Broadband for All
Regulatory fights between state and federal regulators sometimes get messy, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything as messy as AT T’s attempt to retire and walk away from copper facilities in California. AT T asked the California Public Service Commission (CPUC) for the ability to start retiring copper telephone networks in March 2023. It Continue reading
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals made a recent ruling that could end up eliminating one of the biggest rights-of-way issues that slow down fiber construction projects. In the case of CSX Transportation v. Zayo Group, LLC, the court ruled that the easement that CSX owns for its railroad tracks only applies to the surface Continue reading
One of the most interesting positive things that came out of the COVID pandemic was that communities and organizations across the country deployed public WiFi hotspots. This was done at the time to support students and workers who were expected to find a way to work remotely. And this worked well in a lot of Continue reading
Earlier this year, two ranking members of the House Science Committee sent a letter to the FCC that reminded the agency that it didn’t have any clear authority from Congress to regulate space safety, space traffic management, or other non-communication space issues. This letter was sent when it became clear that the FCC was considering Continue reading
Today s blog muses a bit on the impact of the Supreme Court ruling in Trump vs Slaughter. The case arose when President Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two Democratic Commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, soon after he took office. The Congressional legislation that established the FTC said that Commissioners serve seven-year Continue reading
I saw a recent announcement that the FCC’s Wireless Competition Bureau had approved the transfer of WideOpenWest to Japan’s Softbank Group. WideOpenWest is the eighth-largest cable company, which operates under the brand name of WOW! The proposed transaction has Softbank buying the DigitalBridge Group, which is WOW!’s majority owner. This deal was announced at the Continue reading
Connect Humanity the Alt Funding Field Guide that is intended to provide ideas for those who are working to solve the digital divide, like digital navigators. The purpose of the guide is to provide a range of ideas about the immediate future of the digital inclusion field and to provide ideas for practitioners on where Continue reading
A year ago, John Horrigan wrote an article for the Benton Foundation that predicted that as many as 5.6 million households would drop their home broadband connection due to the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill. He based that assessment on the changes that the OBBB will make to federal programs that benefit low-income Continue reading
It seems that one of the hottest topics in the industry is Direct-to-Device (D2D) cellular service that can bypass terrestrial cell towers and connect cellphones directly to satellites. I’ve already seen claims being made that D2D technology will solve the rural cellular issue since everybody will have cell coverage. Today’s blog looks at some of Continue reading
Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about data sovereignty. Indian Tribes want data sovereignty. Countries around the world and state and local governments in the U.S. are talking about data sovereignty. Corporations are talking about data sovereignty, even though they use different terms to describe it. The concept behind data sovereignty is simple. It means Continue reading