ALBUQUERQUE – October 20, 2026 – A new round of state funds aimed at closing the digital divide will help more New Mexico families receive a computer while providing digital literacy instruction — key components of the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion’s (OBAE) mission to bring universal and affordable broadband across the state.

OBAE today announced it will provide $340,750 to Albuquerque nonprofit Adelante DiverseIT to continue its TechUp! New Mexico initiative. That statewide program donates computer hardware to families while expanding digital access and opportunities for New Mexicans.

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with DiverseIT in this important mission to get computers into the hands of families that need them,” said OBAE Director Jeff Lopez. “We want to do more than deploy broadband in the state. Getting computers to those in need and teaching them to use and understand digital operations are critical in these changing times.”

New Mexicans of all ages in urban, rural and Tribal communities could be eligible to receive computers during designated statewide sessions. DiverseIT works with local communities which provide data that pinpoint disadvantaged, needy and disabled residents who would benefit from the program.

In addition to distributing the devices, the renewed TechUp! New Mexico program will deliver more digital training and technical support for recipients, using a variety of group classes, one-on-one sessions, emails and phone support.

“DiverseIT exists to address the digital divide in New Mexico, so we are thrilled to work with the NM Office of Broadband again to get computers into the hands of low-income and rural communities,” said Adelante and DiverseIT Vice President of Marketing & Communications Jill Beets. 

Beets indicated that when people have a reliable computer and the training to use it, technology becomes a pathway to education, employment, healthcare, and greater independence.

Initially, OBAE provided $300,000 for TechUp! New Mexico which began in January and ended in June. During those first six months, 170 New Mexico families received computers—for many, their first. DiverseIT traveled to 33 communities, offering 1,600 digital training sessions.

Beets said the TechUp! New Mexico program gave New Mexicans more than just hardware and training—it gave them more confidence. Instruction they received improved their ability to communicate, create documents, protect themselves online, access information and use essential digital tools with greater self-assurance. Participants consistently described the important value of a computer, where school, healthcare, communication, employment and daily tasks increasingly require digital access.

After the first round of TechUp! New Mexico training, recipients reported using their laptops for college coursework, GED classes, job searches, telehealth appointments, paying bills, running small businesses, completing school assignments and staying connected with family and community. Participants who received a computer for the first time called the program life changing.

This second round of TechUp! New Mexico will end June 30, 2027. 

Telecompetitor

EASLEY, S.C. — October 20, 2026 — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Wire 3, a leading 100% fiber internet provider, today announced that construction is underway in Easley, marking another step in the company’s South Carolina expansion. Powered by a fully funded $19 million investment, the Easley expansion will extend Wire 3’s fast, reliable fiber internet service to more than 18,000 homes and businesses, giving the community greater choice and upgraded speed.

With construction actively progressing, Wire 3 anticipates its first Easley residents and businesses to be connected as early as this winter. Customers interested in joining Wire 3’s symmetrical, future-ready network may visit wire3.com to sign up for pre-sale and construction updates.

“Easley is an exciting addition to our growing South Carolina footprint, and we’re proud to invest in its future,” said Jai Ramachandran, Wire 3 CEO. “Internet plays a crucial role in how people live and how local businesses serve their customers. With construction underway, we’re preparing to bring Easley more choice and access to the speed and reliability of our 100% fiber internet. As we progress, we look forward to becoming part of the community and serving its residents and businesses for years to come.”

As Wire 3’s construction progresses in Easley, residents and businesses in construction areas will receive communication several weeks ahead of its start. Wire 3 crews will be identifiable by ID tags and branded vehicles.

South Carolina marks Wire 3’s third serviceable state as the company rapidly expands across the Southeast. With construction underway in Anderson and Easley marking the next step in its South Carolina expansion, Wire 3 is accelerating its initial $147 million investment in the Palmetto State. The momentum will soon carry into communities including Central, Clemson, Travelers Rest, and Pendleton, further expanding access to ultra-fast 100% fiber internet and bringing more choice and world-class customer service to homes and businesses across South Carolina.

Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, Wire 3 makes it easy for customers to seamlessly integrate cutting-edge technology with symmetrical speeds, free Wi-Fi equipment, and flexible no-contract plans. As Wire 3 expands, the company continues to advance its mission of creating 10-Gig cities across Florida, Georgia, and now South Carolina. Interested customers can learn more about Wire 3’s offerings at wire3.com.

Telecompetitor

When the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) opened a new round of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding for newly identified unserved locations last month, many states saw a chance to address large gaps left by defaulted projects from earlier federal programs. For South Carolina, the second BEAD Benefit of the Bargain round will play a smaller role. 

Telecompetitor spoke with South Carolina Broadband Office Director Jim Stritzinger yesterday about what the round means for his state. 

Stritzinger said his initial reaction to the new BEAD round was shaped by South Carolina’s experience with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, which must be spent and paid out by December 31 of this year. While much of the national conversation focused on BEAD, ARPA remained the state’s top priority.

“There were times when I just wanted to stand up and scream and say, ‘Wait a minute, guys. We have American Rescue Plan dollars in the bank, and we’re spending all of our time and energy focused on talking about BEAD,’” he said.

After the post-award change process, South Carolina’s BEAD program officially stood at eight projects covering 19,022 locations as of June 30. Six of those projects are wireline, and two use low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite service. 

The state has tried to keep BEAD deployment spending low so it can maximize what Stritzinger called the program’s third “swim lane,” the non-deployment savings that remain after deployment and administrative costs.

A cleanup round

Stritzinger said he is enthusiastic about the second Benefit of the Bargain round, which he called “BOB 2.0.” He noted that the round was largely designed to help states where Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) awards from 2021 had fallen apart. RDOF defaults didn’t significantly affect South Carolina, but the round still gives the state a way to address locations that dropped out of ARPA-funded projects.

Those locations fell out for various reasons, including permitting problems and private easement issues. Stritzinger also cited a few broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) along the state line that can only be reached from North Carolina. That makes wireline service difficult for South Carolina providers, since few of them operate in both states.

The affected locations are scattered across the state, Stritzinger said, and the new BEAD round will let South Carolina hold a small grant round to cover them. “BOB 2.0 is a good cleanup round,” he said. “It helps us feel better about the work we’ve already done, and it helps us not leave anybody behind.”

Stritzinger said the focus should remain on connecting every home, business, and community anchor institution, and that discussions of non-deployment funds are a distraction from that goal for now. He noted that South Carolina’s period of performance for the BEAD program runs through December 31, 2040, leaving time to address non-deployment uses later. He added that other states would have welcomed funding to scale up their workforces for network construction.

Unanswered questions about locations

Asked about the NTIA’s approach to locations in the new round, Stritzinger said many details remain unclear. He noted that the term “underserved” has been left out of the discussion, and while he expects the round to focus on unserved locations, he said it is not yet known how the NTIA will define served locations.

He pointed to the first round, when the NTIA directed states to review locations in LEO projects and treat locations with cellular fixed wireless or digital subscriber line (DSL) service as served. “There’s a lot of definitional things that we don’t know yet,” he said, including how large the pool of eligible locations will be.

Stritzinger said the NTIA has told states it plans to wait for version nine of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) location data — called the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric or known familiarly as the fabric. That data typically becomes available to state broadband offices in the second half of November, although he expects the NTIA to get an earlier look.

Given that timing, Stritzinger hopes to push South Carolina’s challenge process for the BEAD round into 2027. The state funded more than 277 ARPA projects, many of which are still going through closeout, and he doesn’t want providers diverted from finishing that work.

Erring on the side of inclusion

The NTIA gave each state the option to submit a list of locations it wanted included in its challenge process, with an October 16 deadline. Stritzinger said South Carolina chose to include locations when in doubt, since they can always be challenged later. Once the NTIA scores the list, the state will have 30 days to review it before opening a public challenge.

