WASHINGTON, April 28, 2020 – Breakfast Media LLC, the publisher of Broadband Breakfast, on Tuesday announced that its Digital Infrastructure Investment mini-conference at the Broadband Communities Summit will be a Physical/Virtual event.

Visit Broadband Breakfast’s event page for the most up-to-date information about the Digital Infrastructure Investment mini-conference.

Originally announced in February as part of the Broadband Communities Summit in Houston, Digital Infrastructure Investment will take place on August 10, 2020, from 1 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET (or 12 Noon CT to 6 p.m. CT, for those located in Houston).

It will feature programming on “Last Mile Digital Infrastructure,” “The Experience of Infrastructure Investment Funds,” “Federal Funds and Opportunity Zones” and “The Neutral Host Infrastructure and Small Cell Deployments.”

Register, for FREE, for Digital Infrastructure Investment.

With Tuesday’s announcement, in addition to taking place live in Houston, Digital Infrastructure Investment event will also take place Live Online. It will join Broadband Breakfast’s growing #broadbandlive series of programming, including “Broadband and the Coronavirus.”

“This exciting program will continue in person and online,” said Drew Clark, Editor and Publisher of Broadband Breakfast, a 12-year old news organization based in Washington building a community of interest around broadband policy and internet technology.

Broadband Breakfast’s motto is “Better Broadband, Better Lives,” and strives to put in place its belief about the vital importance of broadband communications.

“Uncertainty surrounding the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic means that many who are interested in enhancing broadband networks are concerned about travel,” he said. “At the Digital Infrastructure Investment Physical/Virtual Event, panelists and attendees alike will be able to participate either in person or online and be on an equal footing.”

Those who plan to attend Digital Infrastructure Investment in person should also use this link to register for the summit. The in-person version of Digital Infrastructure Investment is free to all registered Broadband Communities Summit attendees. Those who are unable to attend the summit in person can still register for Digital Infrastructure Investment.

“We’ve heard a lot recently about the dynamism of open-access networks, particularly in this time of the coronavirus,” said Clark. “High-capacity symmetrical fiber networks are more important now that ever before.”

“But there remain several crucial questions about how the digital infrastructure builds of today scale beyond municipal-level deployments,” he said. The Digital Infrastructure Investment event aims to gather the infrastructure investment fund managers, institutional investors, private equity and venture capitalists, and senior leaders from fiber, mobile, and data center solutions providers to bring clarity on the next business model for advanced internet infrastructure.”

“The Broadband Communities Summit is the leading event for community leaders, multifamily property owners and network builders and deployers interested in the building, managing, marketing and monetizing of high-speed broadband technologies and services,” said Barbara De Garmo, CEO of Broadband Communities. “It is focused on the successful delivery of high-speed broadband networks to communities – from multifamily properties and planned developments to the city or town where you live.”

On March 17, Broadband Communities and the Rural Telecommunications Congress announced that Broadband Communities Summit and its rural broadband track, which were previously scheduled for late April, have been postponed until August 10-13, 2020 because of concerns associated with the coronavirus.

The event remains at the Marriott Marquis Houston, Texas. For those who have already paid the registration fee, Broadband Communities will roll registrations over to the August dates.

For more about the summit, visit the home page, and learn more about the Summit Chairmen.

Digital Infrastructure Investment Topics Areas

• TOPIC 1: Last-Mile Digital Infrastructure
  Ownership models are evolving. Who will play the lead role in constructing? What entities, including cities, will own digital assets? Who will manage the networks?
• TOPIC 2: Infrastructure Investment Funds
  Infrastructure financing is available for broadband. Will it dwindle or accelerate with the coronavirus pandemic? What is the experience of institutional investors?
• TOPIC 3: Federal Funds and Opportunity Zones
  The FCC is making $20.4 billion available for rural broadband. The U.S. Treasury’s Opportunity Zones help urban projects. Can these funds make a difference?
• TOPIC 4: Shared Infrastructure and Small Cell Deployments
  Cellular towers were once proprietary, before carriers partnered with infrastructure owners. Will the neutral host infrastructure also take over small cells and 5G?

Register, for FREE, for Digital Infrastructure Investment.

Editor’s Note: The original post on the Digital Infrastructure Investment conference was published on February 27, 2020; This post was updated on April 28, 2020, and on May 17, 2020.