broadband Divide Requires a Local Touch

Communities engage in diverse broadband buildout strategies to accommodate long-term residential and business needs.

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INCOMPAS 2021 Policy Summit Highlights Regulatory and Network Buildout Issues

The event covered key issues for competitive broadband providers, including the homework gap, net neutrality, broadband mapping and the FCC’s RDOF reverse auction.

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Can You Trust Your Business Case for Broadband Expansion?

Access to quality data will make or break service providers financially as they work to provide high-performance broadband to communities in the post-pandemic world.

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Pandemic Spurs Broadband Bump

Tier-1 and rural telcos enhanced their broadband speeds and reach to meet the needs of consumers who relied on Zoom conferencing, remote learning, video streaming and the use of multiple internet-connected devices when the COVID-19 pandemic turned their lives upside down.

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Gigabit Fiber Comes to Los Altos Hills

Residents of an underserved town use a micro-scale community model to get gigabit broadband.

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A Michigan FTTH Network Rebuild Sets Stage for Greater Bandwidth, Smart-City Applications

Wyandotte, Michigan’s municipal utility provider is rebuilding its hybrid fiber coax network with fiber to the home to retain and attract new residents and businesses with 10 Gbps broadband, IP video and smart IoT services.

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Rural Communities Launch Publicly Owned Fiber Networks

Rural communities are deploying fiber as a way to future-proof and meet the long-term communications needs of homes, businesses, community anchor institutions and government agencies.

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A Fiber Network Spurs a New Northern New Hampshire Tech Corridor

Planning, perseverance and strategic alliances pay off for the rural community of Bristol, NH, as it overcomes obstacles to bring better broadband and better jobs to residents.

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Broadband Essential to Post-Pandemic Economies

The results of a new survey of economic development experts indicate the changing role and value of broadband and digital technology as development tools.

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National Efforts to Close the Digital Divide Require Local Empowerment

Findings from a survey of more than 120 state and local leaders confirm a need for investment in broadband infrastructure nationwide and a new approach to funding deployment.

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Closing the Digital Divide for Low-Income and Special-Needs Residents: Main Street Connect

Main Street Connect is a new apartment complex in Montgomery County, Maryland, that offers symmetrical 50 Mbps internet services and digital training for low-income and special-needs residents via a partnership with the county government’s Department of Technology Services. Broadband Communities thanks Joseph Webster, the department’s chief broadband officer in the Office of Broadband Programs; Marjorie Williams, the department’s broadband, cable and franchise division manager; and Pierre Trudeau, CTO of Positron, for helping compile this profile.

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LEO Satellites: A Path to Nowhere?

Low-Earth-orbit satellites face various challenges meeting Rural Digital Opportunity Fund requirements.

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The New Face of Economic Development

The pandemic has redefined economic development for many rural communities.

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A New Transition

Broadband Communities may be passing the editor torch but will continue to provide insight and perspective on the ever-changing broadband industry segment.

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Editor's Note: Local Broadband Keeps Community Dollars Flowing

Broadband gives communities an opportunity to stay relevant.

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A Broadband Policy Agenda for the New Administration

The digital divide has held back the United States for too long. Now is the time to end it.

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Fiber’s Community Presence Transforms Consumer, Business Opportunities

The first virtual edition of the Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in December, showcased many fiber community success stories and a variety of innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. The show highlighted how communities are banding together and working with state and federal agencies to build out broadband in underserved communities. It also brought to light the need to increase bandwidth and provide flexible service during the pandemic, along with the problem of permitting obstacles and other challenges.

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Q&A with Gary Bolton of the Fiber Broadband Association: On Making Fiber-Based Broadband the Nation’s Priority

The new head of the Fiber Broadband Association shares his vision for the industry.

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Fiber Trends: What 2021 Promises For the Broadband Industry

The 2021 broadband plans of incumbent telcos, independents, cable operators and electric co-ops will have a ripple effect on consumers and businesses.

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Building a Foundation for a Broadband-Enabled Smart Community: The Reef at Winkler

The Reef at Winkler, a new luxury multifamily community owned by MJ Development Southeast and managed by Greystar in Fort Myers, Florida, leverages Boingo Wireless managed Wi-Fi services to deliver consumer broadband and smart-community applications. Our thanks to Matt Valentine, a partner at MJ Development Southeast; Ben Vander Velden, senior channel manager at Boingo Wireless; and Layne Spencer, vice president of sales and marketing for IOTAS, for helping assemble this profile.

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Editor's Note: Only Connect

Broadband should bring people together, not drive them apart.

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Q&A with Charlie Vogt, CEO of DZS: Reigniting a Focus on North American Broadband, 5G Wireless and Cable Opportunities

Charlie Vogt, a telecom veteran who has led a mix of voice, video and optical vendors, took the reins of DZS in August. He aims to solidify the company’s position in fiber to the home (FTTH), 5G, smart homes, connected building/city solutions and software-defined networking.

