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By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
The Fiber Broadband Association CEO pushes back against rhetoric questioning the feasibility of subsidizing rural fiber at Connected America.
Gary Bolton, the CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, was outspoken in defense of rural fiber broadband subsidization at Connected America in Dallas this week.
Bolton’s comments came in response to another panelist during a keynote discussion on Day 2 of Connected America, titled “Fiber for Everyone?”
“You hear this rhetoric about, why would you spend $100,000 pulling fiber to a home that’s only worth $125,000,” he said. “Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the reason it costs $100,000 to get that fiber is because there’s no infrastructure to that home.”
Bolton said once fiber is provided to rural residences it operates as a complete game-changer.
(L to R) Patience Haggin, of the Wall Street Journal, moderates “Fiber for Everyone?,” a keynote panel at Connected America 2025. She’s joined by Gary Bolton, the CEO of the FBA, Cameron Kilton, the CTO of Nextlink Internet, Jose Espinel, an SVP at Comcast, and Tom Monahan, a VP at AT&T.
“So, if you were able to put this fiber infrastructure all the way to this home that might be rural low income, well guess what? That rural low-income home now has access to world class healthcare, world class education, jobs, and all of a sudden that low-income house becomes a middle-income house,” Bolton passionately stated.
Bolton’s comments came in response to those from Cameron Kilton, Nextlink Internet’s CTO.
‘We’ll never get to 100 percent fiber’
“Despite our best efforts, despite program fundings, we’ll never get to 100 percent fiber,” Kilton said, adding that he doesn’t like to use the word “never” often. “It’s just not realistic.”
Kilton also said he believes “it’s not financially responsible for the government to go spend $150,000 a passing.”
He further suggested that Starlink-provided connectivity could be a more viable option for off the beaten path rural residents.
Additionally, Kilton said fiber networks are providing more bandwidth than customers need.
From his experience, Kilton said peak usage for a family of eight is 22 megabits per second.
“Is it nice to have a big, giant download pipe,” Kilton asked. “Of course it is. Everything comes a little bit faster when you need it.”
He said uses beyond 22 to 25 megabits per second for families are “not often unless you have a big download.”
‘This is a fantastic investment’
In his response to Kilton’s comments, Bolton also addressed what fiber in rural areas does for communities, allowing them to erect cell towers and provide reliable cell service.
“So, now this rural area that has zero connectivity has cell service,” he said. “Now that you have fiber, cell service, and a middle-income home, other homes start to be developed. Now you have economic development.”
Bolton said fiber in rural communities can also help those communities generate taxable revenue. He predicted revenue generated would exceed the cost of the subsidies to build fiber.
“So, this is a fantastic investment,” he said of fiber.
Evidence for fiber’s value as an investment should be derived from the results of the Rural Electrification Act, Bolton argued.
“Then, all of a sudden, you start to see everybody, all Americans, start to move up in their quality of life,” he said.
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