Wireless operators, particularly T-Mobile, showing increasing interest in fiber companies could help generate more broadband M&A activity, CoBank said Friday. Valuations for privately owned broadband providers were flat during the past 12 to 18 months and below levels of two to three years ago. T-Mobile is using M&A for growth and to bolster its smartphone service by bundling it with home internet, CoBank noted. It said broadband operators were the subject of bidding wars five years ago due to low interest rates, easy access to good labor, and new fiber builds growing in underserved areas. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed valuations higher given the work-from-home trend. However, subsequent inflation hurt broadband valuations. Now there is "a staring contest between some buyers and sellers" over price, slowing M&As. CoBank added that M&A activity should begin picking up again owing to lower interest rates and nationwide wireless operators' interest in fiber assets.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) took shots at each other on X Wednesday, trading jabs about net neutrality and Carr's selection as President-elect Donald Trump's FCC chair. Carr "opposes net neutrality, which ensures that you, not telecom companies, get to decide where you go on the internet," Wiener wrote. "Fortunately [California] has a strong net neutrality law, which I authored after Trump's FCC repealed net neutrality in 2017," he said, adding that "we'll defend an open internet" (see 2309280056). Carr responded with an image of search results for "What has Scott Wiener done?," appearing to imply that Wiener has done little worth noting.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board announced it will soon have $8 million available for additional broadband buildout throughout the state. The new funding comes from interest earned on initial American Rescue Plan Act funding, VCBB said Tuesday. The agency will "work carefully and extensively with partners to leverage these funds," said VCBB Board Chair Patty Richards.

Every state and territory received NTIA approval for their BEAD plans, the agency said Tuesday. NTIA said about $37 billion in BEAD funding was made available (see [Ref:2410100002). "States and territories must now submit a final proposal" detailing the "outcome of the provider selection process and how they will ensure universal broadband coverage," said a news release. The agency noted that 16 states and territories have "finalized the homes and businesses that will be connected via BEAD-supported projects." Eight states have begun selecting ISPs. Louisiana became the first state on Monday to release its final proposal for public comment, NTIA said.

AI and traditional telecom infrastructure aren’t the same and a carrier may require different structures for each in their networks, Beth Cohen, Verizon advanced networking and security product strategist, said Tuesday during a TelecomTV webinar. “They’re actually quite different types of workloads, so to build the infrastructure to support them doesn’t necessarily require an integration between the two workloads,” she said. Another question for providers is the extent they’re going to rely on a third-party cloud provider to handle workloads that are “highly compute intense and storage intense.” These are “early days” for AI and networking and each carrier must work through problems itself, she said. “It would be great if there was more consensus, but I don’t think there is yet.” Fernando Castro Cristin, vice president-telco infrastructure at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said companies want AI to reduce costs and optimize their business and generate revenue. “The telecom industry is there to connect all that together,” he said, adding carriers already are using AI to optimize parts of their networks. “We’ve been optimizing networks for decades, not using AI,” Cohen said. “It’ll be interesting to see how much AI can optimize further.” There’s also a push for carriers to open networks so they can offer customers AI-based applications. “That is very much more exciting and a newer approach to using AI and using the infrastructure to support it,” Cohen said. That’s also much more complicated and puts additional pressure on providers to protect customers’ data, she added. Cristin predicted security will become more important than it is today.

Mercury Wireless Indiana notified the FCC it's unable to meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments to build out its service in 13 census tracts in Indiana. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy high-speed broadband throughout rural America,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. “Mercury took the time to put forth thoughtful analysis as we endeavored to find a way to make these broadband deployments feasible,” the provider said: “However, deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the RDOF reverse auction.”

RiverStreet Communications petitioned the FCC for a waiver on census block groups (CBGs) it won and surrendered through the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program Monday (see 2410250006). New Kent County, Virginia, awarded Cox Communications $16 million to "build out a broadband network totaling 566.7 fiber miles that will allow Cox to provide high-speed broadband services to every household and business in New Kent County," RiverStreet said in a petition filed in docket 19-126. RiverStreet said both companies agreed that RiverStreet would relinquish certain CBGs that duplicate the locations Cox plans to build out. "Because deduplication serves the public interest and so that RiverStreet will not be subject to the penalties set forth in the FCC’s rules for failure to meet certain buildout milestones, RiverStreet seeks a waiver of those rules," the company said.

Consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls have declined more than 50% since 2021, the FTC said in its national Do Not Call Registry data book released Friday. "Illegal calls remain a scourge, but the FTC's strategy to pursue upstream players and equip the agency to confront emerging threats is showing clear signs of success," said Sam Levine, director-Bureau of Consumer Protection. The FTC said it received about 1.1 million complaints about robocalls in FYB 2024, down 1.2 million from the previous year. Complaints about calls related to debt-reduction, though, increased more than 85% from last year.

NTIA approved more than $68 million in digital equity capacity grant program funding for five states and Puerto Rico, the agency said Thursday (see 2408300003). Delaware received $4.8 million, Louisiana $12.7 million, Missouri $14.2 million, Oklahoma $11.2 million, Tennessee $15.8 million and Puerto Rico $9.8 million.

NTIA awarded more than $72 million to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Tuesday through the tribal broadband connectivity program. Funds will support middle mile fiber optic line deployment and wireless telecom tower management across Hawaiian lands and construction of community digital innovation centers. "This award will ensure that Native Hawaiians have the internet connections they need to take advantage of digital opportunities for work, education, health care, and other essential services," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.