Broadband Bytes May 2025 Issue 2

BROADBAND NEWS:

1. Charter Communications and Cox Communications to Merge.  Charter will acquire Cox Communications’ commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses, and Cox Enterprises will contribute Cox Communications’ residential cable business to Charter Holdings, an existing subsidiary partnership of Charter. The two companies will change the company name to Cox Communications but will use the Spectrum brand — currently used by Charter — throughout their combined footprint. Charter and Cox to Merge
2. FCC Approves Verizon Acquisition of Frontier.  The FCC approved the acquisition of Frontier by Verizon for $20 billion. “The transaction will unleash billions of dollars in new infrastructure builds in communities across the country—including rural America,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Plans for the Verizon acquisition of Frontier were originally announced in September and Frontier’s stockholders approved the acquisition in November. FCC approves Verizon acquisition of Frontier
3. Georgia, Wisconsin Ask Department of Commerce to Remove BEAD Roadblocks. Two more states — Georgia and Wisconsin — have joined the chorus of those hoping the U.S. Department of Commerce will maintain the BEAD Program as-is. Governor Tony Evers of WI  said the Wisconsin legislature did not approve his administration’s request for $750 million in broadband funding to expand high-speed internet because it expected to receive BEAD investments. Thus, failure to receive those funds would mean that there would be no funding.  Wisconsin got $1.056 billion and Georgia got $1.307 billion in BEAD funding. GA & WI add to the push for DoC to release BEAD funds
4. …and Louisiana exec to Sec. Lutnick: “You’re not keeping your word.”  Frustration continues to grow in rural Louisiana as a result of BEAD delays, as evidenced by the latest plea for action from Caleb Etheridge, the founder and CEO of EPC. Etheridge’s company, a broadband construction firm in rural North Louisiana, has suffered significantly due to delays according to the firm’s CEO. In his letter, the second such plea from EPC in less than a month, Etheridge calls on Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to stop stalling the program. Etheridge says the damaged faced by Lutnick’s delay “will not be reversible.”  CEO of EPC warms of damage from BEAD fund delay
5. Click to Cancel.  The FTC voted on May 9 to delay the implementation of click to cancel until July 19. Any ISP that takes orders online will be required to offer an online process to allow customers to disconnect service that is as easy as the process to buy online. This new rule has become labeled as click to cancel. More specifically, the FTC rules include a negative option rule that says that a business can’t require customers who want to cancel to go through a different process than the one they used to buy a service. If a customer bought a service or an upgrade online, they must be able to cancel that service online. Another part of the new rules is that a company that sells online must be truthful and clear with customers about what they are buying. ISPs are already subject to broadband labels required by the FCC, but this new requirement might require clearer language in the description of products and not just in the label. Click to Cancel Rule for ISPs
6. Lumen sells consumer fiber biz to AT&T for $5.75B.  Lumen confirmed it is selling its Mass Markets FTTH business to AT&T for $5.75 billion in cash. Per CEO Kate Johnson, it is doing so to double down on the enterprise and AI fiber space. (Estimated market worth more than $80 billion.) Lumen will retain its fiber backbone assets as well as its existing copper network.  AT&T will acquire approximately 95% of Lumen’s Quantum Fiber business, which consists of nearly 1 million subscribers and about 4 million passings across 11 states.   Lumen sells consumer fiber biz to AT&T for $5.75B
7. Analysts: AT&T got great value out of the Lumen deal.  The news is out that Lumen is selling its consumer fiber biz to AT&T. As far as analysts are concerned, AT&T couldn’t have asked for a better deal to facilitate its fiber ambitions. AT&T plans to double its fiber footprint with the Lumen deal.  “This is a fantastic transaction for AT&T,” said New Street Research’s Jonathan Chaplin. “They are getting the most valuable ILEC markets not owned by AT&T and Verizon.”  Analysts: AT&T got great value with Lumen fiber deal
8. May 23, 2025: Supreme Court Greenlights Trump Firings of Independent Agency Officials.  In a move likely to reverberate through independent federal agencies, the Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump the green light to remove two regulatory officials without cause – a decision that could doom a parallel legal challenge filed by a pair of recently ousted Democratic Federal Trade Commission commissioners.  The unsigned order marks a sharp break from nearly a century of precedent limiting executive interference in quasi-independent regulatory bodies. SCOTUS Oks Trump firings of Independent Agency Officials
9. Everstream Reaches Agreement for Sale of Business to Bluebird Fiber.  Everstream announced that it has reached an agreement to sell substantially all of its operations to an affiliate of Bluebird Fiber, a regional provider of fiber-based connectivity solutions for businesses. This follows Everstream’s sale of its Illinois and St. Louis metropolitan area networks and its previously announced plan to wind down its Pennsylvania operations. To complete this transaction, Everstream and certain of its affiliates commenced voluntary chapter 11 proceedings. During these proceedings, Everstream will operate as usual, serving its customers without interruption. Everstream enters chapter 11 and to sell business to Bluebird Fiber

