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Thursday, August 10, 2023 |
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Lumos Fiber signed a $1.1 billion sustainability-linked infrastructure financing deal with EQT to fund its fiber roll-out plans and refinance existing indebtedness. Sustainability-linked finance is designed to incentivize the borrower's achievement of environmental, social, or governance targets through pricing incentives.
According to Lumos, this deal represents the first project finance style FTTH infrastructure financing in the U.S. for an existing and integrated FTTH platform and the first US FTTH sustainability-linked financing structure. This new financing underscores Lumos’ scale capabilities and the Company’s continued commitment to ESG (environmental, social, governance).
As a fiber Internet provider, Lumos aims to drive positive change and progress within the telecommunications industry as a responsible environmental, economic, and social steward. This new financing facility includes a sustainability-linked mechanism whereby the interest rate on the loan will be linked to several targets in line with Lumos and EQT’s overall mission. Press Release is here
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Arvig has been awarded a $182,576 grant from the State of Minnesota’s Border to Border Broadband program to expand its fiber network to 240 unserved structures in Sherburne County. Construction on the last-mile fiber network will take place near the Travelers Country Club on the Mississippi River, southeast of Clearwater, Minn.
When complete, the network will provide residents with Internet speeds from 100Mbps (20 Mbps upload) up to 10 Gbps (1 Gbps upload), which meets or exceeds Minnesota’s 2026 state speed goal. “Providing Internet service to unserved areas remains a high priority for us at Arvig,” said David Arvig, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Arvig. “This expansion of our fiber network will reliably serve residents in the area with the next-generation speeds they need to stay connected to the world.”
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Two House Republicans are urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to resist the urge to apply "1990s-era laws and regulations" to virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs). They argue, in part, that those Internet-delivered pay-TV services bring critical competition to the pay-TV sector and that Congress, not the FCC, has the authority to alter those rules, anyway.
That warning arrived in an August 9 letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from two Republican leaders: House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) and Communications Subcommittee Chair Bob Latta (R-Ohio).
Patricia Jo Boyers, chair of ACA Connects and CEO of a small cable op called Boycom Cablevision, recently argued that the coalition's ask isn't about saving local news. Rather, it's about expanding "lopsided retransmission consent agreements with outrageous rates and terms set by the largest regional and national local broadcast conglomerates," she added in a blog post published last month. "The last thing the FCC should want to do is to take a process that stiffs consumers and expand it anywhere," she argued.
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DISNEY
Disney saw direct-to-consumer losses shrink and adjusted EPS top estimates for the three months ended in June as CEO Bob Iger said the company’s on track to exceed $5.5 billion in anticipated cost savings. Total revenue of $22.3 billion (down 2%) was shy of forecasts. Linear television was softer – a trend Iger called out in a controversial CNBC interview last month. A jump in Parks & Experiences, about a third of Disney’s sales, was driven by international parks and cruise lines. Domestic parks saw profit fall with lower attendance at Walt Disney World. There was a big $2.44 billion content impairment charge related to removing content from its DTC service and terminating third-party licensing agreements, plus another $210 million hit from severance. A broad restructuring Iger launched after returning to Disney’s helm last fall eliminated 7,000 jobs. The company swung to a net loss of $490 million for its fiscal fourth quarter from a $4.1 billion profit the year before.
DISNEY 2Q HEADLINES
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FCC
The FCC has addressed 55% of recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on ways to improve the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), according to a letter from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel addressed to members of Congress. That GAO report, published in January 2023, offered ways to improve the ACP's goals and measures, develop a consumer outreach process, create and implement ways to manage fraud, and revise its language translation process. The report followed a prior publication from GAO which found that "dozens" of ISPs claimed fraudulent ACP funds. The FCC has since taken action on that matter such as by requiring large participants Charter, Cox and Starry to verify their ACP subscribers' eligibility with the National Verifier.
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VERIZON
Skiadas talked enthusiastically today about Verizon’s fixed wireless access (FWA) business. He said, “Fixed wireless access has had great results. From starting a business from scratch, we’re already at 2.3 million subscribers. We’re at a good pace at roughly 400,000 [per year], and we continue to grow the base. We’re well on our way to the target we put out there for 4-5 million.” He said when Verizon gets access to its second tranche of C-band spectrum – sometime before the end of this year – it will continue to turn on more markets where it sees demand for both mobility and FWA. “We’ve had great progress when we have bundled customers in the early markets,” said Skiadas. “When you look at retention and churn, the churn statistics are great when we have a bundled customer on C-band.” The company feels confident enough that it is raising the price of its FWA Home Internet from $25 per month to $35 per month, for those on autopay. The price increase will go into effect later this summer.
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MOBILE CABLE
A dispute centering on Comcast advertising claims for Xfinity Mobile, first raised by AT&T, is heading to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appellate advertising body of the Better Business Bureau National Programs, said Wednesday it had referred the case to the FTC after Comcast declined to comply with recommendations to modify or discontinue certain advertising claims for Xfinity Mobile. "Given Comcast's decision not to comply with the NARB panel's recommendations, NARB is referring the advertising to the FTC for possible enforcement action," the NARB said.
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BEAD
Denver, Co — Fixed wireless is "absolutely part of the equation” for Colorado’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding plans, according to Brandy Reitter, executive director of the state’s broadband office. Reitter said that fixed wireless will be an asset to the state given its difficult topography, which includes mountainous areas and box canyons where fiber buildouts would be high-cost and difficult to execute. She noted that opening BEAD funding to fixed wireless solutions will serve smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) in Colorado, who can bring the technology to those areas easier, faster and at a lower cost than fiber. Fierce Telecom: Mich. Broadband Chief: Only ‘One Shot’ For Universal Broadband Access
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SATELLITE BROADBAND
Dish Network is seeking permission to use 12 GHz spectrum for fixed terrestrial broadband in the United States, three months after regulators denied its plans for mobile services in the band following interference concerns from Starlink and other satellite operators. It would be easier to avoid interfering with other users of the band when services are provided to fixed locations and not customers on the move, Dish executive vice president of external and legislative affairs Jeff Blu said in an interview.
“We know where the customers are,” Blu said, “unlike mobile where they can be anywhere – so it’s much easier to coordinate and share.”
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PEOPLE
Preston Padden joined the Fox broadcast network a few years after its launch and helped founder Rupert Murdoch make it viable. Its ultimate success echoes Murdoch's triumphs around the globe, including in Australia, the U.K., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Fox introduced the world to The Simpsons, COPS, House, computerized first down lines on NFL broadcasts and more. Padden worked for Murdoch as a senior executive for six years in the 1990s. "At the time, the company motto was 'Fortune favors the brave'," Padden says now. "He was my hero. There was no question in my mind that what we were doing was good for America, good for viewers, good for advertisers, good for television stations, good for democracy." Now, a generation later, Padden is once more now front and center at a fight in Washington involving the FCC - this time on the other side from Murdoch and his powerful corporation. Padden has joined a small band of highly vocal critics objecting to Fox's effort to seek renewal for its station in Philadelphia, called Fox 29.
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