John Klein

Meeting the growing high-speed broadband demands across Springfield, Champaign, Chicago, South Bend, Terre Haute, and Indianapolis, Great Plains Communications has announced it has collaborated with Ciena to upgrade its carrier backbone and transport networks in Illinois and Indiana. Read more: https://bit.ly/3Llb5fe

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Metro Communications Agrees to Acquire MTCO Communications Metro Communications entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MTCO Communications, which serves approximately 10,000 customers in Central Illinois under the DigiMax brand. Metro is a regional internet and network services provider that builds and operates fiber optic networks serving the wireless, enterprise, wholesale, and consumer markets. This transaction expands Metro’s footprint across Central Illinois and further strengthens its consumer offering under the Conxxus brand. #acquisitions

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Comcast Business has completed its acquisition of Nitel, a U.S. managed services provider based in Chicago, from international private equity firm Cinven. This move strengthens our ability to deliver more robust network, cloud, and cybersecurity solutions. Discover how this acquisition will empower enterprises of all sizes: https://lnkd.in/eHCUnfyS #IWorkForComcast 

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The most dangerous gap in America isn't geographic! It's digital. The digital divide isn't about distance from a city.  It's about distance from opportunity. A kid in rural Montana with fiber internet has more career options than a kid in downtown Detroit with unreliable connectivity. A small business owner in a connected farming town can compete globally. A shop owner in an unconnected suburb gets left behind. This isn't about zip codes. It's about access to: 🌳 Educational resources that don't require driving to a library  🌳 Job markets that extend beyond your physical location 🌳 Healthcare that reaches you through a screen when you need it  🌳 Economic opportunities that aren't limited by local businesses  🌳 The freedom to live where you want without sacrificing your career When we call it "rural internet," we're thinking too small. This is about creating two different Americas: One where opportunity flows freely, and one where it gets stuck at the last mile of infrastructure. Geography used to determine your life's possibilities. Connectivity should make geography irrelevant. That's not a rural problem or an urban problem.  That's an American problem. And it's solvable. 🇺🇸

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Charter and Comcast announced they have entered into a multi-year exclusive agreement with T-Mobile to utilize its network to deliver mobile services to their business customers across the United States. Service is set to launch in 2026. #IWorkForComcast https://comca.st/4lX7im6

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AT&T has entered into an agreement to acquire Lumen Technologies' consumer fibre operations for $5.75 billion in cash, according to a joint statement released on Wednesday. The deal marks a significant expansion of AT&T's national fibre footprint and adds further scale to its residential broadband services. The acquisition includes 1 million existing fibre customers and a substantial fibre network presence across several U.S. metropolitan areas. These include Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Lumen Technologies has been seeking to divest the consumer fibre segment to sharpen its focus on the enterprise market. As reported earlier by Reuters in December, the company had been marketing the business for sale. With the deal now in place, Lumen will direct resources toward enterprise fibre services and low-latency technologies that are essential for artificial intelligence workflows. According to Lumen’s Chief Financial Officer Chris Stansbury, the transaction enables the company to better meet rising demand from enterprise clients in an AI-first, multi-cloud environment. The cash proceeds from the sale are expected to allow Lumen to reduce its debt by $4.8 billion and lower annual interest expenses by more than $300 million, thereby improving overall cash flow. AT&T stated that, once the deal is finalised, the acquired assets will be moved into a newly created subsidiary, in which it plans to retain a majority stake while selling a minority stake to external investors. The transaction is projected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

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Illinois has submitted the first statewide request for phase 2 NG9-1-1 services. ESInet connectivity will unlock i3 capabilities, helping communities get the right help faster with enhanced data sharing and greater resiliency and interoperability, ushering in a new era emergency response for the public. For VoIP, Wireless and Wireline providers doing business in the state of Illinois, the clock is now ticking! Nationwide OSPs have six months to comply, while non-nationwide OSPs have twelve months. For more information about NG9-1-1 compliance and FCC 24-78, you can read our FAQ for OSPs. https://hubs.la/Q03FX32P0 #Intrado #WorkWorthDoing #AlwaysThereInAnEmergency #NG911 #Compliance

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📢 Proud moment for Lumen Technologies at Metro Connect Fall! Rob Ward, SVP of Network Engineering, joined industry leaders to discuss how we’re scaling networks to meet the explosive demand from AI.   As AI transforms industries, Lumen is building the infrastructure to support it—adding 34 million intercity fiber miles by 2028 and expanding high-speed, low-latency connectivity across 70+ data centers in 16 metro areas.    💡 Lumen is the trusted network for AI, enabling enterprises to move data faster, train models smarter, and innovate without limits. From 400G uplinks to multi-cloud onramps, we’re powering the future of digital transformation.   The future of AI-ready networks is here—learn more about how Lumen is building it: https://bit.ly/4nRuCBY.   #PartnerProgram #TrustedNetwork #DigitalTransformation #MetroConnect

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Meeting the growing high-speed broadband demands across Springfield, Champaign, Chicago, South Bend, Terre Haute, and Indianapolis, Great Plains Communications has announced it has collaborated with Ciena to upgrade its carrier backbone and transport networks in Illinois and Indiana. Read more: https://bit.ly/4mQRqRz

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In just 12 months, Fort Dodge, Iowa: ✅ Launched a city-owned ISP ✅ Connected thousands of homes and businesses ✅ Created local jobs and reduced resident costs ✅ Built Iowa’s largest municipal broadband network All powered by Nokia’s fiber solutions and Camvio’s cloud-native OSS/BSS platform. A blueprint for what municipal broadband should look like. Learn more about this transformational project → https://lnkd.in/gvSWuCnh Know more: https://lnkd.in/gARwVHpz

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