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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MSOs at the Ready

Cable MSOs, which have focused on upgrading existing infrastructure, may have a competitive advantage in overcoming local and state permitting obstacles to expand broadband availability.

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Hot Topics from the 2023 Broadband Communities Summit Multifamily Track

From bulk vs. managed Wi-Fi to PropTech marketing, the multifamily track sessions were chock-full of helpful information.

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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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Q&A with Ken Kennedy and James Kirby: A New Era of Digital Transformation for Service Providers

Two executives from CSG, a purpose-driven, high-growth SaaS platform company, weigh in on economic uncertainty, the role of CSPs in aiding the transition to the digital age, 5G and more.

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Washington takes on Digital Discrimination

Setting the record straight on the factors contributing to the digital disparity in multifamily broadband services.

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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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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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Quantum Fiber Sharpens Its Go-to-Market Fiber Broadband Strategy

Lumen Technologies accelerates buildout with a new market-based approach for expanding its fiber-to-the-home network.

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Partnering to Bring Broadband to Underserved Communities in Upstate New York

Now is a critical time to address the issue of community broadband deployment in New York and simultaneously enable the transition to clean energy.

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A Middle-Mile Model for Rural Operators

The need for higher-capacity middle-mile networks will become more pressing to connect islands of rural last-mile networks.

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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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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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Accessible Consumer Broadband Labels Could Provide Critical Consumer Protections

Like nutrition labels on food, the updated Broadband Consumer Label will satisfy consumers’ need for accurate information about their broadband plans.

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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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How High-Speed Fiber Broadband Benefits Public Education

The tools exist to stem the digital divide in rural communities – now, the government, educators and tech companies must collaborate to drive quality programs.

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Broadband Access Extension Technologies Will Help Solve MDU Connectivity Challenge

Emerging fiber-extension technologies that leverage existing MDU wiring enable service providers to deliver high-speed broadband to tenants.

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Connectivity Powered by Dynamic Relationships: World Cinema Partners With Positron Access Solutions

Using Positron’s G.hn and World Cinema’s RF expertise enables property managers to offer lightning-quick, cost-effective, dependable gigabit internet speeds to MDU tenants.

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Broadband Access Challenges Persist for Residents of Federally Subsidized Multifamily Housing

The availability of federal infrastructure money creates opportunities to close service gaps.

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Bulk Internet Services Take Hold in Multifamily Broadband

Recognizing that broadband is now a must-have for apartment and condo residents, service providers are striking broadband bulk agreement deals with multifamily owners and managers.

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Editor's Note: MDU Bulk Broadband Service Comes of Age

Service providers and MDU property owners/managers embrace bulk broadband service as an amenity to attract and retain residents.

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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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Multifamily Supply vs. Demand in an Inflationary World

Increased costs are impacting multifamily construction and operations as apartment demand stays strong.

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Prime Opportunity to Add Value

Just as Amazon increased the value of Prime membership with a host of added benefits, so too should bulk service providers increase their offerings.

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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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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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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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Follow These Rules to Close the Digital Divide

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation has laid out a set of tenets for policymakers to make the most of available funding and ensure the effective use of new federal broadband funds.

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Let’s Do More Than Just Talk About Bridging the Digital Divide

Governments can advance digital inclusion by establishing high-speed broadband access and wireless connectivity everywhere, creating new rural use cases with tangible benefits and deploying local champions to demystify technologies.

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The Case for a Common Sense Broadband Investment Strategy

Is your broadband expansion strategic plan executable by engineering?

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A Summit for Rural Prosperity

The NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association SRC Live! summit offered new insights about the ways rural providers are enabling a host of new broadband applications.

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Fiber Is the Way

Fiber solutions for multifamily are the way of the future but may be too expensive in some brownfield properties. There are viable alternatives.

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Make Recruiting a Mission-Critical Objective

Potential employees see growing value in a company’s culture, priorities, work environment and leadership.

