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

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 broadband providers and multifamily owners to address new technology trends and share industry experiences.

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.

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

Fiber-dense applications such as 5G and FTTH require changes in the outside plant that can be solved with new gel sealing technology.

Could emerging fiber-to-the-home innovations such as 10 Gbps and 25 Gbps PON finally make copper-based coax cabling as antiquated as the Wright Flyer?

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

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.

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.