BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This is fabulous news. Pew has one of the best reputations for consistent, credible, and long-lasting research on broadband adoption. Coupled with the launch of its Broadband Research Initiative earlier this year, this begins to address some of the issues and complexities, and get us out of the messy world of inadequate broadband… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Doug Dawson once again nails it on his blog post. The 10 megabit per second (Mbps) download / 1 Mbps upload was outdated when it was announced, just as 25 Mbps/3 Mbps ("broadband") is today. It is especially disheartening to see the same requirement in the Agriculture Department's ReConnect grants. On the… Keep Reading
On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce will conduct a hearing on H.R. 2741, or Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow's America Act. Introduced by committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the measure includes $40 billion, over five years, to deploy broadband. The livestream for the hearing will be available on this page at 10 a.m. ET. The Democrats' staff… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: On Monday, a mere five days after placing Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei on the "Entity List" of effectively banned companies, the Trump administration signaled a (temporary) reprieve: Effective Monday, U.S. manufacturers will have 90 days in which to find alternatives to Huawei: “The Temporary General License grants operators time to make other… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: There is much to cheer for better broadband in Utah, including this report from today's Daily Herald. The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, the U.S.'s largest open access network, is on a roll. It is boasting an accelerated buildout in several Utah communities, and commitments to buildout its remaining cities, including Orem.… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This OpEd last week highlights the importance of broadband data and mapping, the variety of efforts underway to address inadequacies in our informational base, plus the broadband coordination currently going on in the federal government, and among many of the state governments. Of particular note, later in the articles, is the way it highlights… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Together with her Democratic colleague Sen. Maggie Hassan, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito on Friday introduced legislation designed to establish a national standard that would govern the Federal Communications Commission's determination about whether mobile and broadband services in rural areas are "reasonably comparable" to service provided in urban areas. Capito has also recently introduced a… Keep Reading
Next Century Cities this week highlights broadband programs in five states, in advance of the “West Central Mountains High Speed Internet Conference” on May 17 in McCall, Idaho. The Friday event is being co-sponsored by the West Central Mountains Economic Development Council and Next Century Cities. With 202 city members, the non-profit Next Century Cities… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Rep. Anna Eshoo on Thursday introduced three separate measures designed to expedite broadband access. The Conduit Deployment Act and the CLIMB Once Act are common-sense measures that enjoy strong support from many players in the industry, at least at a general level. The Community Broadband Act is also a common-sense measure to remove… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Telecommunications industry and advocacy organizations on Wednesday and Thursday reacted to the introduction of the LIFT America Act, H.R. 2741, which stands for Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow's America Act, by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, R-N.J. The measure includes $40 billion, over five years, to deploy broadband. A hearing… Keep Reading
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday released the names of 32 officials selected for the newly re-chartered Broadband Deployment Advisory Commission. The new BDAC, which will have its first meeting on June 13, 2019, at 9:30 a.m., may avoid one of the most widely-criticized aspects of the prior entity: A lack of local government representation.… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The CEO and Executive Vice President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group for digital marketers, argue in a Tuesday OpEd for "Do Not Track Plus" legislation. With civil society and lobbyists alike joining the chorus for privacy legislation, it's looking more and more likely that -- eventually -- online privacy… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: On Tuesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed a growing bi-partisan sense of dismay about Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei and its influence on impending 5G wireless technology standards, Adonis Hoffman of Business in the Public Interest republished the OpEd excerpted below on the Media Institute's blog. The piece, originally published in The Hill,… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: California, and many other states, have muscled their way onto the national broadband stage. They've done this through legislation that would either require net neutrality protections that the Federal Communications Commission removed in December 2017, or use state purchase power to require that selected Internet Service Providers commit to neutrality principles, or… Keep Reading
PROMONTORY POINT, Utah, May 10, 2019 - Think of the transcontinental railroad as the original public-private partnership. The linkage of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad 150 years ago today - at this desolate spot here in northern Utah - marked a confluence of engineering might, labor force logistics, private capital and… Keep Reading
With the sudden resignation of National Telecommunications and Information Administrator David Redl on Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department's NTIA has updated its web page for Diane Rinaldo, formerly the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, and the now-acting administrator of the agency. From the web site: Diane Rinaldo was sworn in as Deputy Assistant Secretary… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Susan Crawford is once again bringing history to life with this blast-from-the-past story of how "net neutrality" owes some of its roots to a 20-year-old fight in Portland. Today, however, the city is bringing open access battles into the 21st Century. (We wrote about Lake Oswego here in October 2015.) And here's… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Many fiber-focused companies in the U.S., and overseas, have turned to private equity investors instead of the public markets. What the public company Zayo's acquisition mean for the industry? Steven Blum takes a stab at his prognostication. One can only hope that it bodes well: Zayo is a key middle-mile ingredient for… Keep Reading
