Mesa, Arizona, is the first Google Fiber market to get access to a new symmetrical 8-Gig fiber service tier that sells for $150 per month. Cox and Lumen are among the incumbents in the market.

Earnings down two-thirds as higher costs weigh on flat revenue.

CEO Julie Laulis says Cable One will stay focused on providing its core broadband service for now, but estimates that the company could execute a mobile launch in six to eight months.

The editors discuss challenges to the Universal Service Fund (USF) and Graphiant's new $62 million in funding. They also examine Roku's layoffs, new fiber manufacturing projects in the US and why wireless providers are pushing more device inventory online.

Rogers Communications' buyout of Shaw Communications received final approvals, in part thanks to the sale of Shaw's wireless business, Freedom Mobile, to Quebecor's Videotron.

After badly missing its rollout targets last year, the United Internet mobile subsidiary is under pressure.

The document touches on several hot-button issues, including 5G security and open RAN operations. It also offers a few pointers on how federal agencies could use advanced 5G services.

This week in broadband builds: New York gets $100 million to connect affordable housing, Alaska Communications expands, New Mexico awards four providers $17 million – and more.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone and friends set up 5G testbed in Portugal; Meta changes tack on EU data privacy; Branson's satellite firm sheds most of its workforce.

'A malicious intruder had inserted criminal ransomware into a limited number of the company's servers that support a segmented hosting service,' Lumen said in describing one of two separate hacks.

Telesat, Ligado, Rivada Space Networks and Lynk Global face multiple challenges as they try to raise additional funding. But there is money out there: Just ask Globalstar and OneWeb.

Roku's layoff of about 200 employees follows a similar workforce reduction last year that slashed 5% of the company's headcount.

China Mobile pays 42% premium to take 6.8% stake in China Postal Savings Bank.

Two antiquities of the satellite industry hope to survive the launch of newer and more sophisticated technologies by teaming up.

The city of Longmont, Colorado, now owns a private wireless network covering roughly half of the city. It runs on equipment from vendor Baicells in the unlicensed 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum band.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: CityFibre launches ad campaign; ETNO and UNI Europe combine to tackle workplace harassment; Romania gets a second Orange 5G lab.

Edge-out opportunities are broadening Ziply Fiber's scope. Meanwhile, the company will use FWA 'selectively' and for now will take a pass on creating a home broadband and mobile bundle, says CEO Harold Zeitz.

'If the need arises, we'll explore wireless partnerships if it makes sense. But right now we don't see the customer demand for it,' said Lumen Technologies' Maxine Moreau.

Jeff Baumgartner joins the podcast to discuss Frontier's YouTube TV bundle and what the competitive implications are of that decision.

With demands for BEAD on the horizon, CommScope has expanded its US-based fiber optic cable manufacturing capacity and launched a lighter-weight fiber called 'HeliARC' that's optimized for rural deployments.

Open interfaces will certainly aid specialists but it's hard to see how they will necessarily bring diversity, despite what proponents and government figures say.

Vodafone is shutting down its proprietary RCS platform and instead relying on Google to support business and consumer RCS based messaging services in future.

'We are downgrading Dish,' wrote the financial analysts at UBS in a report to investors this week. They aren't alone, and the list of reasons for the downgrades is long.

The FCC's new National Broadband Map debuted in November and - as the basis for the BEAD program - will define the future of broadband access in the US. Here's the backstory on how we got here, challenges thus far and why an accurate map matters.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: AI axes jobs; VMO2 does pay-per-view deal with DAZN; more mid-contract price-rise mayhem.

The EU's planned Data Act legislation, intended to facilitate the sharing and transferring of data, has advanced to the next stage of negotiations between EU bodies.

Comcast and companies associated with OpenSync have contributed a new, more powerful Wi-Fi software manager for the RDK-B stack to help manage broadband gateways, Wi-Fi access points and Wi-Fi extenders.

Disney's metaverse unit, which had about 50 employees, was among the casualties in a larger wave of layoffs at the media giant, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Founder and CEO Khalid Raza said industry interest in Graphiant's network edge service 'has been much faster than what we saw with MPLS at Cisco or SD-WAN with Viptela. Graphiant has hit a nerve.'