Stritzinger said coordination between the U.S. Department of the Treasury — which oversees ARPA — and the NTIA is a significant concern. When South Carolina funds an ARPA project, it records every location in the grant agreement and later receives as-built maps at closeout. 

If a provider connects 95 out of 100 locations, the state wants to make sure the remaining five are included in the new round. However, Stritzinger said it isn’t clear whether that information moves from Treasury to the NTIA.

New construction raises another open question. Each update to the fabric adds newly built locations, and Stritzinger said he doesn’t yet know whether new construction in rural areas will be treated as unserved.

Small projects and “agile infrastructure”

Stritzinger said his hope for the second BEAD round is simple: to get closer to eliminating the digital divide in South Carolina and to move efficiently despite federal requirements such as National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews. He expects the remaining South Carolina locations to be widely dispersed after the challenge process, which could lead to small bids, such as a rural telephone cooperative pursuing 10 locations in one area and an electric cooperative pursuing 10 in another. “I don’t expect any big projects in BOB 2.0,” he said.

He noted that provider networks expand every year, so locations that were very expensive to reach a few years ago may now be within reach. “That’s the healthy thing about multiple grant rounds,” he said.

Small projects have been central to South Carolina’s approach, which Stritzinger calls “agile infrastructure,” borrowing from agile software development. The longest ARPA project the state allowed was two years, and most were 18 months. The state maps broadband availability every six months, alternating mapping with investment.

Stritzinger said that approach has protected the state from large swings and errors in the FCC’s data, and from awarding large areas to any single provider. South Carolina also does not make milestone payments, paying providers only when a project is finished and verified. “We unleashed competitive juice along the way, because these guys knew that they couldn’t go on to project number two until they got the first one done and paid,” he said.

Stritzinger said he expects the second round to be well received nationally.

In a previous interview with Telecompetitor, Stritzinger described South Carolina’s broadband funding programs as an Olympic relay race, with BEAD as the fourth and final leg. At the time, he estimated that about 29,000 unserved and underserved locations remained in the state ahead of BEAD.

Telecompetitor

RiverStreet, a broadband provider serving rural communities primarily in North Carolina and Virginia, has initiated voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings and entered into an asset purchase agreement with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. The company said the court-supervised process will allow for an efficient sale and an orderly handoff of certain unfinished expansion projects to other broadband providers.

The case was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The sale will be conducted under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which means the Oaktree agreement with RiverStreet is subject to higher or otherwise better offers, court and regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions.

The filing accompanies a Modified Build Plan that refocuses RiverStreet on its existing customers and footprint. Under the plan, RiverStreet will maintain its current networks and complete new builds that are close to being finished. 

The company said it will work with federal, state, and local authorities to limit the effect of the project transfers on unserved and underserved communities. Existing customers should not see changes to their service.

Pending court approval, RiverStreet will fund operations during the case with cash from ongoing operations and about $20 million in new financing committed by CoBank, its existing lender. The company has also asked the court for permission to keep paying employee wages and benefits, and it intends to pay vendors in full for goods and services provided on or after the filing date. Stuart Kaufman, a senior managing director at Areté Partners, has been named chief restructuring officer.

RiverStreet President and CEO Eric Cramer said the board and management team weighed several options before deciding on this path. He said the company expects to emerge with new owners, substantially less debt, and greater financial flexibility. Evan Kramer, senior vice president at Oaktree, pointed to RiverStreet’s customer base, network assets, and community relationships as strengths of the business.

The restructuring follows a period of expansion for RiverStreet, which started in 1951 and now serves customers in more than 67 counties across three states. In March 2025, RiverStreet acquired two TDS Telecom properties and a Citizens Cablevision market area. At the time, the company was also pursuing a multi-phase plan to bring fiber to 14 additional counties in south-central Virginia.

Telecompetitor

AST SpaceMobile said it expects to launch initial, intermittent space-based cellular broadband service in the U.S. before the end of 2026. The company is also targeting year-end availability in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia.

