President Biden in his State of the Union address recommitted to 'Buy America' rules on infrastructure projects that many in the broadband industry have been fighting against.

Broadband Lab, a cloud-based tool from McKinsey, aims to guide states through the BEAD planning and deployment process with real-time data, geospatial visualizations and advanced analytics.

Following a 'pause' last year amid recalibration of its buildout plans, Lumen cut its 'Quantum Fiber' buildout opportunity to 8 million to 10 million locations, down from a prior target of 12 million.

Korean telco plans commercial launch of digital helper A. this year

Qualcomm is focusing on size and power consumption at the expense of speed in a new modem system announced for lighter-weight use cases. But many details about the company's upcoming X35 chipset remain blurry.

At one point analysts expected 800,000 small cells in the US by 2026. While the market is unlikely to hit that number, there's renewed interest in using small cells to extend 5G coverage and increase capacity.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: STC signs in-flight connectivity deal; Deutsche Telekom waives call charges to Turkey and Syria; Wibergh joins Cohere's board.

Officials come out with some meaningless comments about the single telecom market and realize national governments have been ignoring them about China.

The Fira Gran Via is now home to two huge tech events in February, with some increasingly interesting overlaps for AV, IT and comms specialists.

There's enough BEAD funding to bring fiber to the 'vast majority' of unserved and underserved locations, ACA Connects concludes in an updated study based on the FCC's new broadband mapping data.

Signals Research Group argued that, based on their recent testing outside the Super Bowl's venue, Verizon offered the most total wireless network capacity.

Heavy Reading operator survey identifies broad, but not unequivocal, support for hardware acceleration in 5G core networks.

Trooper Sanders, CEO of Benefits Data Trust (BDT), joins the podcast to discuss the importance of the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), how BDT is helping people access the broadband subsidy and more.

AT&T, Altice USA, Consolidated Communications, Frontier and Lumen are among the companies cutting back fiber network expansion plans for 2023, according to analysts.

A new waveform backed by the software company could take 6G to a hypersonic level.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telia Denmark wins network test, Nokia takes the credit; Mobily applies Ericsson's AI; TIM clarifies KKR bid terms.

Vodafone Idea gets a lifeline with the government finally taking a stake in the company - but the delay has deteriorated the telco's situation.

The UK operator cannot afford to sit back and wait, says its chief network officer, but the technical challenges are considerable.

KDDI and SoftBank gains in new business areas held back by tough economic conditions

IBM's Andrew Coward discusses challenges in multicloud management, edge computing and private 5G use cases. He also addresses whether telcos are well suited to support metaverse applications.

Cisco has all but exited the business of cable taps, amplifiers and nodes, but John Chapman, now CTO of broadband at Cisco, will stay linked to the HFC world as a member of Technetix's strategic advisory board.

Cable's momentum in mobile paired with slowing mobile industry growth will challenge T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon to hit and exceed their subscriber targets, says a top industry analyst.

As its network reaches capacity, T-Mobile appears to be shifting its fixed wireless target from urban customers to rural customers. But its rate of growth is still expected to slow in 2023.

MobileX, an MVNO on the Verizon network, will commercially launch its services in the next week or two. 'It really is a game changer,' said the company's founder.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica Tech adds blockchain to digital ad metrics; TIM suffers weekend outage; Nokia extends 5G with Wavence launches.

The US software company has seen revenues grow from just $7 million in 2020 and now boasts 30 customers worldwide, according to CEO Pardeep Kohli.

Once a stalwart supporter of fixed wireless technologies, Rise and its new owners are charting a course that appears to focus heavily on fiber.

According to Omdia, the global smartphone market fell 15.4% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year. However, some are expecting demand to pick back up by the end of this year.

Rogers expects its adoption of DOCSIS 4.0 to 'come as a fast follow' with its US peers. But the Canadian operator also expects its HFC plant to stay ahead of market demand even as D4.0 tech becomes available.

Our editor finds a freshly updated POWDER testbed in Utah, where industry vendors and academic researchers are getting an early start investigating the tech challenges awaiting us beyond 5G.

The editors discuss discuss Juniper's software-centric strategy, the continued pay-TV subscription decline, Netflix's crackdown on password sharing, Gigi Sohn's FCC nomination and more.

This week in broadband builds: Comcast, AT&T awarded grants in South Carolina, Charter wins in Florida, Fidium Fiber expands in Texas – and more.

China operators are recording good topline growth out of their IoT deployments, but underlying costs are still unknown.