ACA Connects' Brian Hurley joins the podcast to discuss the group's BEAD funding framework – a national analysis of how far funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will go, and a state-by-state breakdown of how those funds can be used for fiber.

According to the financial analysts at New Street Research, T-Mobile isn't afraid to 'spend some political and financial capital to demonstrate that it has a strong argument' for its 5G spectrum.

Alibaba restructure follows Jack Ma's return to China after lengthy absence.

Building on a recent string of network expansion plans, Google Fiber's latest market target will pit it against area incumbents Cox Communications and Lumen/CenturyLink.

Amazon is making a renewed effort to put Sidewalk on the map, announcing Tuesday that it's opening this network to outside developers and offering them free test kits to check its coverage.

The new Comcast Smart Solutions unit is expanding tech and service ecosystem to support its goal of being a one-stop-shop for IoT services tailored for municipalities, retailers, campuses and other businesses.

Paradise Mobile, which is planning to build a 5G network in Bermuda, said it will run its network operations almost completely within the AWS cloud.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson does 5G fast in the Faroe Islands; Telia explores 5G for healthcare; French government kills the phone fun.

M&A opportunities have been few and far between, but Charter has reportedly struck a deal to acquire Bee Line Cable, a family-owned operator serving parts of central Maine.

The Universal Service Fund, or USF, survived the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but its future is still uncertain.

Longtime Internet of Things (IoT) player KORE announced that it will acquire Twilio's IoT business. The transaction shines more light on the tumult enveloping the IoT space.

The UK telecom incumbent is reportedly searching for a new boss, but it will have trouble finding one who can do any better.

Signaling a new attack on cable's broadband/pay-TV bundle, Frontier is now offering its own broadband service and YouTube TV on the same bill. YouTube TV is now Frontier's primary video offering for new customers.

Key findings from Heavy Reading's Open RAN Platforms and Architectures Operator Survey Report indicate that the ecosystem is continuing to develop and that a very significant number of service providers expect to complete first installations within two years.

US government pressure forced Chinese vendor HMN Technologies out of the 19,000-km Sea-Me-We 6 (SMW6) subsea cable in favor of New Jersey-based SubCom, it's been reported.

The European Union seems to be approaching the subject the way Boris Johnson approached Brexit.

Glance has not yet launched its services in the US. That's noteworthy considering reports last year indicated the startup's US launch was imminent.

Airtel's data center arm, Nxtra, will come up with seven new data centers to double capacity as competition heats up and the stage is set for consolidation.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OneWeb completes its constellation; KPN has a management re-jig; Nokia helps CSPs save more network energy.

Familiar disagreements between Big Tech, telcos, regulators and the European Commission regarding the fairness of fair-share arguments got an airing during a Politico debate in Brussels.

The recent Cable Next-Gen event looked ahead. But it was also an opportunity to look back, when there was no DOCSIS and data was delivered over a 6MHz channel – enough to be 'wicked fast.'

Intel is exiting the market for 5G-capable laptops, a clear blow to 5G network operators. But there may still be hope in Qualcomm's 5G laptops – unless a lawsuit from ARM upsets the situation.

The editors discuss cable versus fiber, consumer broadband labels and potential roadblocks to BEAD program rollouts. They also examine why T-Mobile will need to re-think its 5G advertising strategy and whether TikTok is now cooler than ever.

This week in broadband builds: NTIA awards tribal broadband funding; altafiber to build in Warren County, Ohio; TDS grows in Wisconsin; NYC expands Big Apple Connect – and more.

'The development of the metaverse will not require telecom operators to grow capital expenditures for greater network investment,' according to Meta executives. Last year, the company offered a different story.

After a two-year surge in sales to China, US semiconductor companies stand to lose billions in revenues as export controls are tightened.

Ciena CTO Steve Alexander discusses the WaveLogic 6 announcement, the OFCnet, and reminds us of how dramatically optical networking technology has speed up and shrunk down over the years.

Elad Nafshi, Comcast's EVP and chief network officer, joined Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner at Cable Next-Gen 2023 to expand on multiple facets of the operator's network evolution.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Truespeed turns to Adtran's XGS-PON; Cell C boss steps down; 1&1 Versatel fibers up another business park.

