Mark your calendar for July 29, 2025 for the Iowa Heartland Chapter Safety Day! This in-person, full-day training will be held at the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities training center in Ankeny, Iowa.

IAMU's safety training professionsals will speak on the following topics:

• Emergency Preparedness
• Violence in the Workplace
• Defensive and Winter Driving
• Walking-Working Surfaces

Be watching for registration information coming soon to an inbox near you!

We will be offering sponsorship opportunities for Safety Day to help us hold down the cost for attendees. Details will be coming soon, but if your company is interested in reserving a sponsorship, contact Curtis Dean at the following email address: [email protected]. 

We hope you can join us for our next Iowa Heartland Chapter training! We'll be at Huxley Communications on June 12, 2025 for Splice Case and Cable Prep with instructor Tim Locker with CBM.

The morning session begins at 10am and the afternoon session is at 1pm. Members and non-members are willing to attend either (or both!) sessions.

​For more details on this training, CLICK HERE.

Charter Communications and Cox Communications announced a surprise $34.5 billion merger deal on May 16th, creating the largest cable operator in the US. The transaction values Cox at $21.9 billion in equity plus $12.6 billion in net debt and obligations.Under the agreement, Charter will acquire Cox's commercial fiber and managed IT/cloud businesses, while Cox Enterprises contributes its residential cable operations to Charter Holdings. Cox will receive $4 billion and retain 23% ownership in the combined entity. The merger brings together Cox's business services unit, including fiber provider Segra and cloud company Rapid Scale.

The combined company will serve 69.5 million locations (compared to Comcast's 63.96 million) and generated $68.2 billion in 2024 revenues. With 37.6 million total customers, the companies expect $500 million in cost synergies within three years.
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Charter CEO Chris Winfrey will lead the combined company, which will be renamed Cox Communications but operate under the Spectrum consumer brand. Headquarters will remain in Stamford, Connecticut, with significant Atlanta presence maintained. The deal positions the company to better compete in video, advertising, business services, and mobile markets while returning customer service operations to the US.

AT&T is acquiring the fiber portion of Lumen Technologies' Mass Markets unit for approximately $5.75 billion, significantly expanding its fiber footprint as part of a convergence strategy combining home broadband and mobile services. This move comes as AT&T competes with cable rivals Charter and Comcast, who have found success with broadband/mobile bundles.The acquisition will boost AT&T's fiber target from 50 million to 60 million locations by 2030, representing a 25% increase. The deal includes 4.4 million existing locations from Lumen plus 5.6 million additional locations AT&T plans to build afterward. However, this will still cover only about 31% of US housing units by 2030.
Analysts view the deal favorably, with AT&T paying approximately $1,450 per fiber enablement—well below recent comparable transactions like Verizon-Frontier. The acquired assets are strategically located in eight major markets including Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and others.
AT&T will operate the network through a subsidiary called "NetworkCo" and plans to bring in an equity partner within 6-12 months after closing. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, with Lumen focusing on enterprise markets while AT&T pursues its fiber-mobile convergence strategy.

The Iowa Heartland Board is always looking for ideas on new trainings to offer our members across the state. What topics would YOU like to see covered? Please drop an email to [email protected] with your ideas!

OSHA (the workplace safety agency) has specific rules to keep telecommunications workers safe when climbing poles and towers:

• Training is required before any worker can climb. Companies must teach workers all safety procedures and make sure they understand them before allowing them to work on poles or towers.
• Fall protection is a must. Any time you're working more than 4 feet off the ground on poles or towers, you need to use safety equipment that prevents falls. This equipment must be checked every day before use.
• Climbing spikes (called "gaffs") need to be the right size - at least 1¼ inches long underneath. When not being used, they need safety caps. Someone qualified needs to check them for cracks, dullness, or broken parts.
• Testing poles before climbing is required. Before climbing, workers need to check if a pole is safe, especially poles that lean, are at corners, or don't have many wires attached. One way to test is tapping the pole with a hammer from ground level up to about 6 feet high.
• Never climb unsafe poles. If a pole seems unsafe after testing, workers cannot climb it until it's made secure with guy wires or braces. Unsafe poles must have warning tags to alert everyone.
• Safety gear is non-negotiable. Workers need proper equipment including full-body harnesses, helmets, safety glasses, gloves, and proper boots.

Staying up-to-date on safety rules is important, as they can change and some states have additional requirements beyond the federal ones.

The nation's capitol is the site of this year's SCTE TechExpo25, scheduled for September 29-October 1. This year's theme is "Network (R)Evolution- Delivering the Seamless Experience. While the agenda is still a work in progress, you can count on an amazing experience with educational sessions, great vendors, and of course the International Cable-Tech Games!

Early bird registration for SCTE TechExpo25 is open until May 23rd! CLICK HERE to register now and save! 

It's never too early to plan ahead for the event of the year, the SCTE TechExpo 24. This year's event will be held in Atlanta, GA on September 24-26 at the Georgia World Congress Center. 

Registration is open on the event website - CLICK HERE to get more information and to register. REMINDER - registration rates increase on May 17th, so get signed up now for the best deal!

The Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, has exhausted the funds allocated to it by Congress, and April was the last month that eligible consumers will receive the monthly subsidy of $30 off their internet bills ($75 in Tribal areas).

Despite heavy lobbying from the broadband industry and consumer advocates, Congress has not moved on several bills designed to restore funding to the ACP through the end of 2024.  A long-term solution for affordability funding, such as through an expansion of the FCC's Univeral Service Fund (USF) seems even more remote.

As the subsidy expires, it's likely that operators will see a wave of disconnects in the coming months as consumers struggle to pay their bills. Some operators have their own affordable tiers for low-income households, which will ease the burden for many.

Our chapter's busy training schedule continues this month. There's still time to register for our Iowa Heartland Safety Day on May 7th, and registration is now open for our XGS-PON trainings on June 4th and 5th.

Iowa Heartland Safety Day
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
IAMU - Ankeny

XGS-PON
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 - Fort Dodge
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - Waterloo

Iowa Heartland Member Appreciation Day
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 
​Pinseekers in Tiffin (near Coralville/North Liberty)
​Registration coming soon!