telecompetitor

Regional operator Ritter Communications has been awarded eight grants totaling about $44 million to provide all-fiber broadband networks in Arkansas. The grants were awarded through the Arkansas Rural Connect (ARC) program, which is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The eight grants are in addition to other ARC grants previously made to Ritter, bringing the total ARC funding awarded to the provider to $67 million. Ritter will supplement the funding to “ensure ubiquitous network coverage” and make the final connections to homes and businesses.

The way T-Mobile sees it, about 40 percent of the US population lives in smaller markets and rural areas – and the company expects to see strong growth in those areas moving forward. Those markets now represent one-third of the company’s net account production, even though the company is still deploying service to those markets and currently has service available to only about one-third of the small and rural markets in the US, said Peter Osvaldik, T-Mobile executive vice president and chief financial officer. Those new accounts are “very high-quality accounts,” Osvaldik added.

Windstream has completed the first phase of deployment in Green County (KY) under the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) by bringing access to 109 locations in the city of Greensburg. An additional 409 homes will be given fiber access by the end of the year. The Green County RDOF award of $1.5 million will be supplemented by an investment of $2.3 million by Windstream. Windstream’s Kentucky RDOF commitment is to bring fiber to the home (FTTH) services to more than 15,700 addresses across the state during the next six years.

A US fiber investment forecast from RVA LLC calls for service providers to spend $125 billion over the next five years, exceeding the total amount that has been invested in fiber since providers first began deploying it. The $125 billion includes money allocated in government programs, said Michael Render, RVA owner and principal analyst. The largest of these programs is the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

State governments will soon have a big responsibility that will impact the availability of broadband in their states. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act makes $42.5 billion available for broadband deployments and gives state governments responsibility for awarding those funds. Considering that some states currently have no state broadband office and those that do have an average of 10 staffers, it would appear that the states can use all the advice they can get.

Zayo announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nashville-based Education Networks of America (ENA), a provider of managed network services to the education and public sector verticals. ENA targets K-12, higher education, healthcare, library, and government organizations with a variety of network services, specializing in E-Rate funded programs. E-Rate is a program funded through the Universal Service Fund, providing funding to school systems and libraries for connectivity and other technology. ENA has a national reach.

Verizon has set a goal of becoming the only nationwide broadband provider. According to the company, this will be made possible through a combination of Fios fiber broadband, Verizon Home fixed wireless, and satellite broadband service. The company already has Fios available to 16 million locations, which will increase to more than 18 million by year-end 2025, when the company expects to have 8 million Fios internet subscribers.

CostQuest Associates said it has officially been contracted to provide broadband location data needed to update the National Broadband Map. The Federal Communications Commission selected the company months ago but the contract award was delayed because LightBox, another company that bid on the contract, protested the decision. According to CostQuest, the US Government Accountability Office denied the protest in late February 2022.