Adelstein: Markets Upbeat About Fiber’s Future

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Oct. 11, 2024 - A broadband executive said on Friday that capital markets were looking at fiber investments with new enthusiasm.

Jonathan Adelstein, executive vice president and chief strategy and external affairs officer at TWN Communications, said in a keynote discussion that despite questions from investors about deployment delays, there was a lot of interest among capital markets in the Biden Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

Adelstein was here speaking at the annual Broadband Nation Expo (Oct. 9-11) produced by the Telecommunications Industry Association and Fierce Network. The discussion was moderated by Diana Goovaerts, executive editor at Fierce Network.

Adelstein is a former FCC Commissioner who served from 2002 to 2009.

Adelstein did caution that investment climate was fluid and that investors could lose their eagerness to funnel new money into broadband projects under certain regulatory circumstances.

“[There is] uncertainty in the Federal Communications Commission and their ability to manage,” Adelstein said. He specifically noted that the investment climate could be cooled by the legal uncertainty surrounding the FCC’s $8.1 billion Universal Service Fund.

Despite these concerns, Adelstein asserted that the tailwinds were helping broadband as consumers continued to demand more and faster access than ever before.