Fierce

Broadband appears to be on the list of priorities for private equity firm KKR as it looks to invest $17 billion from a newly created fund in infrastructure projects across the globe. Countries like the US are already pouring a significant amount of money into improving infrastructure.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge remains a believer in the bundle — just with different parts.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge isn’t sold on the idea that consumers need symmetrical broadband speeds, but says it has a roadmap to offer them using DOCSIS 3.1 technology to keep up with competition from fiber players. Rutledge said, “It’s a marketing claim. It’s a claim without much reality from a [data] use perspective…Even one gig down is to some extent a marketing claim from a reality perspective.” However, to the extent that it needs to keep up with such claims from competitors, Rutledge said it can.

Tennessee’s broadband deployment is getting a leg up with expanded funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) will award up to $400 million to service providers for broadband infrastructure projects. All entities authorized to provide broadband in the state are eligible to receive funding, said Taylre Beaty, state broadband director for the Tennessee ECD. The entities can be solely broadband providers to Tennessee, or they can include nationwide coverage.

T-Mobile is using its considerable legal muscle to try and prevent the terms of its 2.5 GHz spectrum leases from being revealed. This is particularly newsworthy right now because the Federal Communications Commission recently announced it would kick off the process for its Auction 108 in July 2022. Auction 108 is the auction of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the “white-space” gaps in the band that are currently lying fallow.

Charter Communications continued a multi-year march to double the entry-level speed available on its Spectrum Internet service, rolling out 200 Mbps service in more than three dozen new markets. The 37 markets where the faster service is now available cover more than 5 million homes and include Bakersfield (CA), Bangor (ME), Binghamton (NY), Dayton (OH), and Green Bay (WI).

Boost Mobile appears happy with an earlier go selling Cox prepaid home internet service at its retail stores in a few markets, as distribution has expanded more broadly to all Boost store locations within the cable operator’s footprint. In December 2021, Boost Mobile, the Dish-owned prepaid brand, started selling Cox’s Straight Up Internet service in select stores in Las Vegas (NV) and Phoenix (AZ) while mulling a wider push.