Tim Farrar, a well-known satellite and telecom analyst, was asked whether there’s a point where fiber becomes economically unviable. His answer was blunt: “Elon Musk doesn’t care about your economics. He cares about adding subscribers. The economics don’t matter at the moment.”

Let that sit for a second.

You're running financial models. You're stress-testing take rates. You're agonizing over cost-per-passing in that next build area. And one of your biggest emerging competitors? He's playing a completely different game.

Competition in Rural Broadband Is Changing Faster Than Your Financial Model

Farrar’s comment highlights something I’ve been watching for a while: there’s a growing disconnect between how rural broadband operators think about their businesses and how the market around them is actually behaving.

According to the Fiber Broadband Association, fiber deployment hit a record 11.8 million new homes passed in 2025. That sounds like great news until you look at what’s happening underneath.

Sixteen percent of fiber homes are now served by two or more providers, up from 13% the year before. And it’s not just Starlink.

OpenCape, the leading provider of ultra-fast fiber connectivity from Cape Cod to Southern New England, announced today that Pete Saladino has joined as Executive Director. 

A law enacted by Congress in 2024 mandated ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets by a January 2025 deadline. Trump chose not to enforce the legislation.

Donald Trump and his attorney general are facing a lawsuit from retail investors in rival social media companies of TikTok, who are seeking to overturn the president’s approval of a deal for the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to form a majority American-owned joint venture.

Filed on Thursday, this marks the first legal challenge to the agreement. The lawsuit contends that Trump’s approval last year contravened requirements established in a 2024 divestiture law. Two California residents, shareholders in Alphabet and Meta Platforms, initiated the suit with backing from the Public Integrity Project.

Palestinian journalist Plestia Alaqad on bearing witness, the fragile power of social media, and why documenting lived reality matters more than ever.

Plestia Alaqad is known to millions of people as an image on a screen: a young Palestinian journalist in a press vest and helmet, standing amidst the destruction of Gaza, speaking to the camera in between airstrikes. She is one of many.

The burden of witnessing and reporting events in Gaza has been almost exclusively carried by Palestinian journalists, as Israel has barred international journalists from entering the territory and reporting on the war since October 2023. In limited cases, journalists have been allowed to enter under controlled conditions, escorted by the Israeli army.

Reporters like Alaqad began reaching millions of people through social media, which has been widely credited with turning the tide of opinion outside of the Middle East. “I believe everyone now knows how powerful social media is, and we’ve seen that firsthand in the genocide that is happening in Gaza, in Palestine,” Alaqad says. “It’s because of us citizen journalists reporting on what’s happening using social media.”

A chief analyst for Google's threat intelligence operation has warned that Iran's likelihood to engage widespread cyberattacks is a certainty.

The threat from Iranian cyber operations is not to be taken lightly, experts are warning.

A new report filed by Danny Palmer, a deputy editor for Infosecurity Magazine, says Google’s chief threat intelligence analyst is predicting that Iran will engage in cyberattacks as the conflict in the Middle East continues.

Ilan Eframian, of Xfinity Communities, joined Elizabeth Parks, from Parks Associates, to review emerging connectivity expectations of renters.

Connectivity is a key part of decision making when renters are considering where to live, according to Elizabeth Parks, the president and CMO of Parks Associates.

Parks joined Ilan Eframian, a VP from Xfinity Communities, on Beyond the Cable to discuss some of the insights revealed in recent research by Parks Associates, which closely studies the broadband and multifamily markets.

The research, published by Xfinity Communities, said 41% of renters expect instant-on connectivity when they move into a new place.

Key Findings

• We introduce a new measure of AI displacement risk, observed exposure, that combines theoretical LLM capability and real-world usage data, weighting automated (rather than augmentative) and work-related uses more heavily
• AI is far from reaching its theoretical capability: actual coverage remains a fraction of what's feasible
• Occupations with higher observed exposure are projected by the BLS to grow less through 2034
• Workers in the most exposed professions are more likely to be older, female, more educated, and higher-paid
• We find no systematic increase in unemployment for highly exposed workers since late 2022, though we find suggestive evidence that hiring of younger workers has slowed in exposed occupations

Introduction

The rapid diffusion of AI is generating a wave of research measuring and forecasting its impacts on labor markets. But the track record of past approaches gives reason for humility.