T-Mobile said it will prepare to deploy its C-band and 3.45GHz spectrum this year, with roll out happening in 2024. The operator denied any delay in its plans.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange fires up 5G Steel network; Vodafone Ireland migrates with Amdocs; telco help for Ukrainian refugees extended.

EchoStar inked a deal to launch more LEO satellites for global IoT services using the LoRa spec, but the company's goal is to offer 3GPP-based 5G services 'in the very near future.'

Iain Morris joins the podcast to discuss how automated telcos really are and what's been contributing to job cuts in the telecom industry over the past few years.

After securing a foothold in the region with a 'major' US MSO last year, Teleste is investing more in North America as operators start to plow ahead with DAA, 1.8GHz and DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades.

After revoking two mmWave licences, Korean officials are hoping to re-issue the spectrum to anyone willing to start a 5G business in a saturated market

'I don't want to sound bearish, just more realistic,' said AT&T's Chris Sambar, in discussing the opportunity for enterprise customers to purchase their own mobile network infrastructure.

Apple is growing both its manufacturing presence and market share in the country.

The UK telecom incumbent says it is now building and connecting full-fiber customers 'like fury' and the signs are not promising for many infrastructure rivals.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KKR puts in a bid for TIM's fixed-line network; Deutsche Telekom completes GD Towers sale; Nokia adds backbone to Africa.

Verizon plans to test integrated access and backhaul technology from startup Verana Networks, a move that could pave the way for expansion of Verizon's millimeter wave network.

The software vendor has sniffed out the main culprits when it comes to cyber threats.

Juniper's enterprise business grew 32% year-over-year in Q4, and the cloud business increased more than 14%. But the oft-struggling service provider segment declined 8%.

Analysts are surprised that Peacock is shifting solely to 'premium' tiers, dropping an option that represented a clear differentiator in the competitive streaming sector.

Corning's optical revenues in the fourth quarter were slightly below most analysts' expectations. But the company's outlook remains bright, according to some estimates.

'We're interested in convergence because we have a lot to offer,' said T-Mobile's Mike Sievert. However, Sievert said T-Mobile doesn't feel the need to purchase a wired network.

Margherita della Valle joins European telco bosses demanding a 'fair contribution' from Internet giants after saying her company can do better.

Thanks in part to improving supply chain constraints, Casa Systems expects to post a 25% boost in Q4 revenues as it sees sales increase across the board.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT goes down the sewers; SPL attracts Indonesian investment; Three UK migrates data with Amdocs.

Starry said it is exiting Columbus, where it covers over 350,000 homes, to focus on its core markets of Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, DC.

PON rollouts for newbuilds and copper network upgrades will play a big role, but cable's shift to virtualized and distributed networks and DOCSIS 4.0 is expected to fuel a spending wave, Dell'Oro predicts.

The acceleration of revenues from Comcast comes as the operator preps its HFC network for DOCSIS 4.0. But analysts view Charter as the 'real prize' Harmonic has yet to capture.

Google Fi recently began alerting some customers of 'suspicious activity' related to the 'primary network provider for Google Fi,' which is likely a reference to T-Mobile's latest hack.

The US operator sets a net-zero target for 2040 but the emissions over which it has most control rose sharply in 2021.

Testing by Signals Research Group at T-Mobile cell sites finds SRS beamforming and MU-MIMO active and yielding a dramatic increase in capacity - especially for receivers that don't move.

This week: Heavy Reading's Alan Breznick joins the show to discuss the results of a recent survey of global broadband operators on their plans for closing the digital divide.

Agencies have already stopped approving exports to the Chinese firm.

The startup also received $196.5 million in Series G funding in December.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange France has new CEO; KPN, Tele2 earnings; Vodafone and Ericsson trial VoNR over 5G SA in Oman.

BT and SPL agree to jointly test new antenna technology aboard a HAPS aircraft that could take 5G to the stratosphere.

Carriers understand that adopting strong service assurance in the complex partner ecosystem of today's networks requires service assurance solutions that are well-integrated with other systems and can deal with proprietary and open source standards and open APIs. #sponsored

The National Association of Broadcasters argues that 'a stalled transition is threatening the future' of broadcast TV and wants the FCC to create an 'ATSC 3.0 task force.'

Growth in the US wireless industry is expected to slow during 2023, and Verizon's lackluster outlook isn't sparking optimism. But cable's mobile efforts are looking good.

Sohn is expected to sit through an unprecedented third Senate hearing for FCC Commissioner sometime in the coming weeks.

Months after complaining about open RAN wariness among brownfield operators, the Japanese company reports losses at its networks division.

