January 16, 2019 - One day after an event aimed at encouraging bipartisan solutions on technology policy, the non-profit group Next Century Cities launched its "Becoming Broadband Ready" toolkit together with Neighborly and the Internet Society. The 33-page toolkit (PDF) was set to be launched at an event at 1 p.m. ET in Washington (PDF),… Keep Reading
January 15, 2019 - Below is the link to, and livestream from, the Next Century Cities event, "Opportunities for Bipartisan Tech Policy." This half-day event aims to bring together members of Congress, community leaders, and policy experts. Keynote conversations and panel discussions will work to determine key policy goals and action steps for the new… Keep Reading
LAS VEGAS, January 9, 2018 - Here at the Consumer Electronics Show, it's impossible to avoid being bombarded by the energy - real and imagined - surrounding the 5G wireless standard that is just beginning to be deployed. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg made the communications company's efforts to nurture, promote and deploy 5G the sum… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We reported this news back in August, but it's worth highlighting again with this new new piece on SiFi Networks' project in Saratoga Springs, a city of 28,027 in upstate New York. Most notably, the article includes a link to the agreement between SiFi Networks and the city. Saratoga Springs to lay fiber… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We've written about the California Consumer Privacy Act before in "European and Chinese Pressures are Squeezing Silicon Valley, Threatening a Global ‘Splinternet’. The fact of multiple states passing significant privacy legislation is one of the potential drivers for federal consideration of substantial privacy rules. Here, attorney Lauren Stickroth catalogs the various aspects… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We remember reading The Transparent Society 20 years ago, back in the days when Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said, "You have no privacy; get over it." Brin's book was remarkably prescient in providing a pathway for how to live with the ever-decreasing private space occasioned by technological progress. Here, in an… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: A Senate confirmation prior to the end of the 115th Congress at Noon on Thursday brought a new head to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The position has been vacant for nearly two years. In a statement, CCIA CEO Ed Black said, “This is a vitally important link to the administration… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 3, 2019 – The Senate on Wednesday night confirmed Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr to another term at the agency, and confirmed Geoffrey Starks, a Democratic appointee, to begin serving as a commissioner at the agency. The move means that the agency will finally have a full house of five commissioners, a first… Keep Reading
Editor's Note: The Federal Communications Commission issued this press release on Monday - it looks as though the agency will close down right as Congress is coming back into session. WASHINGTON, December 31, 2018—In the event of a continued partial lapse in federal government funding, the Federal Communications Commission will suspend most operations in the… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: It's about time that Metro began covering the Washington subway! Metro, AT&T, Sprint, T‐Mobile and Verizon Wireless announce major milestone in tunnel wireless coverage, from WMATA: December 19, 2018 - Today Metro and the nation’s leading wireless carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless announced that more than half of Metro’s tunnels… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 13, 2018 – The Agriculture Department on Thursday unveiled the details of is $600 million broadband loan and grant program – dubbed “ReConnect” – and which was originally called for by appropriations legislation passed in March. “High-speed internet e-Connectivity is a necessity, not an amenity, vital for quality of life and economic opportunity,… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 11, 2018 – The CEO of search engine Google came to Washington on Tuesday and politely rebutted all charges that the world’s largest search engine is biased against conservative viewpoints. In the calm and controlled voice of an engineer, CEO Sundar Pichai said, “Our products are built without any bias,” responding to a… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 11, 2018 - This is how bad it's gotten for Google in Washington: The company is taking out ads on the back of the conservative National Review while, and the same time, the story suggests gaslighting the company. The ad picks a conservative-friendly theme: "Now you can search 'jobs for veterans' and enter… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The first news report that we've seen on Thursday's argument before the D.C. Circuit. While the Trump Justice Department attempted to stop the merger between AT&T and Time Warner, the deal has already closed after it was blessed by district court judge Richard Leon. This report emphasizes the tone and mood in the closely-watched case.… Keep Reading
November 16, 2018 - With the launch of a group of communities in a "broadband accelerator" launched by the municipal finance portal Neighborly, the momentum behind open access broadband networks is continuing to build. On Thursday, Neighborly announced that it had selected 35 cities, including sizable communities of Cleveland, New Orleans and Richmond, as its… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Facebook is only the first of the feared tech giants (#GAFA - Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) who appear to be buckling into this pressure. Can you imagine the reaction if the Trump administration were seeking to "embed" journalists into the company? Tech companies are increasingly being hit by both sides: Conservative… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: A lot of jargon in here, but the key message is that there are some real advantages for fixed wireless technology ("FWA," in the jargon of the piece) as opposed to networks built primarily for mobile uses. Cable companies can use fixed wireless to deliver broadband services to residential markets already served… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Talk about finally letting the other shoe drop! On Monday, the Supreme Court, on a 4-3 vote (with two of the conservatives justices recusing themselves) refused to consider the old net neutrality case - the one lodged by the Obama administration, and which put extensive net neutrality regulations into effect. Those rules,… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Critics of municipal involvement with broadband infrastructure will find all manner of reasons to oppose them, and this article from Motherboard elaborates on Federal Communications Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's views about the subject. This appears to be an extension of the thinking that, just as cable networks enjoyed a First Amendment right to… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The journalism publication CJR weighs into the below-the-radar-battle over rural broadband, highlighting the now-here prospect of a gaping digital divide between the urban and the rural areas of our country. Iowa: Rural broadband, and the unknown costs of the digital divide, from CJR.org Ahead of the November 6 elections, CJR invited writers… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: There's no question that California courts controversy, in technology and telecommunications as well as many other spaces. However, putting aside the drama over net neutrality, this bill removing restrictions on the public option will aid rural broadband. In particular, the measure allows community service districts to fund broadband much as they would… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Seattle steps up to the plate as the first city to take on the Federal Communications Commission in the emerging battles over the rollout of so-called 5G, or fifth generation, wireless networks. 