Federal and state governments should prioritize funding for coalition-based middle-mile networks to ensure that the rural U.S. is not left behind again.

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

As of mid-August, states and territories were well on their way to finishing their five-year action plans for distributing grants and digital equity funds. But few plans have been made available for public comment.

Earlier this summer, Broadband Communities was acquired by Total Telecom. We at Total Telecom want to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and offer some insight into our exciting plans for the future of Broadband Communities. But first, a little background.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

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

Open-access networks face challenges to get off the ground in the U.S., but with the right capital and legislative support, they can offer cost savings, improved customer service, and economic development opportunities.

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.

Submarine cable networks can help address the challenges and opportunities in providing robust broadband in the Caribbean.

Students, teachers and parents see the value robust broadband can bring to education.

The annual, in-person event highlighted what could be the beginning of the biggest broadband investment cycle in the nation’s history bridging the gaping digital divide.

Congress seems likely to pass a national infrastructure bill that potentially could provide broadband connectivity to almost everyone. But watch the details, not just the money pile on the table. And act quickly! Easy money, public and private, won’t last forever.

The 2021 Broadband Communities Summit brings together industry luminaries to talk face-to-face about emerging trends, challenges and opportunities.

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.

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.

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

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

Contact these companies to learn more about their broadband solutions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The pandemic has redefined economic development for many rural communities.

Broadband gives communities an opportunity to stay relevant.

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

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.

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

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

Synergies between the organizations made the choice a natural one.

Broadband should bring people together, not drive them apart.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The partnership takes on Germany’s goals to nationally expand gigabit networks by 2025 and to expand fiber infrastructure in schools and local enterprises.

It’s actually cheaper to build in rural than in urban areas, and FTTH systems in rural areas can be profitable even with very few subscribers.

Private construction of multiple-dwelling-unit buildings is hitting a new record this year, with about 525,000 housing starts expected.

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

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

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.

Universal broadband can power the economy, help the United States weather its current crises, and provide a key to recovery from today’s recession.

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

New research identifies tactics for connecting unserved communities.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pandemic will have a lasting impact on the way people live and work through technology.

A roundup of recent studies about the growing chasm between broadband haves and have-nots, how to overcome this divide, and the costs and benefits of reducing it

Economic development professionals who completed the Revving the Community Broadband Economic Engine survey weighed in on the current availability, affordability and speed of broadband – and how communities are working to increase all three.

Internet adoption rates among low-income urban populations have climbed in recent years. Joining the online world has changed their lives for the better, say members of this group in a new survey by RVA LLC.

Rural providers are taking aim at rural businesses with fiber and DOCSIS 3.1–based broadband services. But providers must educate this segment about using these new services to become more viable in the online world.

Researchers at an Australian university propose a new way to measure the social benefits of broadband.

To ensure their economic survival, communities must be active participants in broadband planning.

Only fiber to the premises can support the new knowledge economy.

A new type of statistical model helps cities estimate broadband’s effects on their economic well-being.

Highlights of the 2018 Broadband Communities Summit held in May in Austin, Texas

The Broadband Communities Summit brings together participants in the multifamily, rural, economic development, technology and policy worlds. This issue of the magazine has something for all of them.

An innovative program in Pennsylvania leveraged stimulus funds to drive broadband deployment, adoption and use. Small and mid-sized businesses flourished.

New research by Broadband Communities finds a clear relationship between broadband access and median family income but no clear causality.

Broadband continues to be an important economic driver, researchers say – but the story is getting more complicated.

Speakers at the Broadband Communities fall economic development conference discussed how technology disrupts lives – and how it offers lifelines to help individuals and communities cope with that disruption.

Economic development in rural areas depends on broadband access – but the FCC’s current initiatives won’t help.

The FCC stacks the deck against broadband in rural and poor urban districts.

All new multifamily buildings should include fiber. It adds value and ensures residents the fast, reliable broadband they demand.

A dedicated, high-speed broadband network to connect the unconnected is a game changer for Cleveland.

Carriers already share many network assets, but they aren’t always forthcoming about these relationships. Why not accept the inevitable?

Broadband is the underpinning for some of today’s most important transformations in business activity and government services.