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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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Rethinking the Fourth Utility Connectivity Conundrum

Broadband network industry standards aid broadband connectivity equity for metro-area affordable housing and MDUs.

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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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Broadband Nutrition Labels and Deployment See Renewed Focus in Washington

New broadband nutrition labels required by the FCC will provide transparency about  providers’ broadband services, helping consumers make informed choices.

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The Merits of Bulk

As property owners focus on broadband service quality, the FCC’s decision to leave bulk agreements untouched will provide consumers with quality services in all types of multifamily communities.

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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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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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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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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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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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The FCC’s 2022 Agenda Will Have Broad Impacts on Multifamily and Broadband Providers

Now that the Biden administration has settled in, the FCC is setting an agenda that will affect broadband in multifamily.

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US Underdogs Have to Adapt

To accommodate emerging customer expectations, independent broadband providers need to adapt how they do business.

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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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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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Transforming Cleveland’s Historic Scranton Corridor with Gigabit Broadband

The Tappan, a new multifamily development in the Cleveland, Ohio, historic Tremont neighborhood, draws new residents with instant-on gigabit broadband from Snip Internet. Broadband Communities thanks Robin Doerschuk, vice president and general manager of Snip Internet, and Josh Rosen, co-founder of Sustainable Community Associates, for helping develop this profile.

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What’s New in Student Housing?

Broadband is a significant backbone to many things deemed necessities for today’s students, from paperless leasing to smart features and amenities.

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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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Here We Go Again: The FCC Takes Another Look at Multifamily Broadband

What’s at stake for multifamily communities, commercial real estate and broadband providers?

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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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The Basics of Public Funding for Fiber Networks

Small, independent service providers can use several public funding opportunities to help cover initial startup costs.

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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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Why Building Owners Need Communications Experts to Handle ERRCS Installations

Using the right team to design, test and install Emergency Responder Radio Communication Systems can help ease MDU owners’ headaches when it’s time for inspection.

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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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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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Bandwidth Hawk: New Broadband Funding, New Ways to Finance Deployments

The U.S. is on the brink of having enough money to connect all businesses and residences with high-quality broadband – and having the financial and regulatory tools to spend wisely.

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Editor's Note: Note to Developers, MDU Providers: Make Your MDU Broadband Connections Stand Out

As more multifamily buildings are built, opportunities for developers to give their properties a competitive advantage with stellar broadband connectivity abound.

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Could Libraries Be the New Clinics?

Public libraries have the potential to be new hubs for telehealth services in urban and rural markets, broadening the availability of health care.

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The Role of Open Access in Driving Fiber Adoption

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.

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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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Connecting the Caribbean’s Unconnected

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

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Fiber Connect 2021: If It’s Not Fiber, It’s Not Broadband

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.

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Cyberattacks and Ransomware and Hacks – Oh My!

Best practices to mitigate risk for companies and communities in this age of ever-increasing cyber threats

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Bandwidth Hawk: More Federal Money for Broadband, Greater Role for States

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.

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Editor's Note: Let’s Talk About Broadband – In Person

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

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Bandwidth Hawk: Stop the Infighting Over Federal Funding. Now!

With $20 billion already committed for deployments and customer subsidies, and another $45 billion quite possible, the broadband industry should be in booster mode. Broadband stakeholders must stop arguing about which technologies and entities get the most funding.

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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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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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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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What Biden’s Broadband Infrastructure Plan Could Mean For Multifamily

Is this finally the silver bullet broadband solution that multifamily has been looking for?

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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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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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How the Pandemic Created Urgency for Smart-Tech Adoption

The importance of seamless connectivity is amplified as broadband and intelligent-home needs rise.

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The New Face of Economic Development

The pandemic has redefined economic development for many rural communities.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Get Ready for USDA ReConnect Round Three

As the USDA prepares for a third round of about $600 million in ReConnect rural broadband grants, here’s a detailed look at the results of the first two rounds.

