WASHINGTON, May 31, 2023 – Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, voiced reservations last week about the fiber preference in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s flagship broadband funding program, citing potential time and financial constraints.

The NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, an offspring of the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, is expected to deliver $42.5 billion to the states by June 30 for infrastructure that needs to be built within a handful of years. Funding priorities under BEAD will be given to “projects designed to provide fiber connectivity directly to the end user,” according to an NTIA document.

“I do think some of the BEAD policies put a bit too much of a thumb on the scale for fiber,” Carr said in an interview with John Foley, managing director of Safer Building Coalitions, at the Wireless Tech and Policy Summit in Washington.

“In the case of fiber, where it could take potentially years to get fiber built out, not to mention significant delta in funding,” said Carr. “It can take anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 to run a mile of fiber.”

He said fixed wireless access can sometimes provide “robust high-speed service” while still remaining within budget.

Despite the NTIA’s clear acknowledgement of a fiber preference in its infrastructure deployment effort, Carr has long advocated for the use of fiber alternatives in rural regions, where high-speed internet is still a luxury in some parts. In 2022, Carr criticized the FCC for rejecting full grants to satellite broadband service provider Starlink and fixed wireless service provider LTD Broadband from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

“We should be making it easier for unserved communities to get service, not rejecting a proven satellite technology that is delivering robust, high-speed service today,” read the statement. “To be clear, this is a decision that tells families in states across the country that they should just keep waiting on the wrong side of the digital divide even though we have the technology to improve their lives now.”

Among the summit’s panelists, former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein also raised skepticism that the program’s intended beneficiaries, those living in rural regions, would see any tangible benefits from a fiber priority strategy.

“Policy makers, I don’t think, are always thinking about how actually consumers are living on the ground,” he said. “The thing that isn’t so obvious sometimes is the affordability factor that not everybody can afford to have a fiber connection and a broadband connection over their handset.”

This isn’t the first time telecom experts raised concern about BEAD’s fiber-focused expansion. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association released a report in February calling fiber-prioritized financing “a bad policy” due to its potential to raise implementation costs and slow down the rollout timeline.

BOUNTIFUL, May 24, 2023 – The city council in Bountiful, Utah, voted unanimously to approve the building of a city-owned fiber network by Utah-based service provider UTOPIA Fiber Tuesday. 

The open access fiber infrastructure will be owned by the city but operated by UTOPIA Fiber, which will then lease the fiber to internet service providers. 

City council members expressed their resounding support for the program. We believe that the estimates of take rates are conservative and reasonable when compared to like communities, said City Manager Gary Hill, pointing to neighboring town Centerville that has 49 percent take rate on its city-owned network. 

Bountiful will issue $43 million in bonds to fund the program, announced the city. The debt service for the bond will be paid for using system revenues with any excess revenue invested into affordability assistance, city council members said.  

The initial contract term is 10 years with buildout expected to take 2-3 years. The city anticipates that it will make profit on the investment within four to five years of operation. 

In 2022, at the request of residents, the city issued a request for proposals that were released to potential fiber providers to build and operate a city-owned network. In January, Bountiful officials began contract negotiations with UTOPIA. 

“The purpose of the City’s involvement with fiber is to provide a competitive marketplace for internet service providers through an open access network,” read the city’s statement.  

The announcement comes months after West Haven, Utah announced its contract with UTOPIA Fiber for a city-wide network. 

NEW ORLEANS, May 12, 2023 – AT&T is set to invest several million dollars of capital into fiber builds across the country as it announces the closing of its joint venture deal with fund manager BlackRock, the company said.  

In December, AT&T and BlackRock announced the formation of their joint venture, Gigapower LLC, to operate and deploy a fiber network to 1.5 million customers using a commercial open access platform.  

The deal between the companies closed Thursday. According to the press release, the new company’s goal is to “create the United States’ largest commercial wholesale open access fiber network to bring high-speed connectivity to more Americans.” 

“We believe fiber connectivity changes everything. That’s why we’re already one of the biggest investors in fiber in the United States,” said John Stankey, CEO of AT&T in a statement.  

“The demand for high-speed connectivity is unprecedented, and through this innovative partnership with BlackRock, one of the world’s foremost investors in infrastructure, we’re able to connect even more people and businesses, accelerating our efforts to help close the digital divide,” he said. 

Gigapower will enable AT&T to expand its fiber reach beyond its traditional areas and spread across the country, read the press release. BlackRock brings significant expertise and capital to support the buildout. 

The company expects to expand into Las Vegas, Nevada and areas of Arizona as well as Northeastern Pennsylvania and parts of Alabama and Florida that are currently outside of AT&T’s service areas. 

Christopher Sambar, executive vice president of AT&T, said in a Connect (X) event Wednesday that the company has already invested millions of dollars to build the most expansive fiber network in America.  

Between 2018 and 2022, AT&T invested $120 billion into the US economy via capital expenditures, he said, making the company one of the largest capital investors in America. 

Fiber is the backbone of wireless and 5G technology, he said. It is essential that the industry builds the foundation of fiber to support 5G and enable further innovations in the technology. 

According to Sambar, well over 170 million customers are being serviced with high-speed 5G networks and close to 300 million are serviced with speeds close to 5G.