Kyrio, a unit of CableLabs, has notched its first reseller deal, with Sparro, for ARC Mobile, a platform that manages and optimizes multiple types of wireless connections, including Wi-Fi, cellular and satellite.

SES' chief strategy officer spoke with Light Reading at Satellite 2023 about D2D, how SES is helping bridge the digital divide using MEO and GEO, how modern satellite capabilities compare to fiber and more.

Samsung has business with Verizon, Dish Network and Comcast in the North American market, giving it a prime view into developing technologies including open RAN and cloud architecture.

At the Cable Next-Gen event, Omdia analyst Jaimie Lenderman presented fresh data on cable operators' plans for DAA, the virtual CMTS, DOCSIS 4.0 and PON, and her multi-year forecast for the cable equipment market.

Lift-off for generative AI would entail huge costs and have possible ramifications for climate change.

External review at Philippines telco found no fraud but capex accounting scandal takes its toll on bottom line.

Oxford Quantum Circuits is installing its hardware in Equinix's IBX data center in Japan. Customers will be able to access the quantum computer via Equinix Fabric beginning in the fall of 2023.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Google's cloud lands in Turin; Telefonica gets into bed with Qwilt; new brooms sweep in at Vodafone Portugal and Fastweb.

Tantra Analyst's Prakash Sangam weighs in with the best- and worst-case scenarios for Qualcomm and Arm as the companies continue to battle in court.

Fear is growing that strict 'Buy America' conditions threaten to delay BEAD rollouts. Several industry associations believe speedy and flexible waivers on those restrictions will be needed to reach deployment goals.

Joe Russo recently took over control of Verizon's networking operations. Now he's planning to release a feedback tool for customers that will allow them to point out networking troubles.

Mike Bell, Corning's SVP and GM for optical communications, talks about Corning's newest data center solution that shortens installation times for cables and connectors. As capacity is needed, vendors are tackling physical plant construction bottlenecks to speed up network expansion.

Comcast and regional sports network Altitude TV have ended their years-long court battle, but a settlement did not result in a new carriage deal for the TV home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche.

Heavy Reading analyst Ruth Brown caught up with Spirent Communications at MWC Barcelona recently and spoke to CEO Eric Updyke about his thoughts on the latest trends in 5G. #sponsored

State-of-the-art technologies have not lowered the considerable barriers to entry in the telecom sector.

Cloud revenue more than doubles as China business embraces digital.

NTT and Verizon are among service providers starting to narrow their focus for private 5G deployments as some enterprise verticals are easier to enter than others.

John Janka, chief officer of global government affairs and regulatory at Viasat, spoke with Light Reading at Satellite 2023 about the changing communications landscape and how satellite players and policies must evolve.

'Edge computing has started to go more mainstream,' according to Omdia analysts. As a result, many types of players are working to stamp out a competitive position.

The rivalry between Airtel and Jio is set to intensify as India's top two telcos slug it out in the 5G market.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Proximus buys EDPnet; Ooredoo's MWC deals; Nokia gets greener; ChatGPT messes with EU lawmakers' minds.

Orange Belgium is forging ahead with long-held fixed-mobile convergence ambitions, but the nation is still a laggard in 5G and fiber rollouts.

Key findings from Heavy Reading's Open RAN Platforms and Architectures Operator Survey Report indicate that improved economies of scale for generic hardware and the independent upgradability of HW/SW components are the most critical benefits of vRAN for service providers. #sponsored

Judgment comes after a jury ordered Dish to pay $469.07 million stemming from allegations by ClearPlay that Dish's 'AutoHop' feature infringed on patents tied to content filtering technology.

Arriving 11 years after a similar play, Liberty Global's 'voluntary and conditional' takeover bid for Telenet has a chance for success but could face shareholders seeking a higher price, an analyst reckons.

Paul Gaske, COO at EchoStar, spoke with Light Reading at Satellite 2023 to discuss the company's forthcoming launch of its Jupiter-3 satellite, the future of direct-to-device communications and more.

The alarm bells are starting to ring at Australia's broadband wholesaler NBN Co as it feels the heat from Starlink and 5G.

