BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The long-awaited day has arrived for the “official” launch of the open-access fiber-optic network in Ammon, Idaho. This city of about 14,000 people has been making waves for some time with its unique approach to (a) providing advanced open-access technology and (b) enabling a financing model that leverages an opt-in Local Improvement… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing a creative response to repair the damage done by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico by tapping into the Universal Service Fund for necessary infrastructure repairs. A decision on the matter is planned for the agency’s October 24 meeting, but could happen sooner. FCC proposes… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: A useful voice of skepticism on the viability and timeliness of 5G. Here’s the simple point: Our nation don’t have enough fiber, deep enough, in order to capitalize on 5G. As the article says later on, “federal, state, and local governments have policy and regulatory levers that can hasten investment.” The U.S.… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 15, 2017 — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday announced the appointment of wireless broadband advocate L. Elizabeth Bowles to lead the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. “[Bowles] has made great contributions to the BDAC and its working groups already, and she brings to the table a combination of talents and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 2, 2017 — A pair of senators on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan bill which they hope will improve wireless networks in underserved rural areas of the United States. The aptly named Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (AIRWAVES) Act, introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, and Cory Gardner,… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 1, 2017 — Omissions in sworn testimony by Federal Commissions Commission Republican nominee Brendan Carr regarding his representation of various telecommunications providers won’t cause any delay in his upcoming confirmation vote, Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson, D-Fla, told BroadbandBreakfast.com on Monday. Carr, who currently serves as general counsel to the FCC… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 1, 2017 — President Donald Trump is committed to moving an infrastructure bill this year despite making little legislative progress towards on other policy goals, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday. “The President has been very outspoken on the need for a massive overhaul to the country’s infrastructure system,”… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2017 – The official topic of Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing was reauthorization of the Federal Communications Commission, but the big focus was on net neutrality. “The Commission’s decision in 2015 to reclassify the internet as a public utility was a power grab laced with the irony of suffocating the… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2017 – Rural areas of Tennessee have lost business because they don’t have access to high-speed internet, Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn said Monday at a panel on broadband infrastructure hosted by the Brookings Institution. Trump was aggressively pushing new infrastructure, said Blackburn, the chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2017 – Speaking at a meeting of the agency’s newly-form Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly put forward his view that state and local governments are creating barriers to broadband deployment across the United States. “Broadband deployment remains a top priority of this Commission,” O’Rielly said. “It’s more than… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai came to his re-confirmation hearing Wednesday with a message that network neutrality regulations were hurting infrastructure investments. The hearing joined Pai, current FCC chairman, with Jessica Rosenworcel, who had been an FCC commissioner until her term lapsed at the end of last year, and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 6, 2017 – A range of advocates for net neutrality gathering under the banner of Fight for the Future have teamed up to host an online protest, “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality” on Wednesday, July 12. Reddit and Public Knowledge are among the more than 100 companies and advocacy organizations… Keep Reading
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, July 6, 2017 – The world looks to the United States to see how the country treats its own inventions, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California, said last week at a June 26 roundtable on the subject of net neutrality at Mozilla Headquarters here. The roundtable is part of a push to combat Federal… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2017 – Among rural Americans, 39 percent lack access to high speed internet compared to only 4 percent of urban Americans who lack access, said Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. He said more needs to be done to get rural Americans service on par with urban… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2017 – Without efficient data, the Federal Communications Commission can’t put together a model that shows what the cost would be to cover areas with no wireless coverage, the senior vice president of strategic relations of the broadband company C Spire said at a hearing on Tuesday. The hearing on Capitol Hill… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2017 — President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would add broadband internet access to his $1 trillion infrastructure proposal drew praise from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai despite the lack of details regarding how the Trump Administration would go about promoting more widespread broadband deployment. “I am grateful to President Trump for his… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2017 — The