5G networks require an exponential expansion on transceivers, and many cities are frustrated by the sense that the FCC is… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 15, 2018 - The Phoenix Center on Friday released a new report on how the existence of a “transaction window” could help facilitating market-based repurposing of electromagnetic spectrum. The eight-page report, “Expediting Spectrum Repurposing Through Market Transactions,” presents an economic model for a two-stage process: First, incumbent licensees are would be granted a… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: California is merely the largest of the large number of states that have attempted to take a "federalist" approach to the "interstate commerce" of network neutrality. This sets up the first of many political flashpoints over the issue. Feds launch lawyers at California net neutrality law, on high political alert, from Steve… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency has been outperforming expectations for some time; and never more so than recently. This post from FreeUTOPIA summarizes some of the reasons. In September, the entity signed a deal with Layton to allow the city to accelerate its build of the fiber-optic network. Expanding UTOPIA the… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT - Views differ on the extent of Google Fiber progress, or persistence, throughout the country, and particularly here in Utah. I have cousins in both Provo and Salt Lake, each of whom have Google Fiber, each of whom love Google Fiber. And yet reports such as this one highlight the key need… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: SiFi Networks appears to be gaining some traction in the U.S., based upon this report from Telecompaper. The company bring a public-private partnership model to a universal broadband build within cities, helping cities to get gigabit symmetrical service -- and to have control and/or ownership at the end of a period of… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Blockchain is beginning to be recognized as much more than simply the technology powering Bitcoin. As this understanding seeps into the popular consciousness, policy-makers will begin to recognize how significant this innovation is for distributed computing and automating processes - financial, transactional, logistical and legal. Shane Tews at AEI Ideas delves into… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Last week Google announced three new phones on its Project Fi network. Which raises the question (particularly for those iPhone users blocked out of the project) about what on earth is Project Fi, and how does it work? In sum, it's Google's version of a virtual mobile network stitching together elements of… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The traditional pairing of one Republican and one Democrat for Federal Communications Commission spots may not apply in this case because, with the departure of Mignon Clyburn on May 10, the agency is currently experiences a 3-1 margin of Republican governance. Trump grants Democrats’ request for a new FCC commissioner, from Ars… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: With Jeffrey Katzenberg getting into the game, we now see a multitude of video entities and many over-the-top outfits promoting an array of content offerings. Katzenberg's take? Short-form TV. Let a thousand flowers bloom! Katzenberg’s NewTV Video Startup Raises $800 Million, from Bloomberg Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg has secured about $800 million… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: I watched this video of Google CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrating Google Assistant, and I also was impressed. While I agree that there are some real social engineering issues raised by the assistant, I'm not sure that "disclosure" requirement called for by some of the technology's critics really meet the mark. Is there… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We were present at the Broadband Communities Summit at which Blair Levin gave these remarks; thanks to the Coalition for Local Internet Choice for providing the complete and unvarnished record of this important and scathing speech. Remember that Levin was the former executive director of the FCC's ambitious National Broadband Plan, issued… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This falls into the category of a gaffe, or when a politically-minded business like AT&T accidentally tells the truth. Here, the truth is that 5G is not, current hype notwithstanding, a fiber-to-the-home killer. Instead, 5G will rely more directly on fiber build deeper into neighborhoods. And, as AT&T said, fiber-to-the-home would be… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The Trump administration's protectionism is already having significant impacts on many American businesses and industries, and may begin to have significant impacts on the fiber broadband world. This post by Doug Dawson outlines some of the moves in Washington against both Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese telecommunications manufacturing giants. Incidentally, I had… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We've been watching the progress of CityFibre closely because of what it is demonstrating on the other side of the pond: The future of broadband is in wholesale. Separating infrastructure from services provides significant advantages in being able to raise capital. This is necessary to construct gigabit fiber networks in order to… Keep Reading
AUSTIN, April 24, 2018 - The Rural Telecommunications Congress track at the Broadband Communities Summit here next week kicks off with a discussion about county-led economic development, and features the top technologies leaders from three divergent counties that each include different perspectives on delivering rural broadband. I'll have the privilege of moderating our first discussion, which… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: While Washington alternatively obsesses over net neutrality, beating up on Facebook, or other distractions brought to us by the man in the White House, how refreshing is it to encounter a piece like this. Mark Howell is demonstrating that leadership on a local level can make a difference in bringing people what… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This is from Dave Burstein, a telecom geek/journalist/gadfly, and who frequently has some interesting observations about broadband technologies, and the politics behind them. In this pieces, he's reporting on the thoughts of leaders in the mobile industry, to the effect of just how overblown is the hype behind 5G wireless technologies. No… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: A great summary of what to take away from the Trump administration's blocking of Broadcom's acquisition attempt for Qualcomm, an action that appears to be have been taken quite precipitously. According to The New York Times' story on the subject, "A presidential action against foreign investment in an American company is rare and… Keep Reading