Consumers are spending more money on subscription streaming services, paying on average $70 a month in October, compared with $48 monthly just one year ago, according to consulting firm Deloitte.
Lead times for ribbon fiber are in the “60-plus weeks range” as vendors struggle to make enough cable for data centers and future BEAD projects
There’s also a shortage of Buy America-compliant glass for fibers
Data centers are where most of the money’s at, so a shortage could be most crippling to BEAD and smaller ISPs
The fiber shortage is already here. And with data center builds as well as public and private rural fiber deployments all ramping, there's bound to be a breaking point sooner or later.
“It’s like the perfect storm,” Ashley Travers, chair of the Fiber Broadband Association’s Supply Chain Working Group, told Fierce. “You’ve got BEAD, you’ve got hyperscalers…with all these states coming out the gate at the same time, it’s going to present a challenge.”
Cable is getting hit with competition from mobile, fixed wireless and satellite
It's trying to retain customers with lower prices
Now, Charter is accused of fighting fixed wireless by withholding backhaul services
A few years ago, it was unclear who would win the war between cable operators and wireless providers. Cable was beginning to offer mobile subscriptions as part of its bundles, achieving great subscription uptake. Meanwhile, wireless providers offered fixed wireless access (FWA) to a mass audience, and complemented wireless offerings with more fiber.
As we kick off 2026, it’s very clear who the winners and losers are. Wireless is winning, and cable has fallen on hard times.
CPB functioned as a national stabilizer — negotiating rights, sharing infrastructure, smoothing disparities between rich and poor markets. Without it, public media begins to resemble the very commercial ecosystem it was designed to counterbalance.
Another Bezos company, Blue Origin, is entering the satellite scene
It’s plotting a satellite network that can provide symmetrical optical connectivity of up to 6 Tbps
But deployments won’t begin until Q4 2027 and Amazon LEO still hasn’t launched commercial service
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space technology company, plans to enter the satellite connectivity arena with a new constellation targeting data centers, enterprises and government customers.
Dubbed TeraWave, the network will consist of 5,408 low earth orbit (LEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites and aims to provide high-throughput links and multi-gigabit connections, “particularly in remote, rural, and suburban areas where diverse fiber paths are costly, technically infeasible, or slow to deploy,” said the press release.
Hawaii has received federal approval to begin spending nearly $149 million to expand high-speed Internet statewide, marking one of the largest digital infrastructure investments in state history.
What does the future hold for Verizon with a new CEO at the helm? Does the $42.5 billion BEAD program have staying power? Can telcos fend off a space-based market invasion?
A new year brings a fresh start, but there are some trends that are bound to carry over from 2025. We gathered the whole Fierce Network crew to get their top takes on what's in store for the year to come in the wireless, wireline, AI and cloud realms. #AI #cloud #wireless #fiber
Project Jade could eventually use the same amount of electricity as produced by 10 nuclear power plants, boosting Wyoming’s energy industry while challenging efforts to limit emissions and stressing water supplies.
As massive data centers move into residential neighborhoods, Black communities are questioning the environmental, economic, and energy costs of AI’s rapid expansion.
Openness in internet standards and access enabled the growth of today’s digital economy.
Big Tech giants benefited from internet openness and then built a closed superstructure on top of it.Leveraging their digital market power, Big Tech companies now seek to become Big AI by perpetuating exclusionary practices.
AI can become the greatest engine of productivity since electrification, but only if we avoid reproducing these same gatekeeping dynamics.
The global market for artificial intelligence is taking shape at breathtaking speed—and with remarkably few constraints. Vast new data centers are being financed as if they were shopping centers. Foundation models are being treated as if they are the next “Intel Inside.” And the firms that used their control of computing power, data, and distribution to become Big Tech are relying on those same resources to control the tools of artificial intelligence, become Big AI, and dominate its downstream applications.
This should concern everyone who believes innovation comes from competition, not control.
Best Best & Krieger LLP (BBK) Telecommunications Attorneys Cheryl Leanza and Tillman Lay have authored an article published in the International Municipal Lawyers Association’s Municipal Lawyer magazine, January/February 2026 issue. The authors provide in-depth analysis of the Loper Bright and McLaughlin cases decided in 2024 and 2025.