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MetroNet Technicians Get Hands-on Training – and Then Some

At MetroNet University, technicians are trained in a faux house to mount equipment, run wire throughout the home and complete other tasks that prepare them for any situation they may encounter during real installations.

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Closing the K–12 Digital Divide in The Age of Distance Learning

Because of COVID-19 facility closures, 50 million K–12 public school students have had to learn remotely from home.

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Beyond Speed: Where Is the United States Going?

Americans know how to design and build fast networks. Now we need to identify how to use them to make our lives better.

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Want to Compete on an Open-Access Network? Better Read This First!

To succeed on an open-access network, providers must treat customers well, assess the competition, and take a modern approach to marketing.

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Fiber Connect: A Preview

In its annual conference, which will be held virtually from December 14–16, 2020, the Fiber Broadband Association will bring together experts in all aspects of fiber to the home (FTTH).

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Welcome to (Virtual) Fiber Connect!

This year’s event is our best ever – 30 sessions with more than 100 of the industry’s top experts plus plenty of opportunities to network and engage.

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Service Providers, Communities Seek Partners, New Methods To Overcome Rural Broadband Challenges

At the Broadband Communities Virtual Summit 2020, participants shared stories about finding new methods to extend broadband into underserved and unserved rural markets. Following are some highlights of conference sessions focused on the rural broadband market.

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Electric Cooperatives, Investor-Owned Utilities Form New Pacts to Expand Rural Broadband

Electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities are partnering with competitive providers and telcos to close the systemic rural broadband gap.

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Public Infrastructure/Private Service Model For 21st Century Broadband Proves Worthy

The emerging model presents a scalable option for communities that lack the expertise or interest to operate networks or act as ISPs themselves but want to own and control the core communications assets in their communities as a means of securing the benefits of broadband internet. Here’s a look at the model’s business case, technical elements and risks.

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Not Ready to Build? Be Broadband Ready.

A town may not be ready to take the plunge on building a network, but there are steps it can take to attract private investment.

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Editor's Note: Working Together

Broadband partnerships can take many forms. Communities in search of better broadband should familiarize themselves with a wide range of successful solutions.

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Editor's Note: The Broadband Lifeline

For the economy to function at all in 2020, broadband is a must.

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I Feel Your Pain, Mr. Property Owner

Service providers need to provide their MDU customers with a power statement that addresses their unique pain points.

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Broadband and Telehealth: Doing Well Financially by Doing Good for the Community

With demand for remote health care and mental health services on the rise, pursuing telehealth is a smart marketing strategy for broadband service providers.

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Digital Town Squares Drive Economic Development

Transforming a connected community into a smart community takes vision – along with a technology strategy to turn the vision into reality.

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Rural Electric Co-op Expands Access to Fiber Optic Network During the Pandemic

To provide more people with broadband, Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation quickly installed Wi-Fi hot spots and is launching a neighborhood program to gauge community interest in accessing its network.

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ACE Fiber Takes on Mississippi’s Glaring Broadband Gap with Multi-Gig FTTH

ACE collaborates with other co-ops, confronting cost and culture challenges and providing broadband to more residents in Alcorn County.

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Private Investment in Community Digital Infrastructure

The case for private investment in community networks rests on investors’ ability to capture the networks’ impact on economic development.

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Lack of Broadband Access Linked to Childhood Poverty

There’s a new reason to provide more funds for broadband deployments, and a new tool for deployers to target the counties most in need – especially in rural areas.

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The Economy Needs Broadband Now More Than Ever

To boost the economy, broadband providers and the communities they serve must unite in a vision for a connected future.

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A Powerful Tool to Expand Internet Connectivity

The I3 Connectivity Explorer allows users to assemble and analyze essential data needed to assess their communities’ current situations, envision their goals, and develop action plans.

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Momentum Growing for Gigabit Wireless Access and Backhaul Using V Band and E Band Spectrum

The FCC’s support for mmWave wireless systems in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund gives rural operators another option to extend broadband services to more customers.

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How States Are Expanding Broadband Access

New research identifies tactics for connecting unserved communities.

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Rural Communities Turn to Electric Co-ops for Fiber

The FCC’s upcoming RDOF auction, scheduled for October, will give rural communities a chance to bid on support for fiber-to-the-home networks.

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Broadband Models for Unserved and Underserved Communities

Communities hoping to improve their broadband service have several different models to choose from. Here’s how to go about making the choice.

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Broadband Master Planning: A Holistic Approach to Meeting Broadband Goals

By defining goals, gathering data and asking the right questions, communities can develop broadband master plans that lay the groundwork for high-speed networks.

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SEMO Electric Cooperative Takes Personal Broadband Approach

The co-op overcomes cultural challenges using a collaborative approach to bring broadband to Missouri’s underserved rural areas.

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Little Falls, Minnesota, Undertakes Grassroots Broadband Effort

As the community overcomes its business-sector broadband challenges, it looks for ways to extend services to residents who have poor broadband access options.

