Solving the Economic Challenge of Delivering High-Speed Broadband to Rural Areas

Extending broadband to rural and underserved areas cost efficiently by leveraging efficient optical transmission technologies can maximize the capabilities and life cycles of newly deployed or existing infrastructure and lower the cost of vital layer-1 equipment.

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Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (STEMC) Overcomes Challenging Tornado Restoration

The rural Tennessee electric cooperative leverages Render software platforms to rapidly restore broadband and pivot from construction to tornado restoration.

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Get Connected at More Broadband Showstopper Events

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

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

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

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Providers, Regulators Vie for Consistent Broadband Permitting

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

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Broadband Communities’ Showcase of Innovative, New and Outstanding Technologies and Services

The latest offerings from top suppliers and distributors helping keep the broadband installation boom from going bust.

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

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

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

Permitting delays can inhibit competition in high-density areas.

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

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

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Bringing FTTH Broadband to Remote and Rugged Areas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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ALLO Gives Alternative High School a Digital Future

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

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Communities Thrive on Fiber

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

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Combining Regional Carriers Is Becoming More Common

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

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Editor's Note: Making Community Broadband Work for You

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

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

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

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

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

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2023 Buying for Ultra-Broadband Builds and Services

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

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False Flags and the FCC’s Broadband Map

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

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Closing the Digital Divide Through Open Ecosystems

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

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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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2022 Fiber-To-The-Home Top 100

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

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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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Editor's Note: Broadband Builds Reflect Diverse Community Interests

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

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Overcoming Broadband Disconnection During Disasters

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

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Reducing Subscriber Loss With Connected-Home Intelligence

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

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

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

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

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

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Colorado Springs Utilities Establishes Citywide Fiber Foothold

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

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Opposing Local Broadband Projects Is Anti-Competitive

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

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

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

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The Road to Apprenticeship Is Paved With Fiber

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

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

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

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

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

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Fiber Will (Mostly) Dominate Broadband in 2022

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

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Carrier Network Disaggregation Reaches an Inflection Point

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

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400G Optical Allows Providers to Deliver More With Less

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

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Realizing the Long-Term Value of Connectivity

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

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2022 Predictions for Home Networks

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

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Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Expanding Broadband in Wyoming

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

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

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

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Fort Collins Lights Up Community-Owned Broadband Utility

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

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Gigabit Opportunity Act Could Bridge Rural to Urban Broadband Divide

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

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How States Are Using Pandemic Relief Funds to Boost Broadband Access

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

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Broadband Funding: Are You Ready to Apply?

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

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

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

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

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

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Service Providers, Industry Partners Push Broadband Forward

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

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2022 Buying for Ultra-Broadband Builds and Services

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

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

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

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Building Broadband During Component and Worker Shortages

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

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Broadband Expansion Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

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

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Why a National Conversation on the Digital Divide Is Needed Now

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

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Building Community Connections For the Virginia Commonwealth

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

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Cincinnati Bell, Three Kentucky Counties Collaborate on FTTH Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bandwidth Hawk: About $50 Billion for New Broadband Deployment

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

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Editor's Note: Revitalizing Communities With Broadband

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

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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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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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Virginia’s Historic Jamestowne Gets a Broadband Makeover

Cox Business enables the U.S. historic site to connect with remote students and history buffs around the world.

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

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

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2021 Fiber-To-The-Home Top 100

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

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How Telecom Infrastructure Players Will Help Bridge the Digital Divide

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

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Deploying Fiber Faster and Cost-Effectively With Microtrenching

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

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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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Editor's Note: Going All in on Fiber

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

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Addressing Military Veterans’ Economic, Broadband Needs

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

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Overeagerness Does Not Help Close the Digital Divide

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

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How Providers Can Capture and Keep Deep Knowledge

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

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

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

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Broadband Access Goes from Luxury to Necessity

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

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Fiber Connect: News From Featured Exhibitors

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

Contact these companies to learn more about their broadband solutions.