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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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Multifamily Broadband Council Transitions Its Membership to WISPA

Synergies between the organizations made the choice a natural one.

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Bandwidth Hawk: FCC’s RDOF Auction Dissected

More than 5 million premises are likely to get broadband connectivity, but for some, it may not be as good as promised.

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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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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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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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Bandwidth Hawk: Low-Earth Orbit Satellites: Great Idea but Not for Everything – And Not Cheap

Investors have been needlessly spooked about new satellite technology. Individual satellites are cheap, but thousands must be deployed and periodically replaced. So satellites are competitive – and welcome – but only in limited situations.

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Alexandria, Virginia, Makes 911 System Remote During COVID-19

The city is the first in the nation to enable 911 staff to take and dispatch calls from home during the pandemic.

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Emtelle and Deutsche Glasfaser Overcome Cost Challenges to Bring FTTH to Rural Germany

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

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Successful FTTH Systems Can Be Built in Rural Areas – Without Government Subsidies

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.

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Service Providers, Vendors Create New Foundations for Multifamily Broadband, IoT

At the Broadband Communities Virtual Summit 2020, participants shared stories about how they are driving broadband into multifamily properties to enable higher speeds and provide a host of IoT services for residents and building owners. Following are some highlights of conference sessions focused on the multifamily market.

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More Than an Amenity: Connectivity Takes Center Stage

The pandemic has laid bare the critical importance of network infrastructure and the importance of the multifamily industry’s relationship with connectivity providers.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Broadband Funding Gets Respect, But Not a Final Law … Yet

There are provisions common to multiple pending broadband funding bills; expect them to end up in H.R.2, which the Senate should vote on after the November 3 elections.

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Broadband for All Echoes Universal Telephone Service

Many strategies used to promote universal telephone service are in use to expand broadband access today, but one needs a few tweaks.

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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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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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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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To Reduce Network Operating Expenses, Choose FTTH

New research by the Fiber Broadband Association shows that all-fiber networks are much less expensive to operate than cable or copper networks.

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When a High-Touch Industry Goes “No Touch”

COVID-19 is accelerating tech adoption in multifamily housing. Technologies that remain relevant post-pandemic will need strong connectivity, underscoring the importance of critical broadband infrastructure.

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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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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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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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We Are All Members of the Gigabit Society – or Are We?

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights how the U.S. broadband deficit remains a glaring and painful gap between haves and have-nots.

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COVID-19, Education and Robust Broadband

The pandemic sheds light on the gaps in online education today – and opportunities for improving it now and in the future.

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Varcomm Keeps Rural California Schoolkids Engaged During COVID-19

The independent rural telco steps up to bridge the staggering homework gap by helping economically challenged students access low-cost broadband.

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COVID-19 Widens the Digital Divide

Communications infrastructure has the power to help rural, underserved areas of the United States achieve greater success, but it means the broadband industry must ramp up its commitment to connect more of the country.

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Beyond Business as Usual: How Consolidated Communications Is Navigating the Pandemic and Preparing for the ‘New Normal’

Speed, continuity, flexibility and creativity enabled the company to meet the challenges staff and customers face as COVID-19 changed the ways people live and work overnight.

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Fiber Deployers Overcome Hurdles

As pandemic-related disruptions make the United States more dependent than ever on reliable broadband, FTTH deployers find ways to continue building out their networks.

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Why FTTH ‘Shines’ During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Lisa R. Youngers, president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, delivered this testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation in March.

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2020 Fiber-To-The-Home Top 100

Fiber-to-the-home leaders and innovators for 2020

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The State of Multifamily Broadband Services During the Pandemic

Independent providers are tackling the challenge of being an essential service for MDU residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Broadband: Broadband as a COVID-19 Cure

New technologies, new funding programs, and the vastly expanded need for work-at-home broadband have trashed old business plans but made many new plans possible. Here are key strategies for deployers to consider, and ways to fund their dreams and to make necessary changes in federal rules on such issues as spectrum use and lien priority.