Facing so many options and trade-offs, and alert to the danger of supplier lock-in, many operators have yet to be convinced about RAN virtualization.

Several private network installations are testing MOCN, which stands for Multiple Operator Core Network, as a way to connect to a commercial mobile network.

This week: We hear from Cisco's Gary DePreta and the city of El Paso's Nicole Ferrini on the launch of El Paso Helps, a digital portal for connecting at-risk individuals to essential services.

Led by growth in passive optical networks, broadband equipment spending climbed 17% in 2022, notching a record of $19 billion, according to Dell'Oro Group.

At the end of 2022, there were 142,100 cell towers and 452,200 outdoor small cell nodes across the US, according to one new tally.

Charter has tapped Harmonic as a 'strategic technology partner' for a virtual cable modem termination system rollout. Comcast, Vodafone and GCI are among other top ops to go with Harmonic's 'CableOS' platform.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Hungarian government gets its claws into telecom; UK government tests out emergency alerts service; FibreConnect chooses EXA for Italian backbone job.

In the wake of a 'cyber-security incident' that impacted Dish service installs, bill payments and customer care capabilities for weeks, analysts expect Dish's Boost business to take the biggest hit in Q1.

The '60 Minutes' profile of Mediacom's Rocco Commisso doesn't delve into company strategy, but it does spotlight the hustle that led him to the top of US cable and, later, ownership of Italian club ACF Fiorentina.

The FCC's congressional authority to auction spectrum lapsed for the first time ever earlier this month, which is preventing the agency from authorizing T-Mobile's latest 2.5GHz purchases.

A new batch of FCC filings shows a few remaining sticking points between consumer groups and industry organizations representing ISPs on final rules for broadband labels.

Chinese AI firms are training their data sets on server clusters using high-end chips.

An Arelion report found most companies saw energy costs rise above contract terms, causing them to become a prime concern, which has pushed many to seek greater energy efficiency.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT hooks up with AWS for more cloud-assisted mobile-edge clout; MTN trials 5G SA core with Azure; Germany fears effects of Huawei ban.

As Ofcom weighs intervention on BT's latest pricing plans, its own data shows that BT's rivals have made scant progress in the UK's full-fiber market.

Key findings from Heavy Reading's 'Open RAN Platforms and Architectures Operator Survey Report' show that service providers are planning to support AI inference and other applications in their open RAN/far edge installations. #sponsored

The editors discuss Amazon's plan to spend $10 billion on a satellite constellation, an update on Light Reading's Cable Next-Gen event, why Casa Systems' CEO is stepping down today and more.

Vecima announced it will supply a tier 1 US operator with remote PHY nodes for an HFC network upgrade. Vecima didn't name the operator, but all clues lead to Charter Communications.

This week in broadband builds: Surf Internet starts construction in Indiana; Ziply expands in Washington; Kinetic network live in North Carolina; Glo Fiber's plans for Pennsylvania – and more.

Allowing the Vodafone and Three merger to happen will show authorities have abandoned the 'four networks good, three networks bad' credo.

Omdia's Jaimie Lenderman joins Light Reading's Mike Dano and Jeff Baumgartner to discuss the big themes at the Cable Next-Gen event, including network optionality and the rising role of PON and wireless.

The decentralized wireless space heats up as Really raises $18 million to pursue a model like Helium Mobile, and Xnet uses $1 million in seed funding to chase DeWi offload.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Inwit heads up the mountains; Telenor and Cisco extend collaboration; fraudsters impersonate MTN bigwig.

Higher speed optical links between data centers, computing clusters and servers are being pushed to the limit by the demands of AI, according to Dell'Oro's Sameh Boujelbene.

GSMA opens applications for grants backing projects that use mobile and digital technology to improve climate resilience and help with adaptation in selected regions.

Comcast is appealing recommendations from an ad watchdog urging the operator to modify or discontinue marketing claims about speed and reliability for the Xfinity Mobile service.

Startup Element8 this week scored $200 million in funding. Its first move: the purchase of Oklahoma City-based WISP AtLink Services for an undisclosed sum.

The Cable Center President and CEO Diane Christman discusses the 'Syndeo Institute,' a new operational brand that also serves as a hub for the Center's Intrapreneurship Academy and related programs and events.