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Fiber Broadband Industry Faces Material and Labor Shortages

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

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Overcoming Speed Bumps on the Road to Fiber

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

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Public-Private Partnerships Bring Fiber to Rural New Hampshire

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

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

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

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Public and Private Rural Broadband Can Make Financial Sense

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

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

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

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Fiber: The State of Legislation

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

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

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

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INCOMPAS 2021 Policy Summit Highlights Regulatory and Network Buildout Issues

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

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Can You Trust Your Business Case for Broadband Expansion?

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

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Pandemic Spurs Broadband Bump

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

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Gigabit Fiber Comes to Los Altos Hills

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

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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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LEO Satellites: A Path to Nowhere?

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

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The New Face of Economic Development

The pandemic has redefined economic development for many rural communities.

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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 New Transition

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

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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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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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MetroNet Technicians Get Hands-on Training – and Then Some

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

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

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

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Beyond Speed: Where Is the United States Going?

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

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

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

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Fiber Connect: A Preview

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

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Welcome to (Virtual) Fiber Connect!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Not Ready to Build? Be Broadband Ready.

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

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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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Editor's Note: Working Together

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

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Making Difficult Projects Financially Feasible – With or Without RDOF

Rural communities need to understand their options and make the most efficient decisions to stretch their funds.

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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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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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Editor's Note: MDU Problems and Solutions

2020 is a challenging year for multifamily broadband, but it presents opportunities as well as dangers.

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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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Bandwidth Hawk: Broadband for Everyone Means Higher Earnings Nationwide

Expanding broadband access and consumer cost-reduction subsidies is a cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. In fact, it can easily pay for itself.

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

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

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

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

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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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How States Are Expanding Broadband Access

New research identifies tactics for connecting unserved communities.

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Rural Communities Turn to Electric Co-ops for Fiber

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

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Broadband Models for Unserved and Underserved Communities

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

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Broadband Master Planning: A Holistic Approach to Meeting Broadband Goals

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

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SEMO Electric Cooperative Takes Personal Broadband Approach

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

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Little Falls, Minnesota, Undertakes Grassroots Broadband Effort

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

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

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

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Anacortes Is First City in Washington to Become an ISP

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

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To Stack, or Not to Stack

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

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Editor's Note: Communities Can Control Their Broadband Destinies

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

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Bandwidth Hawk: Small Is Beautiful

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

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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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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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A2D Builds Open-Access Fiber in Warner Robins, Georgia

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

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

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

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Broadband to Make Key Transitions In 2020

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

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Making Rural Deployments A Reality

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

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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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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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Verizon Targets New York State’s Rural Communities with FTTH

Verizon is leveraging state and FCC funds to connect several rural New York state communities with FTTH. This service will offer residents and businesses access to services typically found in larger cities.

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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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V and E Bands Key to the 5G Revolution

They offer an affordable, accessible way for smaller and rural providers to gain spectrum and deliver on the promises of 5G.

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Broadband’s Impact In Five Communities

Early results show that high-speed broadband has positive impacts for communities in rural Minnesota.

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Fiber Moves Forward

Speakers at the 2019 Broadband Communities Summit, held in Austin in April, agreed that every community wants – and needs – great broadband. How best to deliver great broadband to MDUs, master-planned communities, underserved towns and rural areas is still up for debate, however. Following are some highlights of speaker presentations.

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Ontario & Trumansburg Telephone Companies Deploy FTTH

An independent telco leverages technology to offer next-generation services.

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Is Fiber at the Tipping Point?

Medina County, Ohio, is trying a new model for financing and building rural broadband. If the model succeeds, it may be adaptable to other localities.

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USDA ReConnect: Expensive Money

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

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Editor's Note: Shovel Ready

Communities across the United States have shifted from “Why fiber?” to “How?”

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Broadband for Rural Businesses

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.

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Thinking Creatively About Broadband Infrastructure

To encourage new, local broadband providers, consider easing the regulatory burdens that make starting a new broadband venture costly.

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Q&A With Jannine Miller, Senior Advisor for Rural Infrastructure, USDA: USDA Supports Rural Broadband

The Department of Agriculture experiments with new ways to drive rural broadband deployment.

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Mahaska Communication Group Lights Iowa Towns

Frustrated with its connectivity options, a manufacturer built its own fiber connection. One step led to another, and now the company is changing lives throughout a rural Iowa county.