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Editor's Note: Good Enough Broadband

Fiber to the home proves its worth during the pandemic.

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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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From Smart Highways to Connected Ports, 5G Promises Big Gains in 2020

The technology is slated to support a broad range of applications for business and government in the year ahead.

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Two Emerging Trends Forge The Apartment of the Future

As the multifamily industry embraces intelligent buildings and self-service apartments, the importance of telecom infrastructure comes into greater focus.

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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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Don’t Miss Feasibility Study Opportunities

A feasibility study can sometimes seem like a necessary evil, but it can be a major contributor to the long-term success of a community’s broadband project.

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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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MDU Bulk Internet Is Affordable, Winnable, Doable

From managed Wi-Fi to DOCSIS to fiber to the unit, service providers have various options to pursue a successful MDU bulk internet strategy.

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Editor's Note: The Deadly Divide

In its economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress missed the chance to address the digital divide.

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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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Measuring Broadband Quality

Everyone agrees the FCC should prioritize the construction of better broadband. What does that mean in practice? Two new studies commissioned by the Fiber Broadband Association help clarify.

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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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Deepfake Videos Are Spreading. Can Anyone Stop Them?

Videos doctored using artificial intelligence to make them seem real, even though they are not, increasingly challenge viewers’ perceptions of truth. Congress and the tech industry are taking some action to stop them, but will their efforts work?

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Bandwidth Hawk: Start Preparing for New TV Standard

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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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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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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Municipal Fiber in Sweden

In Sweden, municipal broadband is the rule rather than the exception. That changes everything.

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Ocala Fiber Network Finds Its Residential Service Identity

Ocala adds residential internet-only FTTH services to a multipurpose fiber network that will help it become a smart city.

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Wireless Services Abound in the Multifamily Space

5G, CBRS and Wi-Fi wireless services all have a place. Building owners and developers can choose one that best meets their specific needs.

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Planning and Design Strategies for 5G Evolution

Building out a 5G network will require a new set of network standards and operational methods. Operators should establish a set of best practices around planning, cost-to-revenue analysis, and architecture choices.

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Q&A with Evan Marwell, Founder and CEO, EducationSuperHighway: EducationSuperHighway Prepares to Sunset

With school connectivity goals accomplished, the program prepares to end, leaving new programs in place to make sure the classroom gap stays closed.

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TikTok: Friend or Foe?

Individuals and government alike worry about TikTok’s foreign ownership.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Stop Buying Huawei Equipment?

National policy is muddled, contradictory and almost certainly more drastic than security needs require. But facts don’t really seem to matter these days.

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Editor's Note: The US Needs A Community Broadband Policy

Every community shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

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$20.6 Billion Rural Development Opportunity Fund Auctions Take Center Stage at the FCC

The agency looks to deliver on rural broadband promises.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Needed: Easier, Accurate Checks on Deployer Subsidies

At least 28 states now offer some form of subsidy for broadband deployers serving rural or disadvantaged areas. But high costs of validating business plans often make the funds hard to get.

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Problems With FCC Broadband Funding Endure

The proposed rules favor grant bidders who least need the money and are unlikely to bring permanent, high-quality broadband to rural areas.

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Healthy Competition Is The Way to Go

Independents set stake in the growing MDU broadband market by focusing on providing good customer service and doing things the right way. Their approach benefits property owners and residents alike.

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Bandwidth Hawk: FCC Commits to Better Broadband Data Collection

There’s evidence, but no promise, that a usable National Broadband Map is on the way. It will be awhile. We’re watching – and using artificial intelligence (AI) software to check.

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Editor's Note: Ending the Digital Divide

The digital divide is widening. Without public and private policy changes, we’ll lose the battle for universal access.

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