The telco championing of open RAN has not been matched by support for new entrants.

CFO Darren Purkis was unable to provide details on the proposed merger with Vodafone but noted that discussions "are positive from both sides."

Andrena is working to bring affordable wireless broadband to buildings through a revenue-share model with property owners.

GCI has begun upgrading its DOCSIS 3.1 cable network to a high-split architecture with equipment from vendors including ATX and CommScope.

New figures show telco revenue is declining just as capex reaches a record high.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Iliad makes hay in Italy; UK government ministers face TikTok ban; O2 saves devices from landfill.

Ciena is the only optical vendor offering 1.6 Tbit/s optical services, although the WaveLogic 6 service won't be available until the first half of 2024.

Ofcom launches consultation on its plan to assign 26GHz and 40GHz spectrum for 5G services.

Amazon will launch its first satellites for Project Kuiper in 2024, entering the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite space as the US goes all-in on fiber.

Europe's biggest economy has installed a huge amount of Chinese network equipment and dismantling it to address security concerns will not be easy.

According to the financial analysts at Wells Fargo, T-Mobile's $1.35 billion purchase price for Mint Mobile would value each of those customers at around $450.

With Apple starting to remove the physical SIM slot in some iPhone 14s, operators in many markets need to prepare for an emergence of the eSIM.

Casa, a supplier of cable and wireless technology, also disclosed that it will not be receiving orders from a major customer, presumed to be Charter, for its initial rollout of a cable infrastructure upgrade.

Comcast appears squarely in the FDX camp, while Charter Communications has voiced support for ESD. Cox thinks there is room for both iterations of DOCSIS technology.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Seacom goes live on Equiano subsea cable; go higher, says Telecom Italia; Open Fiber revenue up by a quarter in 2022.

Indian government hopes BharOS, developed at IIT Madras, will help build a vibrant ecosystem of indigenous technology.

Marketers have already run out of road on 5G and the next generation of mobile will not do anything radically different.

Reuters, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that Infinera is working with investment bank Centerview Partners to start the process of shopping itself to possible buyers.

According to a top company executive, Comcast has so far deployed 83,000 new nodes into its network - that represents an improvement from the 50,000 the company counted last fall.

Connecting Africa's Paula Gilbert joins the podcast to explain why the fintech sector is bringing in the most funding, which countries are leading the way for most funding and what these trends mean for the continent as a whole.

Omdia's chief analyst for broadband access discusses where passive optical network (PON) technology is going next and how service providers are succeeding with new offers like multi-gig fiber-to-the-home broadband.

Chinese demands have forced new Google and Facebook cables to re-route around the South China Sea.

The FCC is deadlocked between Republicans and Democrats and recently lost its authority to auction spectrum. In the absence of decisiveness, expect bickering.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ofcom opens up mmWave; EU fights Qualcomm in the courts, again; how mini data centers could save Britain's pools from closure.

Several SMO and RIC solutions were on show at MWC23, demonstrating that RIC apps and the developer community are evolving to support more intelligent RAN operations.

Whether using Intel or rival silicon, operators face lock-in and awkward compromises everywhere they turn.

Nokia said the IM-2 mission will be the first cellular 4G LTE network on the moon with a goal of proving that terrestrial cellular technologies can be used to provide connectivity on future lunar missions.

Led by a free unlimited line of mobile service for a year, Charter has launched a new convergence bundle for small and midsized biz customers that's similar to its 'Spectrum One' promo for residential subs.

According to the financial analysts at Evercore, there's a chance that US fiber providers will build fewer locations this year than in 2022. That's a major change from original estimates.

Dish might appeal a $470 million jury judgement in a suit filed by ClearPlay. Meanwhile, the ITC banned connected fitness products from Peloton and iFit found to infringe on Dish's adaptive streaming tech.

While its earnings have increased, ZTE is increasingly reliant on the domestic market.

Doug Maglothin is the CEO of Diamond State Networks (DSN), a group of 13 electric co-ops in Arkansas working to unite fiber networks and provide wholesale broadband statewide. We discuss DSN's unique model and progress so far, how it envisions partnering with other states and more.

Google Cloud, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have suddenly and loudly entered the telecom industry. But how should telecom network operators evaluate each of their cloud options?