In the U.S., AST SpaceMobile had already enabled more than 3,000 coverage cells and expects to activate the remaining cells of the roughly 5,600 needed to cover the contiguous U.S. by year-end. The company said completing that work would establish the geographic footprint for initial service and was a prerequisite for a nationwide rollout.

Early service will be limited to areas within the satellites’ coverage at any given time. According to AST SpaceMobile, the launch of additional satellites will increase how often and how long coverage is available as the company works toward continuous service.

The company plans to deliver service through its mobile network operator partners, which include AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten Mobile, Bell Canada, TELUS, and stc Group. AST SpaceMobile said it has more than 60 gateways deployed, installed, or in planning worldwide, supporting relationships with over 60 operators. The ground network links the satellite constellation to partners’ core networks and carries traffic between space and terrestrial infrastructure.

In the U.S., the company aims to access approximately 100 MHz by pairing partner operators’ spectrum with mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum, including 45 MHz of MSS mid-band spectrum in North America. AST SpaceMobile also said its satellites can tune across about 1,150 MHz of low-band and mid-band frequencies, subject to regulatory approvals.

AST SpaceMobile assembles and tests its BlueBird satellites prior to launch in Midland, Texas, where production had progressed through BlueBird 50. AST SpaceMobile President Scott Wisniewski said the company was moving toward service and noted that its platform is intended to support government and emerging AI applications in addition to consumer connectivity.

The company cautioned that service availability will expand as satellite capacity and ground infrastructure are deployed, subject to applicable authorizations.

The year-end target came about six months after a key regulatory milestone. The Federal Communications Commission approved the company’s application to modify its authorization in April. The decision allowed AST SpaceMobile to launch and operate up to 248 low Earth orbit satellites to deliver supplemental coverage from space to mobile devices across the U.S. using 700 MHz and 800 MHz spectrum.

Telecompetitor

Most older adults surveyed by Consumer Cellular said they would consider leaving a company if a customer service system left them with no way to reach a person, according to a new report from the wireless provider.

The research, conducted by Big Village, gathered responses from 482 U.S. adults ages 50 and older between June 25 and July 2, 2026. Respondents included 217 Consumer Cellular customers and 265 prospects, most of whom were customers of AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile.

Among Consumer Cellular customers, 87% said they would consider leaving a company over an automated loop with no human option, as did 82% of prospects. Nearly all survey respondents agreed that speaking with a human customer service agent should always be an option, including 97% of customers and 94% of prospects.

When asked what mattered most when seeking help, 43% of customers chose having their problem fully resolved, and another 43% chose talking to a live person. Only 4% picked speed. Prospects leaned more heavily toward resolution at 53%, while 32% chose reaching a person and 3% chose speed.

Respondents also expressed doubts about chatbot effectiveness. Roughly three in five said a chatbot resolved their issue less than 40% of the time, and 38% of customers and 44% of prospects put that figure below 10%.

Those experiences appeared to affect loyalty. A frustrating bot interaction made 62% of customers and 51% of prospects less likely to stay with a company. By comparison, only about one in 10 survey respondents would consider leaving because a bot solved their customer service issue but felt impersonal.

The findings were consistent with a 2026 Gartner survey of 3,566 customers, in which 50% said generative AI made service interactions easier, but 87% said companies using it must still provide access to a human agent.

“AI isn’t the problem. Bad customer service is,” Consumer Cellular CEO Ed Evans said in a press release about the survey. He said the company uses AI behind the scenes to give its representatives better information.

That approach echoes comments from gaiia employees in a recent Telecompetitor interview. They said AI may deliver its most immediate value to broadband providers by working in the background and giving employees the customer context they need. As gaiia Principal Product Marketing Manager Yiou Huang put it, AI is “at the service of the human.”

Telecompetitor

Much of the discussion about AI in customer service has centered on chatbots. But in a recent interview with Telecompetitor, three gaiia employees said AI may deliver its most immediate value to providers by working in the background.

