AT&T’s fiber plan; Verizon cost cuts; Lumen asset sale – the top 10 FierceTelecom stories of 2021

If there are two themes that sum up 2021 for FierceTelecom, they’ve got to be fiber and broadband funding. Of course, there was a fair bit of cable/DOCSIS, cloud and networking news sprinkled in the mix, but those two topics really stole the show. So, it perhaps comes as no surprise that many of the top ten stories of the year include variations on those themes. Here’s a look back at the stories that grabbed readers' attention the most through the course of the year.

1. Lumen, Frontier, Verizon among telcos to lose millions due to new FCC reg

Defying the model, this story focused on a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule related to tandem switching regulations for toll-free calls. The agency made the change to combat fraud, but it was expected to cost operators millions per month from the time it took effect in July.

2. AT&T puts cable companies on notice with fiber plan

In May, AT&T joined a number of other companies in ramping up its fiber deployments, aiming to double its footprint to 30 million locations by 2025. In this story from June, AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said that investment would allow it to take back market share from cable companies. The operator’s build got off to a rough start, however, with supply chain issues forcing it to trim its deployment forecast for 2021.

3. SpaceX’s Starlink kickstarts a satellite broadband market that could disrupt telecom — Menon

In this column from September, MTN Consulting Lead Analyst Arun Menon delved into the satellite broadband market. Among other things, he identified SpaceX’s Starlink service as having a lead over competitors and looked at some trends that are expected to shape the market over the near term.

4. Verizon closes in on its $10 billion cost cutting goal with its operational efficiencies

Kicking off the year in January, this article focused on Verizon’s long-discussed $10 billion cost cutting goal. At the time, Verizon executive Ronan Dunne said it was on track to hit its target and discussed its related One Fiber and Intelligent Edge Network initiatives as a means to improve operational efficiency.

5. Lumen explores sale of $5B in assets to Apollo: report

Rumor had it right! Well, sort of. This story from July reported Lumen was looking to sell some of its assets to Apollo Global Management. While that part was true, the deal ended up being bigger than the $5 billion figure originally reported. See headline #9 for more.

6. Comcast pledges $1B over 10 years to close digital divide

Early in the year, Comcast pledged $1 billion to help close the digital divide. As this story from March details, the initiative included investments in its Lift Zone campaign to bring Wi-Fi to community centers and donations of laptop and computers to non-profit community organizations.

7. AT&T says customers are demanding fiber broadband

A precursor to #2 on our list, this article from March previewed AT&T’s plan to invest in fiber moving forward. At the time, then CFO John Stephens outlined the reasoning behind its focus on fiber, pointing to customer demand.

8. U.S. government funding sources for broadband

There was a lot of noise about broadband funding in 2021, with support pouring in from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), American Rescue Plan Act and more recently the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We created this living story to help the industry keep track of all the funding sources and how much states are dedicating to broadband. We have been updating this story continuously as new information has become available and will continue to do so.

9. Lumen inks $7.5B deal to sell ILEC assets to Apollo

The deal hinted at in story #5 finally came to fruition in August, when Lumen offloaded its ILEC assets in 20 states to Apollo Global Management. Lumen argued the deal would allow it to invest more in its remaining footprint and in November unveiled a plan to push its residential Quantum Fiber service to 12 million locations over the coming years. Meanwhile, Apollo tapped a slate of former Verizon execs to oversee a $2 billion fiber rollout in the footprint it bought from Lumen. More on that can be found here.

10. Charter splashes some details on its fiber build outs across 24 states for RDOF

Rounding out the top 10, this story about Charter from February focuses on the operator’s multi-billion-dollar fiber deployment plan covering the 24 states where it won RDOF funding. By July, Charter was getting to work, contracting Gibson Technical Services to help with the rollout.

Honorable mention

11. Lumen strikes edge compute deal with T-Mobile
12. Verizon CEO sees FWA as ‘the next generation of broadband’
13. Zayo might buy Uniti, Windstream
14. Comcast focuses on mid-split to get to DOCSIS 4.0, stalls wireless infra plan
15. Lumen brags that its Quantum Fiber is better than wireless or cable