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Virgin Media O2 expands gigabit network in Scotland; Silicon Valley Bank UK bought by HSBC; Telia points to sustainability halo.

Roku said $487 million of its cash is held at SVB, with deposits at the failed bank 'largely uninsured.' UPDATE: Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13, US regulators announced Sunday.

This week in broadband builds: TDS is live for 5,000 Maine locations; South Carolina gets $185.8 million for broadband; Ziply Fiber to upgrade four more markets; GoNetspeed launches in New York - and more.

The editors discuss OFC, Gigi Sohn withdrawing her FCC nomination and Nokia's lunar 4G/LTE network. We also examine Charter and Comcast's stance on fixed wireless access, whether there are upgrades beyond DOCSIS 4.0, and 5G strategies in 2023 for AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Although hacks and other cybersecurity troubles have become de rigueur among corporate America in recent years, all of the nation's 5G providers have been involved in security incidents in 2023.

DZS CEO Charlie Vogt, fresh off announcing new optical transport gear and a transport module for its network management platform, said there a lot of issues to be worked out as service providers look to take advantage of access network funding programs.

Integration of Foxxum's RDK-based operating system for smart TVs with printed circuit boards made by China's CVTE 'is a key element to scaling fast,' says Foxxum CEO Ronny Lutzi.

According to sources, Dell is developing vRAN software to control 5G radios, but it's unlikely that Dell will manufacture its own physical 5G radios.

In this interview, Chris Wright, Red Hat CTO and SVP of Global Engineering, and Jennifer Pigg Clark, Principal Analyst at Light Reading, discuss the need to change the way we think about openness at every order of magnitude when building modern networks. #sponsored

Heavy Reading's Alan Breznick and Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner preview the hot topics for next week's Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies event in the Mile High City.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: French fiber update; Proximus makes progress in Liege; OneWeb sends up 40 more satellites.

At MWC23, operators maintained that open RAN is a long-term, strategic play.

Rory Read would have to perform miracles at Ericsson to justify another $32.76 million this year.

The White House called for $400 million in additional funding for the USDA ReConnect program. It did not call for funding the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

As the pace of fiber overbuilding and overall broadband subscriber growth slow, the revenue story for the sector 'will be much more ARPU-dependent going forward,' according to MoffettNathanson.

Which companies will have the upper hand as wireless operators increasingly run up against cable providers? And how might any possible consolidation play out among US telecom operators broadly?

Virgin Media O2 is using 5G and gigabit broadband to transform a London playground into a connected one.

SK Telecom says it is trying to build an AI ecosystem in the global market, working with startups such as Phantom AI.

China Unicom expands its enterprise segment by 29% as it transforms into a digital technology provider.

In addition to discussing how IoT can support a smarter utility grid, TJ Fox discusses Verizon's strategy for connected vehicles and how connected cars are becoming safer and more user-friendly.

Over the past few years, BAI Communications has acquired ZenFi, Mobilitie and Vilicom. Now, the company is rebranding into Boldyn Networks to unify its approach to the market.

ATX Networks is ramping up production of 1.2GHz and 1.8GHz amps via a new US facility that will be used to help power enhancements to cable's existing DOCSIS 3.1 networks and future upgrades to DOCSIS 4.0.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Eutelsat expands coverage with Intelsat and OneWeb; Airtel Africa taps Nokia for state-of-the-art SIM tech; Ericsson boss earns a pittance (relatively speaking).

Fixed wireless is 'chipping away at the lower end of the market' but will never stack up to cable's wireline capabilities, Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said. He also hinted at life after DOCSIS 4.0.

'BEAD gives you the opportunity to probably fill in areas that economically you might not have had high on the priority list,' AT&T's Jeff McElfresh said.

Cignal AI's Scott Wilkinson explains why the market demand and availability of 100ZR components will pick up in 2024.

After sitting on the sideline for RDOF, Comcast 'will be a participant' in BEAD and other rural broadband programs, but the bar for participation will be high, says Comcast President Mike Cavanagh.

Ofcom has unveiled a set of proposals that would make fiber broadband offers more comprehensible to customers.

