High-speed service for Quintillion customers has resumed following subsea cable repairs over the weekend, the company said Tuesday. Customers in the North Slope and northwest Alaskan communities have experienced service disruption since a fiber cut in January (see 2501220001). Quintillion said the next step is cable burial, which could take an additional two weeks. "With cable repair behind us, Quintillion’s No. 1 priority is now fortifying our network to mitigate the risk of future outages, even those that can be caused by Acts of Nature." That mitigation work will include burying cables deeper and creating more redundancy and resiliency in the company's system, it said.
More states released their revised final BEAD plans in recent days ahead of NTIA's Thursday deadline. In North Carolina, which released its plan Friday, about 67% of the state's funding will go to fiber, 30% to low earth orbit satellites, and the remainder to either wireless or a combination of fiber and coaxial services. Tennessee's plan showed more than 75% of its funding going to fiber and about 12% to LEO satellites. The rest will go to either cable or a hybrid fiber-coaxial service.
Montana will award $308 million of its BEAD funding to support 32 projects reaching nearly 72,000 locations, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) announced Thursday. NTIA had allocated the state nearly $629 million in BEAD funding. The state's Communications Advisory Commission submitted its proposal to Gianforte earlier last week. The projects will include fiber, fixed wireless and low earth orbit satellites.
The California Public Utilities Commission approved a three-year home broadband pilot program during its meeting Thursday (see 2508150055). The pilot, funded by the state's LifeLine program, will provide a $20 monthly broadband subsidy for eligible households and $30 for bundled services. The program "will play a key role in achieving the goal of connecting Californians," said commission President Alice Reynolds. The agency established 100/20 Mbps speed standards with 1,280 Gbps monthly usage, except in areas where it isn't feasible. The voluntary program took effect immediately.
The Trump administration and NTIA are "in a difficult position" over whether to approve certain states' final BEAD plans under the agency's revised rules, wrote Jeffrey Westling, director of technology and innovation policy at the American Action Forum. In a Thursday blog post, Westling said that in New Mexico, for example, some locations cost as much as $40,000 to connect, and the "staggering figures raise questions regarding whether the state fully considered its options." Noting the administration's shift from a fiber-first preference, Westling said NTIA will need to "carefully scrutinize" each plan while ensuring that states' plans aren't blocked "just because fiber won a bid."
Minnesota released its final BEAD proposal for public comment Thursday, as expected (see 2508270070), complying with NTIA's revised rules. The state will award "more than half" of its BEAD-eligible locations with fiber, its Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a news release. Other states have also released their revised final proposals in recent days and are now accepting comments, including Iowa, Mississippi and New Mexico. The latter announced Tuesday that it had awarded 44% of its funding to fiber, 40% to fixed wireless, and 16% to low earth orbit satellite providers.
Brightspeed won more than $22 million in BEAD funding to offer fiber across six states, the company said Tuesday. Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin each awarded funding to the company, which said it will reach nearly 74,000 homes once its networks are deployed. "The BEAD program accelerates that mission, unlocking an unprecedented opportunity to deliver life-changing connections that empower families, fuel businesses and ignite local economies. And we’re only just getting started," said Brightspeed CEO Michel Combes. "We are actively pursuing even more BEAD funding to expand our impact in the states we serve.”
North Carolina fiber operator Kinetic is offering $10,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions for vandalism to its copper and fiber infrastructure, it said Friday. Kinetic said there have been multiple incidents in recent weeks, with some customers around Pinebluff, North Carolina, southwest of Raleigh, having lost service as many as five times since mid-July due to copper thefts.
Vermont's Otter Creek Communications Union District (CUD) completed its fiber broadband construction "ahead of schedule and under budget," the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) said Tuesday. The project, which reached 3,626 unserved and underserved areas, was completed with $2.99 million remaining. The CUD and VCBB negotiated an agreement with Consolidated Communications, Fidium and GoNetSpeed on construction, service quality and fair pricing. VCBB Executive Director Christine Hallquist highlighted the project as an "example of a CUD strategically reviewing the current level of service in their area, acknowledging the best course of action was to partner with the existing telecom providers serving most addresses, and then holding them accountable to the community."
The FCC would likely be able to do little to block state laws regulating AI, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday. “Case law suggests that where the FCC does not have authority to regulate, it does not have the authority to preempt the states from regulating,” Levin wrote.