Chris Winfrey's comments arrive as Charter prepares to upgrade its HFC networks, but shifts the broader narrative toward wireline/wireless service convergence.

A Walmart representative confirmed that the company's drone fleet can be upgraded to 5G, and that the company's drone vendor, DroneUp, uses technology from Elsight to connect to multiple cellular networks.

The Canadian operator is stumping up funds for trials of Cohere's capacity-boosting network software and 6G candidate.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Hrvatski Telekom gets digging in Dubrovnik; London's mayor takes FTTH credit; MTN's Mupita wants new regulatory framework.

M&A remains an ongoing source of speculation as MNOs continue to set their towers free.

In a case that originally awarded more than $7 billion in punitive charges, a tentative settlement is for 'substantially less' than a reduced judgment of $262 million, according to a Charter SEC filing.

Broadcom, DriveNets, Cisco, Nokia and others are among the vendors supporting AT&T's move toward a new switching and routing platform that's now carrying a majority of the operator's production traffic.

The editors cover cable earnings updates, 5G wins and woes, battles over BEAD funding and the rise of the robot dogs in the Notebook Dump for the week ending January 27.

'The operator is ordering 7.2x compatible radios from one of its vendors, but the carrier is waiting to fully deploy open RAN,' Dell'Oro Group wrote in its recent report.

This week in broadband builds: States get $794 million for broadband plans; electric co-ops, Comcast win in Missouri; Conexon connects Florida's EREC; Wahzhazhe Connect to construct Osage Nation network – and more.

'Spectrum One' convergence bundle is contributing to mobile line growth, but execs say the bulk of those lines are coming from existing broadband subs upgrading to mobile.

In the final installment of this four-part sponsored series, we look at still more key highlights from a new Heavy Reading study about the broadband industry's plans for closing the Digital Divide. #sponsored

'To date, only about half of our sites across our top three customers [Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile] have been upgraded with midband spectrum,' said Crown Castle CEO Jay Brown.

Following a much stronger 2022, Huawei's smart car unit says it is on track to turn a profit in 2025.

A leading analyst says the US chipmaker faces an existential threat from Arm after it reports another shocking set of results.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EE adds more scam call protection; Elisa powers on; Google commits to greater transparency for EU searchers.

The company has announced plans for a new intake and says it is planning investment to support young people and jobseekers.

Common interface will be woven into multiple products, including those supporting X1, Flex, Sky Glass, the Xumo streaming JV, and TVs and streamers distributed to Comcast's syndication partners.

Calix execs said over 90% of Q4 bookings comprised platform and managed services as it pursues a 'land and expand' strategy.

AT&T is reviving its 'Connected Solutions' unit to navigate the intersection between 5G and IoT. Cameron Coursey, a longtime AT&T IoT exec, will lead it.

Jeff Baumgartner joins the podcast with updates on Mediacom's mobile service plans and discusses how the cable industry at large is doing in the mobile space.

Alongside a gain of 365,000 mobile lines, Comcast lost a better than expected 26,000 broadband subs – which would've been a gain of 4,000 absent the impact of Hurricane Ian.

BICS also noted a marked increase in the number of 5G-enabled devices, which it believes will have implications for SA 5G and roaming demand.

Critics are concerned that Pollen Mobile's new rewards structure does not have a mechanism that allows early Pollen supporters to accrue more cryptocurrency. And that's caused an uproar.

AT&T's lower annual fiber overbuild cadence 'will certainly feed the controversy around whether fiber is pulling back,' a New Street Research analyst notes.

FWA providers want NTIA to amend BEAD's restriction on unlicensed spectrum projects. Some advocates agree the change is necessary to close the digital divide.

In this roundup: Dell'Oro Group forecasts that the optical transport equipment market will grow at a 3% CAGR over the next five years; Ciena's Blue Planet appoints a new general manager; and Lumen Technologies expands its 400G Wavelength Services network.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: SFR eyes 5G private networks market, with Nokia's help; Telia blown off course by headwinds; Shell Energy comes under Ofcom's cosh.

The Finnish equipment maker reports sales growth and profitability at all its major business units and now aims to build on a 5G turnaround.

Amid massive fixed wireless gains by Verizon and T-Mobile, AT&T said it too is preparing a new fixed wireless product. But AT&T's overall FWA strategy is different from that of its rivals.

AT&T and Verizon have now cut nearly 170,000 jobs in the last seven years and they are apparently not done yet.

AT&T raised its wireless service revenue growth expectations for 2023 a day after Verizon lowered its own forecasts. AT&T CEO John Stankey said the company's overall strategy for 2023 is to maintain course.