Brian Worthen, CEO, Visionary Broadband, discusses how broadband has become the buzzword darling of legislatures across the country this year, and for good reason: billions of dollars are projected to flow from federal funding to states in the next 6 months through a variety of economic stimulus bills and in response to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Providers who are paying attention are realizing the windfall presented with this sudden focus and accompanying dollars. The challenges aren’t as easy to see. Visionary Broadband was fortunate to have a run at this kind of funded expansion last year through the #ConnectWYoming program and CEO Brian Worthen has learned a few things about how to find the balance.

Mark Mrla, Director, Strategy Operations, Finley Engineering Company, discusses that many states are jumping on the broadband funding band wagon. And many of these state programs are beginning to look quite similar which means that similar strategies can be applied to their applications. But, each year some of them change their application priorities slightly. Finley Engineering has been involved in over 70 state grant funding applications during the last several years and have had excellent success on behalf of its clients. This presentation will summarize funding application successes, strategies and case studies as well as the value-add that a firm like Finley Engineering will bring to your state grant application process.

George Notter from Jefferies Group led a discussion of the market opportunity for rural broadband operators from the perspective of a Wall Street Equity Research Analyst following the Communications Equipment industry.

Chad Rupe, the 21st Administrator of USDA's Rural Utilities Service, reflects on the RUS broadband programs and momentum under his leadership as well as life after RUS - how he plans to continue his mission to help Rural America prosper and thrive.

Join Fiber Broadband Association Board Members Mark Boxer and Joanne Hovis as they present a preview of an upcoming FBA white paper. They'll explore the relative roles of fiber and fixed wireless technologies in meeting today’s and future communications needs.

In the recent RDOF auction, 85% of the funding was won by bidders proposing to provide gigabit speeds using wireless or wireline technologies. While no one doubts the abilities of a fiber network, wireless gig deserves a closer look. Larry explores the circumstances where wireless may – and may not – be a fit for rural gigabit broadband.

As service providers evaluate the increasing demands on their PON networks, some mistakenly believe they have only one choice—maintain GPON or migrate entirely to XGS-PON. In fact, Combo PON offers a much more capable, flexible, and cost-effective upgrade strategy, enabling operators to simultaneously deliver both GPON and XGS-PON on the same optical distribution network, while having the option to make a simple migration to XGS-PON at any time. Hear from Armstrong on why Combo PON was the clear choice for their network.

Chattanooga became one of the first Gigabit cities and now is a 10G city. Professor Bento Lobo, UT-Chattanooga, and Jim Ingraham, Vice President, Strategic Research, EPB, discuss the latest economic impact study and how fiber has changed the lives in this bustling community.

Today’s access-network architecture is under stress. Blame the proliferation of connected devices and bandwidth-intensive customer applications, as well as dramatic increase in usage as subscribers work and attend school from home. Now is the perfect time to build your greenfield network or expand your existing network with 10G PON -- doing so will arm your customers with the high-speed, symmetrical broadband they need to stay connected.

Noah Covington shares with us their journey to expand operations into their neighboring county to bring Fiber to the broadband desert of Georgia.