Humans&, a new startup founded by alumni of Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Google DeepMind, is building the next generation of foundation models for collaboration, not chat.
TikTok users are freaking out over a mention of "immigration status" data collection, but lawyers explain the disclosure is related to state privacy laws.
The American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative are kicking off the new year with another one of their increasingly popular and informative webinars.
Slated for January 20th from 12 to 1:00 pm ET, the livestream event will feature the theme “Navigating the Legal Landscape of Community Broadband” – an eye-opening conversation on the most pressing legal considerations facing communities exploring broadband for the first time or expanding existing local networks.
It will feature Sean Stokes and Casey Lide, attorneys with noted law firm Keller & Heckman. They have advised communities across the country on the legal, regulatory, and governance issues associated with community broadband projects.
One of the more curious undertakings done by the FCC every year is the Urban Rate Study. This is an exercise undertaken every year to determine the highest monthly broadband rates that can be charged by ETCs (Eligible Telecommunications Carriers). This basically means regulated telcos and other ISPs that participate in some grant or subsidy…
Governor Laura Kelly today announced that $6.7 million has been awarded to five Internet Service Providers through the latest round of the Broadband Acceleration Grant program. These awards will be matched with an additional $6.7 million in private and local investment, resulting in $13.4 million to expand high-speed internet access across eight rural Kansa
Broadband is an essential service for accessing emergency services, healthcare, employment, education, and social services. This report presents the Public Advocates Office’s analysis of broadband pricing, affordability, and adoption trends in California, examining how prices vary across providers, technologies, and speed tiers and how affordability affects households’ ability to adopt and maintain service. The analysis helps inform policy decisions and provides a year-over-year benchmark to assess broadband affordability, adoption, and program effectiveness statewide.
Affordable broadband depends not only on availability, but also on meaningful competition among providers. This report examines how broadband competition affects residential internet pricing across California’s major urban markets using address-level data on broadband availability and promotional pricing from the state’s largest fixed broadband providers. The analysis explores how pricing varies with local competitive conditions and outlines policy considerations relevant to broadband affordability.
Russell Wald – Executive Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
Wald opened by framing AI not merely as a technological acceleration, but as a force reshaping geopolitics, economic organization, and social trust. He emphasized Stanford HAI’s mission to ensure AI development aligns with human values, societal benefit, and responsible governance. The session was positioned at the intersection of technical capability and institutional responsibility, where trust and governance become central as AI systems permeate daily life.
Colin Kahl – Director, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)
Kahl highlighted the increasing centrality of AI across international affairs research, from democracy and security to climate and global order. He emphasized that the discussion was intentionally interdisciplinary, pairing a global political observer (Thomas Friedman) with a technologist deeply embedded in both industry and policy (Craig Mundie). Former Stanford President John Hennessy was introduced as moderator.
Origins of a Long-Running Dialogue
Thomas Friedman – Journalist and Author
Friedman described how his collaboration with Craig Mundie began during the writing of The World Is Flat, following a pivotal encounter with Bill Gates. Gates challenged Friedman’s framing of open source software and assigned Mundie as a technical counterpart. Friedman characterized their partnership as a durable synthesis of deep technical understanding and public translation, shaping multiple books and columns over two decades.
Craig Mundie – Technologist, former Microsoft executive
Mundie explained that his work expanding computing beyond the PC led him into regulated industries and sustained engagement with governments worldwide. His dialogue with Friedman helped bridge global political dynamics with the realities of emerging technology, reinforcing the value of continuous, cross-domain conversation.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a dramatic expansion of the state’s Municipal Infrastructure Program. It will result in an additional $36 million cash infusion for the growing number of creative, community-owned and operated fiber expansion projects in the state, as the existing program has already funded more than $268 million in assorted open access fiber projects across the state.
New research looks at how leading AI models hold up doing actual white-collar work tasks, drawn from consulting, investment banking, and law. Most models failed.
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