FUNDING AWARDS, FIBER EXPANSIONS

1. Metronet Bringing Symmetrical all fiber 5 Gbps Service to Bartlett, Illinois Residents.  The service provider offers service in more than 300 other communities across 19 states. In Illinois, it offers services in more than 40 communities. Metronet Fiber Expansion Bartlett IL
2. Astound Broadband Announces $22M Project With Clallam County, Washington.  Once complete, the project will provide more than 1,500 homes with access to Astound’s FTTH network, delivering symmetrical speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second. Over the next year, Astound will build approximately 100 miles of state-of-the-art fiber-optic infrastructure. Astound Broadband Fiber Expansion Clallam County WA
3. Oklahoma Board Advances More Than $53M in Middle-Mile Broadband Grants.  More than $53 million in middle-mile broadband expansion grants were recommended for approval this week by the Oklahoma Broadband Governing Board. The Oklahoma middle-mile projects, recommended for approval by the Grants Review Committee, are funded by the American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.  By provider, the Oklahoma middle-mile broadband grants recommended for approval follow in this link. OK $53M Middle Mile Broadband Grants
4. Syntrio to Launch Fiber Network in Aledo, Texas. Construction is set to begin in May 2025 and will span several months as Syntrio works to build an underground fiber network. Syntrio is on track to expand reliable internet to not only Aledo, but also to several communities within Parker County. Syntrio new fiber network Aledo TX
5. WideOpenWest’s fiber expansion reaches 76K locations.  WideOpenWest continues to make good on its Greenfield FTTH expansion strategy, passing nearly 14,000 locations during the first quarter across four markets–Central Florida, Hernando Beach, Florida, Brighton, Michigan and Greenville, South Carolina. WoW Fiber Expansions 
6. Projects by the Oklahoma Broadband Office and Resound Networks in over dozen counties have officially been launched in May.  The projects will provide access to over 5,200 homes and businesses. The projects, twenty in total, are funded by at least $21.1 million in federal grants and $18.5 million in matching contributions from Resound Networks. OK Resound Networks Projects Commence
7. FiberLight has relocated their corporate headquarters from GA to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. FiberLight is strengthening their commitment to Texas with a decision to relocate their corporate headquarters to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, (Plano) the fiber-optic network provider has announced. The company, which has approximately 20,000 route miles of fiber across their multi-state footprint, has a significant portion of their network located in TX. FiberLight will relocate to Plano TX
8. GoNetspeed plans fiber expansion in Newport, RI. A $13 million investment, combined from public and private funds, will propel GoNetspeed’s expansion into Rhode Island, which will become the tenth state in the ISP’s footprint.  The expansion will eventually deliver high-speed fiber optic internet to 8,200 homes in the community. Construction on the Newport expansion is set to begin this fall; completion is expected by spring of 2026. GoNetspeed plans fiber expansion Newport, RI
9. Ripple Fiber expands debt capacity to $350 million.  Ripple Fiber, a Charlotte-based provider of high-speed fiber internet services, announced it has secured a significant expansion of its existing credit facility to $350 million. Led and arranged by Post Road Group, the agreement is a significant increase in the company’s debt capacity and a vote of confidence, providing substantial resources to support Ripple Fiber’s network deployment across the US. This commitment comes after the company’s strategic merger completion with HyperFiber, which combined the companies under the unified Ripple Fiber brand and leadership. With this expanded debt capacity, Ripple Fiber is now exceptionally well-positioned to execute on its near-term build plan with operations in 10 states by the end of 2025. Ripple Fiber expands debt capacity to $350M

Broadband Bytes is a weekly collection of broadband news highlights from leading industry resources compiled by David Levine, RCDD. David is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a 35-year industry veteran in fiber and copper solutions.