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Cruzio Launches FTTH In Santa Cruz

Though its planned partnership with the city didn’t materialize, Cruzio now has an ambitious plan to deliver high-speed broadband throughout much of Santa Cruz County.

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Mapping as a Strategic Tool

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative used VETRO FiberMap to reduce troubleshooting time and meet demand for new fiber broadband service.

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Editor's Note: A Tale of Two Nations

A special section on rural broadband will help you prepare for the Broadband Communities Summit.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Rural Broadband: Dividing The Spoils

Do you hope to serve a rural area that already has some broadband service?  Work around it. Literally.

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Buy Local (Including Broadband)

Providing broadband locally – with help from electric utilities – can be a good way to anchor rural economies.

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New Funding For Rural Broadband

The passage of the Agricultural Improvement Act and the opening of a funding window for the ReConnect program will help narrow the rural digital divide.

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Building a Community Vision

The technology challenge for a rural community is closing the gap between the digital infrastructure that is profitable for commercial providers but serves only part of the community and the infrastructure necessary to serve all community members. Local leaders, driven by a clear, aspirational vision of their community’s future, can proactively address this gap.

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Q&A With Jeremiah Sloan, Craighead Electric Cooperative Corporation: Arkansas Co-op Builds Fiber Fast

Using a digital network construction solution helped CECC deploy a fiber network 55 percent faster than expected and 12 percent under budget.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Electric Co-ops Embrace Fiber

Hundreds of electric co-ops are considering deployment of residential or business broadband – and almost all want to use fiber.

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Working With What’s There

To deliver broadband cost-effectively, a community’s best option may be to partner with the incumbent telephone company.

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Benefits and Challenges Of Regional Broadband

For rural communities struggling to connect to the internet, working together at any point in the process can yield benefits. 

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Impact of CAF II–Funded Networks

Two typical rural exchanges are likely to remain underserved even after upgrades supported by the Connect America Fund. This study, conducted by the Blandin Foundation, concludes that CAF funding is insufficient to support rural economic development and that more transparency is needed if states and localities are to supplement CAF funds strategically.

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Prosperity and Broadband Access

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

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Topics in Economic Development

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

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Proving a Negative

The RUS has new funds to spend on connecting unserved areas. But how can applicants prove an area is unserved?

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News From Fiber Connect

The Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, held in Nashville in June, offered many fiber community success stories.

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Bandwidth Hawk: CAF II Reverse Auction Heads for (Modest) Success

Auction winners will likely serve between 200,000 and 400,000 rural households and businesses – at best, about 40 percent of those eligible.

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Editor's Note: Is Fiber Too Expensive?

Communities need to take all the costs and benefits into account – and if the answer is “yes,” they need to revisit the question every few years.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Show Me the Rural Money

Regulations for spending the $600 million appropriated in March for rural broadband will be slow in coming. Here’s why.

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Putting the Gigs to Work

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

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Federal Funding For Rural Broadband

If you’re wondering which rural broadband funding programs to apply for – or which will solve the rural broadband problem – here’s a brief primer.

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Editor's Note: An Issue for All Seasons

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.

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You Can Build It, But Will They Come?

Even when the business case for rural broadband looks compelling, you still have to sell the product.

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Rural Utilities Service Sees 12-Fold Increase In Broadband Funds

Springtime was especially good to rural broadband hopefuls, with new money and potentially more flexible ways of disbursement.

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Will Cable Companies Become Fiber Companies?

The evolution of technology is enabling cable companies to transition gradually to all-fiber networks.

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Bandwidth Hawk: Playing by New Rules: A Very Special Summit

Technology, economics and political change are driving a very special Broadband Communities Summit this year.

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A Busy Year Ahead for Broadband

There’s much to look forward to – more fiber to the home, more deep fiber, more wireless, smarter homes and buildings.

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Two Electric Co-Ops Deliver Fiber

For electric co-ops, the stakes are high: Building broadband is an expensive, risky move into unfamiliar territory, but failing to build broadband can mean losing customer bases and stranding their electric assets.

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A New Technology Standard To Narrow the Digital Divide

The L.1700 standard can help support rural communications in developing countries – and perhaps in the United States as well.

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