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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The pandemic has redefined economic development for many rural communities.

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.

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.

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

Broadband should bring people together, not drive them apart.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Fiber to the home proves its worth during the pandemic.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Every community shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

The agency looks to deliver on rural broadband promises.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

As Congress and the FCC look for solutions to fix the problem of broadband mapping, they should consider a variety of factors, including speeds, prices, availability and reliability of service and competition.

Insufficient government maps, plant records and marketing are a few of the challenges to accessing accurate data.

Hobbled by lack of technical insight on telecom trade, government policy remains muddled – and dangerous for network deployers.

Minnesota’s state broadband grant program has been praised as one of the nation’s best – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved, according to the bill’s author.

Proponents bill it as a win for apartment residents and owners, but apartment owners say the recently enacted San Francisco MDU ordinance ultimately creates more hurdles for delivering high-quality connectivity.

For many small communities, the USDA’s latest grant program may be too complex to be worth applying for.