Tag: "Cable One"

One Map to Rule Them All, Challenge Abuses, and the End of the Fiber Boom | Episode 58 of the Connect This! Show

Posted November 15, 2022 by Ry Marcattilio

Join us live on Tuesday, November 22nd, at 1:30pm ET for the latest episode of the Connect This! Show. Co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) will be joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (UTOPIA Fiber) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting). Special guest Mike Dunne, from FiberRise, will join partway through the show. The panel will talk about the first version of the brand-new FCC broadband maps, released last Friday, internal Cable One emails admitting the company's misuse of the challenge process to block competition from publicly funded providers, updates on the broadband nutrition label, and whether rising interest rates will spell an end to the fiber boom. 

Email us at broadband@muninetworks.org with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, watch on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

East Carroll Parish Residents in Louisiana Fend Off Sparklight Challenge

Posted October 5, 2022 by Sean Gonsalves

Residents of East Carroll Parish are “cautiously celebrating” the decision by Louisiana’s Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity to uphold a $4 million GUMBO grant to bring fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet service to over 2,500 households in one of the most poorly connected parts of the state.

As we reported last month, the grant had been challenged by the regional monopoly cable provider Sparklight after the state had awarded the grant to Conexon. The challenge, which claimed the cable company already serves 2,856 homes in the region, brought the project to a grinding halt on the same day residents were set to launch a sign-up-for-service event.

News that the challenge was rejected brought a sigh of relief to members of Delta Interfaith, a coalition of congregations and community-based organizations in the Louisiana Delta pushing for better broadband. Coalition members had formed an Internet task force during the Covid-19 crisis as families struggled to get access to reliable broadband.

The community and elected officials were elated when Conexon, an independent rural Internet provider, was intially awarded the grant in July – only to be frustrated when they learned of Sparklight’s challenge. Concerned that Sparklight (formerly known as Cable One) was simply gaming the state’s grant challenge process in an effort to stave off competition, community members initiated a letter-writing campaign to bring light to the challenge and pressure state officials to resolve the challenge as soon as possible.

Sparklight 'Failed to Carry Its Burden of Proof'

In its letter to Sparklight explaining why the challenge was being rejected, Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity (OBDC) Executive Director Veneeth Iyengar noted that “because Sparklight has provided such a limited explanation of its position, it is difficult to discern and analyze its argument.”

Iyengar goes on to write:

... Read more

Louisiana First State to Get BEAD Planning Funds as State GUMBO Grants Get Messy

Posted September 2, 2022 by Sean Gonsalves

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced earlier this week that Louisiana will be the first state in the nation to receive federal grant planning funds to help states prepare for the deployment of high-speed Internet infrastructure and digital skills training under the Biden Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative.

Enabled by last year's passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the $2.9 million heading to the Pelican State is from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and the Digital Equity Act (DEA) – a development Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said was a signal that “the Internet for All initiative is on track and on schedule.”

Over the coming weeks, every state and territory will have funding in hand as they begin to build grant-making capacity, assess their unique needs, and engage with diverse stakeholders to make sure that no one is left behind. My thanks go to Governor Edwards and his team; Louisiana was among the first to sign onto Internet for All and to apply for funding, and I know they’re ready to get to work for the people of Louisiana.  

According to NTIA’s press announcement, $2 million of the planning funds being allocated to Louisiana come from the BEAD program and will help the state:

  • Identify unserved and underserved locations
  • Support outreach to diverse stakeholders across the state
  • Train employees administering the state’s broadband program
  • Assist with asset mapping to track broadband adoption, affordability, equity, access and deployment activities
  • Survey unserved, underserved, and underrepresented communities to better understand barriers to adoption 
  • Ramp up efforts to support local coordination at the local and regional levels 

The other $900,000 will come from the Digital Equity Act, also passed as part of IIJA. That money will fund Louisiana’s development of a statewide Digital Equity Plan; hire a Digital Equity/Inclusion Specialist to create and execute the state’s digital equity strategy; foster partnerships with a consortium of higher education...

Read more

First Louisiana GUMBO Grant is Challenged; Project on Back Burner

Posted August 29, 2022 by Sean Gonsalves

Louisiana’s broadband deployment grant program, GUMBO (Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities), was announced with great fanfare by Gov. John Bel Edwards and several state lawmakers when earlier this summer they visited Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish, the first community in the state to be the beneficiaries of the $130 million grant program.

Broadband-hungry residents and businesses were licking their chops at the prospect of finally getting access to reliable high-speed Internet service in an area that had long been underserved. But what’s leaving a bad taste in the mouths of East Carroll Parish residents is an eleventh-hour challenge to the grant award by the regional cable company.

Conexon was awarded a $4 million grant to bring fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service to over 2,500 households in the rural northeast part of the state. But the monopoly cable provider who serves the area – Sparklight (formerly known as Cable One) – filed a challenge to the grant claiming the cable company already serves 2,856 homes there, even though, as noted by The Advocate, that is nearly 1,000 more homes than what U.S. Census data reports in the project area.

The challenge has brought the project to a grinding halt on the day network construction was slated to begin. The delay has community residents and some state lawmakers frustrated as the state’s Division of Administration tries to figure out if the challenge has any real merit.

As reported by The Advocate:

Generally, GUMBO regulations allow a seven-day window to protest after an award is announced. Protestors have 10 days to provide data supporting their challenge. Bid winners then have 10 days to respond and the Division of Administration has 20 days to decide. Either side can appeal to Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne. Once...

Read more
Subscribe to Cable One