T-Mobile's Neville Ray said carrier aggregation technology essentially glues together transmissions in disparate spectrum bands in the same way a slice of a cake combines multiple layers.

SES' JP Hemingway explained why SES has partnered with Boeing and SpaceX on the launch of O3b mPower satellites, how the company is utilizing software-defined capabilities in its satellites and why it's focused on the MEO versus LEO space.

Operators have lifted their reporting on diversity but progress in promoting women has been glacial.

As it quits Russia, VEON is focused on hiring software talent and addressing 'digital' opportunities in emerging markets.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU ready to stick its full-length probe into Orange/Masmovil deal; Proximus issues worker-wellbeing charter; BT extends Digital Voice trials.

Plans for a carbon-neutral data center in Spain serve as a reminder of how far the industry still has to go.

Omdia's Ian Redpath says high-performing, lower powered opticals are fitting into smaller form factors, blurring the lines between what used to be distinct technology markets.

'Unfortunately, the American people are the real losers here. The FCC deadlock, now over two years long, will remain so for a long time,' said Gigi Sohn in a statement withdrawing her nomination.

Native-owned Tribal Ready is working to provide tribes with resources to successfully participate in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

'I think there have been times when we've got distracted by trying to do too many things at once,' said Verizon's CFO. He suggested Verizon's new leadership structure ought to change that.

New players with untested business models will run out of cash, warns legacy satellite player.

Fresh data from ISI Evercore shows that change-of-address requests dropped 8% in February, reducing the number of 'jump balls' cable can use to stoke broadband subscriber growth.

AT&T's Cameron Coursey discusses how the service provider is adding more software-defined capabilities to connected cars, and where 4G and 5G come into play for specific IoT use cases.

Open RAN is not ready for widespread commercial deployment, Deutsche Telekom recently said, just as Germany weighs a Huawei ban.

Rolf Werner thinks fears about network quality deterioration are holding back adoption of the nascent tech.

Executives from US platform provider Vonage have been defending the APIs logic of Swedish vendor Ericsson's $6 billion takeover.

AT&T's Gordon Mansfield said the operator will make significant progress this year deploying 5G on its midband spectrum. But he expressed some reservations about standalone 5G technology.

This week: Brent Legg, EVP of government affairs at Connected Nation, joins the podcast to discuss the organization's application for an NTIA Middle Mile grant to build out carrier-neutral Internet exchange points.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: European Council approves space-based connectivity program; WhatsApp promises to be more transparent; might Facebook have to suspend its service in Europe?

For Charter, there's "no better use of resources than rural expansion," beating out stock repurchases and the acquisition of cable assets, New Street Research's analysts surmised.

Boingo Wireless CEO Mike Finley provides an update on the company's private wireless deployments, such as its partnership with the San Diego Padres last fall.

AI automation and integration were popular topics at MWC23, leading to a classic stare-down between humans and applications, with attendees caught in the middle.

'Verizon Ventures announced that it is modifying its investment strategy to further support Verizon's overall growth strategy, with a primary focus and emphasis in the US,' the company confirmed.

Optical equipment maker Ciena's order backlog is nearly four times what it was pre-pandemic, and that is neither sustainable nor desirable, says its CEO.

According to new findings, fixed wireless services accounted for 90% of net broadband additions in 2022, compared to 20% of net adds in 2021.

Malone and the former directors aren't admitting to wrongdoing via the settlement. The suit stems from a complaint that Malone received special benefits that other Time Warner Cable shareholders didn't get.

Some operators have been stepping forward in open RAN. And some companies, like Fujitsu and Samsung, appear to be reaping the benefits. Others, like NEC, are not.

As public-cloud giants advance into the world of network functions, operators face some difficult choices about which hosts to use.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Liberty Global boss unimpressed with EU's 'single European telecom market' dream; FAST forward for ad-supported linear TV; EU's cloud security plan comes under fire.

Light Reading heads home from MWC23 in Barcelona, leaving behind a show that, as networks converge, has seen its audience reach industries well outside mobile and telco tech.

Fortinet's Anne-Gaelle Santos explained that the cybersecurity company works closely with service provider customers to develop managed SASE and SD-WAN services to secure the mobile workforce.