Telecompetitor spoke with gaiia Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering Simon Frenette, Principal Product Marketing Manager Yiou Huang, and Head of Growth Shawn McIntyre. They discussed how AI can automate workflows, connect data across systems, and give employees the customer context they need — as well as where the technology might go in the next five years.

McIntyre said many providers already have workable processes for customer service, even if staffing those processes can be expensive. The more pressing problem, he noted, is that some providers struggle to run a promotion or launch a product in a new area because they don’t have the tools to do it quickly.

Why chatbots get the attention

During the interview, Frenette said customer-facing and back-office AI are equally important. However, chatbots tend to dominate the conversation because people already understand them. “You use ChatGPT. It’s a chatbot: You ask a question, it answers,” he said. “Thinking about automating your back office might be harder to get into. What can you automate, how can you go about it, what pieces of your work should you keep, and what can you delegate to an agent?”

Huang said the back-office focus is ultimately about the customer experience. She noted that broadband providers score among the lowest of any industry on net promoter score (NPS), a common measure of customer loyalty. Improving behind-the-scenes operations, she said, can improve every interaction a subscriber has with a provider — not only the ones that happen when something goes wrong.

AI in service of the human

A recent Alchemer survey of 2,009 consumers found that 43% would pay more for a product or service that guaranteed access to human support. Telecompetitor asked whether a human presence still matters, particularly for rural providers.

Huang said it does, noting that field technicians are often the face of a provider’s brand. For technicians’ interactions to feel more empathetic, she said, they need customer context, and gathering that context takes time and mental bandwidth. AI can handle much of that work so customers don’t have to repeat themselves and technicians know where to go and what to do before they arrive.

“Overall, I think AI is at the service of the human,” she said.

McIntyre said gaiia thinks about AI service in two categories: assistants, which respond to user prompts, and agents, which can work more autonomously toward a goal and decide which actions to take. During the interview, the gaiia team shared a recorded demonstration of an AI agent, currently in beta, that works across different parts of the platform. 

In the demo, a user asked the agent to create a new plan for an Iowa market at a promotional rate of $30 per month for one year, rising to $49 per month later. The agent laid out its plan, waited for approval, and then created the product and the discount and made the plan available at addresses in the target area.

How AI is reshaping provider operations 

We asked our gaiia interview panel about the biggest changes AI is making for providers right now. They named three:

1. Provisioning workflows: This includes things like activations, suspensions, and speed changes. Many operators use equipment from multiple vendors, and some require integrations with as many as 10 different network systems. McIntyre said AI has shortened the time it takes to get those workflows running and made them more accurate.
2. Workforce management: Providers use AI to analyze photos and confirm that technicians completed procedures correctly, Frenette said, while other customers are experimenting with dispatching based on written rules covering factors such as job duration and technician skill.
3. Outage management: McIntyre said operators can already identify which customers were affected by an outage and group them together. The next step is having AI automatically draft the customer communication and a service credit, so providers can respond proactively within minutes rather than fielding hundreds of support tickets.

The five-year horizon

Asked what AI might do for broadband providers over the next five years, Frenette offered what he called “a few crazy ideas.” One is a same-hour installation, made possible by automating every step between the order and the install.

McIntyre said the idea reflects what gaiia hears from operators. He recalled one prospective customer with overlapping territory that was frustrated because a competitor could consistently offer same-day installs. Operators often ask why they can’t offer the kind of real-time order tracking that pizza delivery services do, he said.

Frenette’s more ambitious ideas included networks monitored by AI agents that catch problems before they cause outages, as well as agents that monitor networks and bills and proactively reach out to customers, reducing the need for customers to contact support.

“Ultimately, the goal is to have an excellent NPS for the industry overall because the [customer] experience is just so good,” Frenette said.

Telecompetitor

US Mobile has launched a program with PayPal that advances wireless customers the money they need to pay off device balances owed to their current carrier, targeting a common obstacle to switching providers.