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Q&A With Roger Timmerman and Kim McKinley, UTOPIA Fiber: A Recipe for Rural Fiber

UTOPIA Fiber is expanding through Utah and beyond, proving that fiber-to-the-home deployments can succeed even in small, rural towns.

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Anacortes Is First City in Washington to Become an ISP

When the city wanted to upgrade radio frequency communications between its water and wastewater systems, it turned to fiber optics – and in the process installed the backbone for high-speed internet.

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To Stack, or Not to Stack

Stacking subsidies may be the only way to get fiber to the home built in some of the most rural areas.

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Editor's Note: Communities Can Control Their Broadband Destinies

There’s more than one way to get better broadband – but how should communities decide what’s best?

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Bandwidth Hawk: Small Is Beautiful

It is suddenly cost-effective to borrow money for small deployments, or to arrange a self-amortizing lease. Here’s why – and how.

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Help Is on the Way: Rural Broadband Funding Update

The USDA’s ReConnect Program and the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will help bridge the digital divide and drive the community broadband movement.

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Closing the Broadband Student Performance Gap

The Michigan Moonshot initiative addresses the student and community broadband access gap in Michigan by leveraging the efforts of a broad coalition of stakeholders.

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COS Systems and Nokia Bring Automated Open-Access Networks To the US Market

Automated open-access networks enable any number of independent service providers to lease capacity, so customers can choose different services at competitive prices.

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Incompas 2020 Policy Summit: Unraveling Broadband Challenges And Opportunities for Competitors, Communities

The Incompas 2020 Policy Summit, held in Washington, D.C., in March, covered key issues for competitive broadband providers. Topics included the homework gap, the modernization of UNE rules, the need for workforce training, and new partnerships between service providers and electric utilities.

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A2D Builds Open-Access Fiber in Warner Robins, Georgia

The mission of this competitive carrier is unusual for a private company: bridge the digital divide by building open-access, wholesale fiber-to-the-premises networks in underserved communities.

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Blue Ridge Mountain EMC Transforms Broadband Have-Nots Into Broadband Haves

The electric cooperative’s fiber broadband service attracts second homeowners and telecommuters to communities in the Southeast where broadband was once nonexistent.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Broadband: The New Anti-Viral Wonder Drug

NEXTGEN TV – the latest branding for ATSC 3.0 – has clear technical and moneymaking advantages over ATSC 1.0, the current standard for TV broadcasting and linear cable TV.

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Local ISPs: Get Ready to Grow Your Business

New challenges for ISPs mean if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.

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Fiber Dominates First Batch of ReConnect Awards

~ This article will appear in the March/April issue. ~

The Rural Utilities Service made good on its promise of world-class service. The first ReConnect grants and loans offer convincing proof that private investment could work in unserved and underserved areas, even though Wall Street shuns them.

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Overcoming Barriers to Telehealth

A new report from the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee suggests strategies for increasing the use of telehealth.

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Why Is Providing Rural Broadband So Difficult?

Several state-level political strategies can help convince policymakers to provide support to broadband providers that wish to deploy in unserved or underserved areas.

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Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s

Key strategies to deploy broadband in the areas that need it most.

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Broadband to Make Key Transitions In 2020

Large incumbent telcos, independent telcos, cable operators and electric cooperatives set bold broadband plans for 2020.

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Clarksville Connected Utilities Sees Potential In FTTH, Business Services

Clarksville Connected Utilities enhances its economic development plans with a multipurpose fiber network to satisfy residential, municipal and business needs.

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Editor's Note: Welcome to the Roaring ’20s

Broadband Communities authors look forward to the fiber future.

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Bridging the Broadband Availability Gap

At Broadband Communities’ 2019 economic development conference, held in October in Alexandria, Virginia, participants shared stories about how communities are improving broadband access to facilitate economic development, digital literacy and consumer choices. Following are some of the highlights of the conference sessions.

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Making Rural Deployments A Reality

People in rural areas simply can’t rely on the same fiber-rich, centralized split model that works in more densely populated areas. Distributed tap architectures may offer a solution.

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Rural Broadband and the Next Generation of American Jobs

Rural broadband providers are leveraging their networks and working closely with educational institutions to provide the training necessary for jobs in industries ranging from health care to technology.

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Fiber Provider Strategies for Bridging the Digital Divide

Broadband is essential to a community’s survival, but building out service to rural areas comes with financial challenges. Service providers have several options to help.

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Let’s Make Internet Access Affordable And Accessible for Everyone

At the Broadband Communities economic development conference in October, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks delivered a powerful call to make internet inequality across the United States a thing of the past. A data-driven review of what has and hasn’t worked over the past 10 years will help determine the path forward, he says.

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Private Investors Take Interest in Open-Access Fiber Networks

As open FTTH networks emerge again in the United States, investors dedicate capital to community networks that will support an array of traditional internet, telehealth and building management services.

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