Meanwhile, Boycom Vision, a small operator in southern Missouri, is 'making preparations' in case the Affordable Connectivity Program runs out of gas, CEO Patricia Jo Boyers says.

AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud at MWC23 represents a continued evolution in how the telco industry sees itself and the future of its networks.

This week's ACA Connects Summit highlighted some big concerns among small and midsized cable ops about BEAD funding and the Affordable Connectivity Program's funding gap.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg is putting Sowmyanarayan Sampath in charge of Verizon's struggling consumer business just a year after promoting him to lead the company's business unit.

The FCC issued a waiver to Ericsson that will allow the vendor to sell a single 5G radio that can broadcast higher-power signals in both C-band and 3.45 GHz spectrum.

As Frontier pushes toward a goal to build fiber to 10 million locations by the end of 2025, its $750 million debt raise will help fund the company's fiber build beyond 2023, analysts said.

Mari-Noelle Jego-Laveissiere insists Big Tech investment contribution will help meet EU Digital Decade targets and rebalance network capacity and coverage.

China has opened up a wide lead over the rest of the world in research into 6G, advanced optical and dozens of other fields.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Arm opts for US listing; STC and Huawei cozy up; knackered old phone boxes preserved for posterity.

The show goes on, attracting its highest number of visitors since before the pandemic, but the industry is in bad shape.

The mysterious case of the chips inside Huawei's lanyards could be an embarrassment for MWC organizers.

Joey Wender, director of the Treasury Department's capital projects fund, joined the podcast at the ACA Connects Summit to talk about his team's progress in awarding half of $10 billion in available state broadband funding.

As the NTIA continues fielding stakeholder questions on BEAD, the agency is now opening a request for comment on companion programs in the Digital Equity Act.

This episode features Blair Levin, who joined us at the ACA Connects Summit to discuss the state of broadband in the US and why uncertainty around the future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is putting the US at risk of widening the digital divide.

Tapping into its distributed and virtualized access architecture, Comcast is plugging remote OLTs into optical nodes to support a targeted fiber-to-the-premises trial in Denver.

Small listed Hong Kong operator HKBN is once again a private equity (PE) takeover target. This time the suitor is I Squared Capital, owner of rival HGC Global Communications

The editors reflect on MWC's big takeaways including T-Mobile's 5G voice service plans, how hyperscalers are trying to differentiate themselves and investment plans for future 5G and 6G deployments.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MultiChoice partners with NBCUniversal and Sky to revamp streaming offer across Africa; Nokia gets the nod from Ooredoo in Algeria and Tunisia; Ericsson goes underground.

Apple, Skylo, Deutsche Telekom and others were among those making noise this week about satellites. And executives in the space expect more progress in the months and weeks ahead.

ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer said members are keen to pursue BEAD opportunities, but it could also become an 'existential threat' to some cable operators if funds aren't allocated properly.

Orange Group CTO reckons the industry body will be able to prove, using hard data, that open RAN is greener than traditional RAN.

Google Cloud does not plan to develop its own private wireless networking service to sell to enterprise customers, nor does the company plan to develop its own network functions.

Now in mass production, MaxLinear's 'AnyWAN' platform provides a unified base designed to accelerate product development for a range of service interfaces for telcos, cable and wireless operators.

The alliance has put together a set of KPIs aimed at measuring operators' progress in greening the network.

Orange's Michael Trabbia says the company remains confident about open RAN, which it sees as part of an overall cloud transformation of the network.

Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin explains that Net Insight is using VPN tunnels to address 5G transport's timing and synchronization issue - a solution the broadcast industry is bringing to telecom.

BT's chief security and networks officer, Howard Watson, spoke to Light Reading about ongoing conversations around net neutrality and fair contribution, saying he welcomes Ofcom's consultation on the subject. He also addressed 5G rollout, saying it is on track.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OneWeb and VEON extend connectivity in emerging markets; Vodafone teams up with Lenovo for IoT; Telecom Italia boss battens down the hatches.

During a recent 'FWA: The Real 5G Success Story' panel at the MWC Barcelona trade show, carrier execs stressed the importance of midband spectrum.

Howard Watson dismisses talk of a 6G network overhaul and chips in on the 'fair share' debate here in Barcelona.