Wi-Fi mesh systems and fixed wireless access services are “the key technologies to bring better broadband to all,” reported ABI Research Wednesday. As demand for broadband connectivity increases, “many mature markets have reached close to 100% household penetration, resulting in higher competition among broadband operators,” it said. “Deployment of solutions and services which support better broadband user experience is becoming critical for broadband operators to achieve business success.” Wi-Fi mesh systems are gaining popularity for complete home Wi-Fi coverage and to support network management tools such as parental control, device-level traffic manipulation and troubleshooting technical issues, said ABI.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., doubted "there will be any Republican support -- none, zero,” for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal, which includes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064). Republicans signaled support for pursuing core infrastructure spending; the Senate GOP’s counterproposal includes $65 billion for broadband (see 2104220067). “We're open to doing a roughly $600 billion package which deals with what all of us agree is infrastructure," McConnell told reporters Monday. "If it's going to be about infrastructure, let's make it about infrastructure.” Republicans “are not going to revisit" the 2017 tax cut law, as Biden proposed to pay here, McConnell said.

Charter Communications won't expand plant capacity to accommodate symmetrical broadband anytime soon, CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday. Some customers use more than 1 Tb of data a month, but most of that is via IPTV, and its capacity is sufficient for current upstream uses, he said. He said Charter is capable of upgrading its network, if needed as new products develop. Comcast indicated last week that symmetrical broadband is a priority (see 2104290009). Rutledge said Charter added more than 7 million internet customers in the five years since it bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, extended its network past 5 million additional homes and businesses, and spent more than $40 billion on infrastructure and technology. He said over the next six years, Charter will spend $5 billion to reach more than a million unserved customer locations, offset by $2 billion in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund money: That could lead to other "white space" areas of potential customers opening up due to federal investing. He said those rural markets are more expensive capital projects, and payback can take 10-plus years, but the cable ISP is confident it can get good penetration. The public money being targeted toward connectivity efforts like E-rate and the emergency broadband benefit program mean "a huge opportunity, [but] our sense is the states don't know how to spend it all," Rutledge said. Revenue in Q1 was $12.5 billion, up $784 million year over year, Charter said Friday. It has 27.4 million residential internet customers, up 1.9 million; 15.5 million residential video subscribers, down 67,000; 9.1 million residential voice customers, down 247,000; and 2.6 million residential mobile lines, up 1.25 million. Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey said the mobile business is scaling up to stand-alone profitability. MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors that Comcast showed its mobile business can be profitable even without unloading traffic from its mobile virtual network operator. The analyst said Charter's citizens broadband radio service spectrum is "a clear path for traffic offload" that could reduce costs. He said wireless could eventually pass video as Charter's No. 2 revenue stream.

Verizon plans to invest more than $3 billion by 2025 to bridge the digital divide, it announced Friday. Verizon partnered with the National 4-H Council to offer digital skills training in rural communities, restarted STEM learning programs and unveiled augmented reality apps. It reiterated its participation in the FCC emergency broadband benefit program, which begins May 12 (see 2104290085).

President Joe Biden's administration should do more to bridge the "widening digital gender divide," said Kim Keenan, Internet Innovation Alliance co-chair, in an Essence column Thursday. Nearly 327 million fewer women than men worldwide have access to mobile internet or a smartphone, Keenan said. Require companies like Facebook and Google contribute to Lifeline because they "make money through the internet," Keenan said.

Altice unveiled its Smart WiFi 6 home broadband service Monday. It said Smart WiFi 6 is available to new Optimum and Suddenlink 1 Gig broadband customers. It said in some areas, Smart WiFi 6 will be available with the highest speed tier offered where 1 Gig service isn't currently available.

Netgear’s connected home segment generated net revenue of $240.9 million in Q1, up 46.3% year over year but down 18.6% sequentially from Q4, said Chief Financial Officer Bryan Murray on a quarterly call Wednesday. “Heightened demand” for Netgear’s “premium Wi-Fi 6 solutions” drove the growth, he said. Despite “supply headwinds” for Wi-Fi 6 products, Netgear gained 2 points in its top U.S. consumer Wi-Fi market share, to 43%, he said. “We fully expect we will continue to gain share in the second quarter, given the improved supply position in the channel.” The pandemic “has accelerated multiple years of technological progress into one year, and people adjusted surprisingly quickly to more time and activities from home,” said CEO Patrick Lo. “Highly reliable, high-speed internet connectivity that covers the entire home and even patio or yard has become a necessity. This spurred the rapid growth of the premium segment in home Wi-Fi, spearheaded by Wi-Fi 6 mesh with tri-band architecture.” Wi-Fi 6-based systems “fuel the work and do everything from home for families that need to cover large houses and supply reliable internet,” said Lo. “Given the demands all these activities put on home Wi-Fi, we see no slowdown in the demand for our products.” Premium tri-band Wi-Fi 6 had 30% of the U.S. Wi-Fi mesh market, rising from 25% in Q4 and 7% in Q1 2020, he said: “It garners the highest prices" with the "healthiest margins."

Amazon contracted for nine United Launch Alliance launches for its Kuiper low earth orbit broadband satellite constellation, ULA said Monday. The launches, on ULA Atlas V rockets, will be from the Cape Canaveral, it said.

The FCC will host a consumer webinar April 27 at 3 p.m. EDT to give the public more information about the $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program, said a public notice Friday. The event will cover eligibility and enrollment procedures and provide an outreach tool kit to help create awareness of the program. The FCC didn't respond to a question about whether acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel or other commission members will participate.

In an interview scheduled to air Saturday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wouldn't say whether he supports acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel being nominated as the permanent chair. "I'm not sure my endorsement of a Democrat chair would help or hurt them at this point, so I'll refrain from weighing in on that," Carr said, "but it's been great having her reach across party lines and compromise." Carr said President Joe Biden's infrastructure package ignores the "billions of dollars that we already have in the pipeline to further close the digital divide." The FCC should be allowed time to disburse existing funds before additional funds are approved, he said (see 2104080059). The challenge is coordinating those efforts because "money at this point is not the problem," and it comes down to administering existing programs, Carr said. The commission's current broadband maps are also "outdated," he said, and "we can't take $100 billion without knowing where there is still a problem." Efforts to create broadband price regulation could disincentivize private investment, Carr said: "There's nothing that's going to scare those dollars away more quickly than the threat of rate regulation." There could be a lot of common ground on net neutrality if rate regulation is taken off the table, he said: "I'm still hopeful we can have an objective conversation." California's net neutrality law is "pretty remarkable," he said, and "an example of the real harms that come from those extreme approaches." Another pressing challenge is addressing the "spiraling" USF contribution factor, Carr said (see 2103230032). "I think that's an issue that is going to demand the attention of Congress in pretty short order." He also said the FCC made the "right call" in freeing up prime spectrum, and he's "very worried that there could be some backsliding with respect to those initiatives." Carr said he's still "very much open and interested" in Communications Decency Act Section 230 reform, citing Twitter's decision to block former President Donald Trump (see 2103300074). "The reasons that they articulated for kicking the president off the platform didn't really seem to line up with the actual tweets that they were referencing."