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday published its second round of regulatory guidance regarding opportunity zones, providing further context and security around the investment vehicle included in the 2017 federal tax legislation, dubbed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. As defined in law, the statutory opportunity zone systems allows a taxpayer to defer all or… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2019 - Social media and technology platform companies are wasting the talents of a generation, addicting and impoverishing middle America, and even driving teenagers to commit suicide in record numbers, Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday. In a blistering speech attacking Facebook, Google, and the supposed "crown jewel" of the American economy known culturally… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Mozilla's recently-released "Internet Health Report" is a fascinating look at the politics and technology behind our contemporary broadband nettworks. This story, on the "Power of Cities," highlights the role of grass-roots activism in response to the Federal Communications Commission's decision, in December 2017, to lift Obama-era net neutrality rules. Spotlight: The power of… Keep Reading
SiFi Networks' recent announcement of a more-than $75 million open-access network in Fullerton, Calif., represents a departure from the public-private model that the company had been pursuing in the U.S. over the past four years. SiFi is continuing its focus on an open-access network, or a network in which more than one service provider offers broadband… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This piece by our friend and colleague Craig Settles addresses several issues about co-ops, broadband, and rural economic development being addressed at the Broadband Communities Summit this week in Austin, Texas. Both Craig Settles, the author of this piece, and Tim Marema, the editor of DailyYonder.com, participated in the Rural Telecommunications Congress program from… Keep Reading
April 9, 2019 - There is exists a gaping digital divide between Rural America and the rest of the country, in which 146 million people (45 percent of the population) do not have access to a low-price plan for residential broadband. That is according to research released last week by BroadbandNow, which also found a… Keep Reading
Bipartisan ACCESS BROADBAND Act would improve coordination and community access to federal broadband resources WASHINGTON, April 4, 2019 – Representatives Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Susan Brooks, R-Ind., announced the introduction of H.R. 1328: the ACCESS BROADBAND Act today, bipartisan legislation that would expand broadband access in underserved areas and create a simpler process for small businesses and local economic… Keep Reading
SiFi Networks on Monday announced that it had obtained funding to build an open access fiber network through the whole city of Fullerton, California. SiFi will fund, build and operate the networks in partnership with Internet Service Providers, which will market services to individual households. A mid-sized city in Southern California with a population of… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: New business models are coming for fiber to the home deployments across the U.S. On Tuesday, Medina County, Ohio, announced just such a model, together with Neighborly, a company that provides communities with access to capital for broadband projects. The fiber networks in the county is expected to cost $50 for 100 megabits… Keep Reading
Don't missing the exciting program of the Rural Telecommunications Congress in Austin, Texas, from April 9, 2019-April 11, 2019. The program is listed below. To sign up at the Rural Telecommunications Congress rate by visiting the RTC web site, or by visiting the Broadband Communities web site. (Make sure to select "CODE HOLDERS" radio button and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 21, 2019 - The nation's leading telecommunications companies on Thursday announced a new broadband mapping pilot initiative that aims to geolocate each address in the country, and link each location with broadband providers that offer service to that address. At a launch event joined by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, the broadband… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 20, 2019 - The Federal Trade Commission is hosting an event on Wednesday on "Competition and Consumer Protection Issues in U.S. Broadband Markets." Keep Reading
Editor's Note: The most recent edition of Broadband Communities Magazine features a special section on rural broadband, including this overview piece about the passage of the Agricultural Improvement Act and the ReConnect. Incidentally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's series of webinars on the program continue with events on Tuesday, March 12; Thursday, March 14; and Wednesday,… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Broadband is the baseline for economic development: If you don't have the former, you won't have the latter. And for Rural America, this is doubly true. (Read all the way through the article to understand how "Broadband, Bluegrass and Beer" makes it all happen.) It's great to see these great results coming out of… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Google is beginning to enter into hunker-down mode. The company is finally alive to the grave new threats that it faces. They are two-pronged: More-intensive antitrust scrutiny, and regulation of privacy/AI/Section 230 free speech. As Drew Clark wrote about for a CATO Institute policy late last year, "Seeking Intervention Backfired on Silicon… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We've been following SNG Group for some time. Think of this group as the "broadband economists." They take data about broadband and help communities understand what they can do with it to enhance their usage of high-speed technology, and to find their competitive advantages vis-a-vis other communities. See this research report they've… Keep Reading
February 20, 2019 - The Rural Telecommunications Congress comes together once every year in Austin, Texas, jointly with the Broadband Communities Summit. Rural broadband issues are very much in the news. Among the topics that will be discussed this year at the summit are "Rural Broadband Success Stories." This panel will take place on Thursday, April… Keep Reading
February 14, 2019 - Americans love broadband. More accurately, they hate it when they can't get access to high-speed internet. Right now, Rural America faces a huge crisis, and it isn't getting better. According to a report, the "American Broadband Initiative," released yesterday by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, Rural America is woefully… Keep Reading
February 13, 2019 - The Trump Administration on Wednesday highlighted the importance of enhancing broadband internet service for America, particularly in rural areas, as it promoted a variety of existing federal initiatives under a new brand, the "American Broadband Initiative." Through the issuance of a new "Milestones Report" by the Agriculture Department and the Commerce… Keep Reading
Editor's Note: Around the time of Presidents' Day eight years ago, I wrote this piece about the connection between Abraham Lincoln's passion for infrastructure improvements and his belief in equal opportunity. I linked it to the then pressing - and still pressing - need for infrastructure improvements in Rural America. On Abraham Lincoln's 210th birthday… Keep Reading
At the Silicon Flatirons event at the University of Colorado, a heated (!) debate about economic harms, and how it should impact privacy law. 02/10/19 4:30pm - 5:30pm DEBATE: PRIVACY LAW SHOULD FOCUS ONLY ON ECONOMIC HARM Pierre de Vries — Moderator Spectrum Policy Initiative Co-director and Executive Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Danielle Citron Morton & Sophia… Keep Reading