Podcasts
Beyond the Cable takes a sneak peek at the agenda for Connected America 2026, which opens next month with a packed two-day program in Texas.
The agenda on Day 1 at Connected America will hit the ground running, with a focus on the immediate realities of nationwide buildouts, from federal BEAD implementation and state broadband office strategies to tribal connectivity and middle‑mile infrastructure, while a slate of keynotes and panels will examine how fiber, fixed wireless, satellite, and 5G must work together to reach unserved communities.
Sessions on both days, which reviewed in full on Connected America’s website, will also highlight the practical barriers facing deployments: supply chain and labor constraints, regulatory compliance, and the challenge of turning infrastructure into adoption.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and data center growth also emerge as cross‑cutting themes, with panels exploring how AI can optimize network performance, reduce costs, and enable new rural and enterprise services, while conversations on edge and hyperscale data center demand consider where capacity and investment will cluster.
Listen to our podcast preview of Connected America on Apple Podcasts
Additionally, panels on affordability, community‑centric business models and strategies to convert new networks into sustainable subscriber bases aim to connect buildout plans with long‑term social and economic outcomes.
Taken together, Connected America’s agenda reflects the complexity of the current U.S. connectivity landscape, a mix of historic federal investment, rapid technological change, and urgent implementation challenges.
For policymakers, operators, and community leaders, the event offers a concentrated forum to reconcile competing priorities: accelerating deployment at scale, ensuring networks are resilient and AI‑ready, and making sure the benefits of connectivity reach the communities most at risk of being left behind.
Some AI tools assisted in the crafting of this report.
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