Plans for Hawaii to be the first fully fiber-enabled state in the U.S. will have to overcome such logistical and operational challenges as its remote location and the difficulty of getting from island to island, Hawaiian Telcom President Su Shin said Wednesday. During a Fiber Broadband Association webinar, Shin said those access issues add to costs. While the timeline is “aggressive,” a lot of the most difficult areas have already been built, and the company is confident it can meet the deadline of the end of 2026, she said. About 60% of Hawaii -- more than 400,000 homes and businesses -- is fiber-enabled, she said, with two of the six main islands complete and the focus turning to the others over the next two years. She said federal support, such as via the rural deployment opportunity fund and NTIA’s middle mile program, will help with the highest-cost areas, but 90% of the $1.7 billion fiber project comes from private capital.

AT&T defended its proposal to stop accepting new customers for parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501310046), responding to opposition from the Communications Workers of America and Bandwidth (see 2502240025). AT&T has four applications pending at the FCC involving legacy services in wire centers in 18 states. “As detailed in each application, demand for each of these services is very low in the Affected Service Area, and new orders are almost nonexistent,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 25-45. “Grandfathering these outdated services will benefit the public and serve as an important step toward meeting both AT&T’s and the Commission’s goals of advancing toward next-generation technologies that customers crave.” AT&T said no actual end users filed comments on the applications. Contrary to CWA's allegations, “all existing customers of the Affected Services will be able to keep their current service,” the carrier said. “AT&T spends over $6 billion annually in direct costs to keep its copper services running -- resources that would be much better spent connecting more Americans to newer networks.”

Surf Internet announced Friday it raised $175 million in new equity funding and secured an upsized $300 million debt facility as it seeks to build out fiber in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. “The equity investment was led by Macquarie Capital, with participation from existing investors Bain Capital and Post Road Group,” the company said. “The debt upsize, led by DigitalBridge Credit, includes a new commitment from global investment group CDPQ, along with participation from Boundary Street Capital and Liberty Mutual Investments,” and builds on “Surf’s existing $200 million debt facility.”

TDS Telecom will target 1.8 million marketable fiber service addresses after ending 2024 with 928,000 total locations, the company announced Friday. The ISP laid out a long-term plan to increase its percentage of locations served by fiber to 80%, provide speeds of at least 1Gb to 95% of its footprint, and decrease its copper footprint to 5%. “We’ve been transforming into a fiber company in a big way for several years,” TDS CFO Kris Bothfeld said. “We’re now also focusing on streamlining our operations to enhance elements of our customer experience and further improve our margins and cost structure.”

Luminys on Monday disputed the FCC’s finding that the company was selling equipment from Dahua, which is on the agency's “covered list” of providers of unsecure gear (see 2502140040). Parts of the filing, in docket 25-85, were redacted. “The Commission should not revoke the equipment authorizations because Luminys made no false statements or representations,” Luminys said. “The equipment for which Luminys sought, and obtained, authorization is not ‘covered’ under the Commission’s rules, nor is any of the equipment described in these authorizations produced by an entity named on the Covered List.” The Public Safety Bureau’s “tentative determinations appear to be based purely on speculation, not evidence, and are wrong.”

The Communications Workers of America and Bandwidth separately opposed AT&T’s moves to close additional parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501310046). AT&T CEO John Stankey said in January that the carrier plans to file applications at the FCC to stop selling legacy products in about 1,300 wire centers, which is roughly a quarter of the AT&T footprint (see 2501270047). AT&T started the push during the last administration and is taking a more aggressive approach at the current FCC.

Teleperformance Group on Friday applied for “full certification” to provide video relay service eligible for compensation from the interstate telecommunications relay service fund. “Currently, ZP is operating pursuant to a conditional certification on an interim basis following the consummation of Teleperformance’s acquisition of ZP,” the company said in an application filed in docket 03-123.

Representatives from fiber company Arcadian met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the importance of programmatic agreements for building out infrastructure. Arcadian asked in particular about potential agreements with the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. “Programmatic agreements would save time and money on projects by covering large swaths of land in one permit rather than having to pull permits for every small parcel involved in a project,” Arcadian said. “These agreements also have long-term benefits for future maintenance and repair work.”

The FCC should move cautiously in revising rules for pole attachments, representatives of infrastructure builder Extenet said in a meeting with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Commissioners approved a Further NPRM in 2023 about resolving pole attachment disputes more quickly (see 2312130044). “Extenet encouraged the Commission to focus on enforcing current regulations to promote transparency and communication, rather than repealing … regulations,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. “Current regulations balance the needs of both utilities and attachers and should be enforced.”

X-energy, a closely held nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company, has joined Incompas to support the group’s work on AI, Incompas said Thursday. “Collaboration is needed to address the energy needs for advanced technologies,” said Incompas CEO Chip Pickering. “A reliable, clean energy supply, leveraging advanced nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors, promise the enhanced safety, flexibility and reliability to support AI’s growing energy requirements.”