Vermont’s Communications Union Districts (CUDs), which were the subject of a 2024 ILSR report, continue to make steady inroads in delivering high-quality broadband access to long-neglected rural Vermont residents. 

That includes the Chittenden County Communication Union District (CCCUD), which recently announced the completion of a planned fiber extension into the heavily rural communities of Essex Town, Essex Junction, Jericho, Shelburne, Westford, and Williston.

The deployment was completed in partnership with Fidium Fiber, which says the expansion brought fiber optic connectivity to more than 1,900 homes and businesses across the six towns for the first time ever.

The Finnish company Jolla is back with the Linux-powered Jolla Phone. It’s being positioned as an antidote to the US-dominated smartphone status quo of Android and iOS.

Analysts Don Kellogg and Roger Entner unpack the week’s top telecom stories, including a leadership shakeup at Charter, accelerating rural consolidation, and the strategic void left by 5G Americas' dissolution.

David Ellison talks Warner Bros. in first comments about the megadeal that will combine Paramount and Warners.

The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted comments Feb. 18 to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) urging the agency to issue timely and clear guidance that will allow states to spend Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds that are not used for broadband network construction—also known as nondeployment funds.

Read the comments:

Dear Assistant Secretary Roth:

I am the project director for the Pew Charitable Trusts’ broadband access initiative (BAI). Pew is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that applies a rigorous analytical approach to solving public policy problems. BAI works with state and federal policymakers, researchers, and other partners to accelerate the nation’s progress toward universal, affordable high-speed internet service.

Since 2021, Pew has delivered research and facilitated peer-to-peer engagement for state broadband offices (SBOs) throughout the country. This work affords us a clear view of the challenges and opportunities related to implementation and informs our recommendations. 

Construction on a 100-percent fiber-optic internet network has begun in Federal Way, in Washington, according to Ripple Fiber.

Following the recent groundbreaking in Ocean Shores, Washington, the provider is making progress on the $250 million project that includes more than 200,000 homes and businesses across King County and Grays Harbor County. Ripple Fiber expects to launch service to customers in Federal Way by summer 2026.

AI data center construction, quantum technology leaps, and long-awaited BEAD funding is making 2026 a momentous year for fiber.

Every year, fiber plays an increasingly important role in our society, but 2026 is shaping up to be particularly momentous for three key reasons: AI data center construction is driving both fiber densification and advanced tech adoption, quantum technology is making steady progress towards deployment in real-world settings, and long-awaited BEAD funding is moving out of proposals and into actual spending.  

In the top-level policy discussions about applications and services, little has been said about the need for reliable, easily scalable broadband with fiber at the core of the telecommunications infrastructure. 

On this week’s “More To The Story,” tech journalist Karen Hao sounds the alarm about the rising risks to the country—and planet—from the growth of artificial intelligence.

OpenAI became the world’s most valuable private company last week after a stock deal pushed the value of the artificial intelligence developer to $500 billion. The company and its remarkable chatbot ChatGPT have single-handedly accelerated AI’s boom and threatened to upend much of how we work, create, learn, and communicate in the process.

But when OpenAI was founded a decade ago, the company’s approach to artificial intelligence wasn’t taken seriously in Silicon Valley. Tech journalist Karen Hao has been covering OpenAI’s astounding rise for years and recently wrote a book about the company, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. She says that while many in Silicon Valley warn of AI’s sci fi–like threats, the real risks are already here.

lllinois State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, has introduced legislation directing regulators to set broadband price protections for low-income residents, though the bill text leaves key details to be determined later. The measure joins those in other states, including Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota, that have introduced measures aimed at capping broadband prices for qualifying households.

Bergen County, New Jersey officials say they’re making significant progress on their plan to dramatically expand Bergen County Fiber – the county’s new municipal fiber Institutional Network (I-Net) – with recently completed deployments in communities like Little Ferry and Lodi.

The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.

Dr. Tamarah Holmes, Ph.D., has announced her transition into a new role in Virginia as the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  This position is a gubernatorial appointment in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Holmes has assumed the role of Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), which is appointed by the Governor.

The role is a culmination of Holmes’ almost 20 years in Virginia civil service, which includes 12 years with the state and almost seven as its broadband director. While BEAD has taken up most of her days in recent years, she tells broadband.io that what she is most proud of is the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI). Approaching 10 years since it was “birthed” by Holmes, she says her “fourth child” is ready for who and what’s next.