The program, called Free Your Phone, provides zero-interest advances through PayPal’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) program. Advances are capped at $1,000 per person over the customer’s lifetime, and one application can cover multiple devices within that limit. Once approved, applicants must purchase an eligible US Mobile plan within six hours, after which the funds are deposited into their PayPal account.

Repayment terms vary by eligibility. Customers may pay a quarter of the balance upfront, with the remainder due over six weeks, or spread repayment over monthly installments for up to 24 months with nothing due upfront. PayPal makes all credit decisions.

US Mobile said participants can leave its service at any time and that the mobile plan is not tied to repaying the advance, although a company representative said in an email that US Mobile asks participants to try its service for at least one month. The program’s webpage indicated that a waitlist was in place.

US Mobile positioned the PayPal program as a response to device installment plans used by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The company argued that these plans work much like the early termination fees attached to the multiyear contracts carriers once required, since customers generally must pay off a financed phone before it can be unlocked and moved to another network.

The program is the latest effort by a wireless provider to lower the cost of switching. In August, T-Mobile introduced a device financing option that spreads the cost of a phone over 36 months at a 0% annual percentage rate for a limited time. The two offers address the same hurdle from different directions, with T-Mobile financing new devices for incoming customers and US Mobile financing balances customers already owe elsewhere.

Telecompetitor

Oct 15, 2026 — RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Transaction Network Services (TNS) today announced the acquisition of netnumber, a leading provider of phone number intelligence and registry services. The acquisition expands TNS’s Communications Market portfolio and strengthens its ability to address some of the industry’s most pressing needs: combating communications fraud, improving routing accuracy for voice and messaging, supporting network IP transformation and enabling trusted engagement between businesses and consumers.

TNS helps Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and enterprises enhance trust through call analytics, robocall mitigation, branded calling, interoperability and network connectivity. netnumber adds deep expertise in global number intelligence, portability, routing and digital identity verification. Together, these complementary capabilities create a stronger platform for combating communications fraud, improving operational and routing efficiency and supporting more trusted customer interactions.

“This is an important investment for TNS as we expand our portfolio with critical, complementary services that have significant potential for growth,” said Seth Walton, General Manager of TNS’s Communications Market business. “By combining TNS’s trusted communications solutions with netnumber’s robust phone number intelligence, we will be even better positioned to help CSPs, CPaaS providers, and enterprises improve trust, reduce friction and deliver more secure communications experiences at scale.”

Steve Legge, CEO of netnumber, added: “We are proud to have built a strong reputation as telecommunications pioneers, delivering phone number intelligence capabilities that provide critical services for customers across the US, Canada, and more than 50 other countries. Joining TNS creates an opportunity to build on that foundation with greater scale and market reach, while continuing to deliver the intelligence customers rely on to improve performance, security and trust.”

Stinson LLP acted as legal adviser to TNS. Evercore (NYSE: EVR) acted as financial adviser to netnumber, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as its legal adviser. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Telecompetitor

Oct 13, 2026 — BOSTON & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bain Capital and Tillman Global Holdings (“Tillman”) today announced the completion of their previously announced $1.5 billion investment in Eaton Fiber, an affiliate of Tillman, and Eaton Fiber’s acquisition of Ripple Fiber.

The transactions, which were announced in July 2026, provide Eaton Fiber with long-term capital and an expanded operating platform to accelerate the deployment of fiber infrastructure supporting Verizon’s expansion into more than one million locations outside its current fiber footprint.

The closing builds on Verizon and Eaton Fiber’s commercial partnership, wherein Eaton Fiber funds, builds, maintains and operates the network, while Verizon serves as the exclusive retail provider of residential and small business fiber services.

In conjunction with the closing, Verizon has acquired the majority of Ripple Fiber’s existing customers, who will transition to Verizon’s fiber broadband platform over time with uninterrupted service. Verizon has also acquired certain Ripple Fiber network assets in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Ripple Fiber’s existing shareholders, Platform Investment Partners and KLT, will continue to back Eaton Fiber alongside Tillman and Bain Capital.

Telecompetitor