White House on Thursday plans to continue its “tech week” by hosting a group of 25 technology company founders and CEOs to meet with Trump Administration officials on new technologies and promoting economic progress, Deputy Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios said on Wednesday. “Tomorrow I’m very excited for [the… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2017 — Cuts in the Federal Communications Commission budget won’t hinder the agency’s ability to provide services because the agency is entirely funded by fees, Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told senators on Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing to examine the Commission’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request. “[W]e have compiled… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2017 – The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force last week announced updates to a broadband mapping platform to allow communities and businesses to better use high-speed internet to help patients with chronic health conditions. “As a famous writer once said, ‘data are just summaries of thousands of stories,’” Michele Ellison, chairwoman… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 – Ending months of speculation, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, back to her previous role as a Federal Communications Commissioner. The announcement came in a pre-midnight email from the White House. Attempts to get Rosenworcel’s re-nominated at the end of the last Congress faltered in… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2017 — Despite myriad public events and a soundbyte-friendly title of “Infrastructure Week,” last week the White House was light on infrastructure and nearly empty of plans to build out 21st century digital infrastructure of fiber or wireless broadband. “There’s not going to be a lot of detail at this time,” a… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2017 — Infrastructure plans in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget represent a significant break from his predecessor not only in the brick-and-mortar variety, but also in the next generation of infrastructure for the next generation of the American economy — wired and wireless broadband networks. While infrastructure investment under President Barack Obama… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s take on this may seem inconsistent, but from his perspective, anything that preserves FCC authority will help him preserve his (pending) rule to overturn the reclassification of broadband as a Title II service. Now the contest continues on only two front – the FCC and Congress… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2017 – The Federal Communications Commission announced that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will speak Wednesday afternoon at the Newseum, at an event hosted by the free-market Freedom Works, to lay out his approach to reversing the agency’s “open internet” order under his predecessor, former Chairman Tom Wheeler. The event will be livestreamed… Keep Reading
DALLAS, April 18, 2017 – Over the past ten years, broadband mapping has gone through many changes. In the beginning, the Federal Communications Commission collected data about high-speed internet access, but didn’t release any local or granular data collected through its semi-annual forms. Through the efforts of organizations like BroadbandCensus.com (the predecessor to BroadbandBreakfast.com), a… Keep Reading
On Wednesday, April 5, Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet is honored to host Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Pai will deliver prepared remarks on the importance of economic analysis and the role it will play at the FCC going forward. After his remarks, Chairman Pai will join… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: With the House Rules Committee’s decision to press for a House vote on internet privacy on Tuesday, it’s an “all hands on deck” sort of moment, as multiple parties weight into the pros and cons of approving the Senate’s use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn Obama administration privacy rules. ISPs, Advertisers… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai defended his very vision of the agency’s role, as compared with his predecessor, during the first Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing this year. The difference in attitude between Pai and former Chairman Tom Wheeler on broadband deployment highlighted the differences between the two. “High-speed… Keep Reading
Public Knowledge Files Opposition for Reconsideration to Save Broadband Privacy Rules for Consumers On Monday, Public Knowledge, joined by Benton Foundation and the Center for Digital Democracy, filed an Opposition to Petitions for Reconsideration of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Privacy Order adopted in 2016. We seek to preserve elements of the Order that enable… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: Flake’s bill is just one of the many signs that telecommunications issues are likely to be discussed more, not less, in Congress this year. This diminishes the importance of action at the FCC, relegating it to serving a secondary role on more technical issues. GOP senator offers measure to undo FCC internet… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 8, 2017 – Despite high hopes that President Trump’s campaign promise for a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill would lead to additional investment in high-speed internet access, it appears that broadband deployment and accessibility is taking a back seat in Congress to brick-and mortar projects. At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week on improving… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: New York State continues its innovative efforts to provide broadband funding to underserved areas of the state. In addition to funding for traditional and non-traditional telecom companies, the program has received funding from the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline Program. $212 Million in Broadband Funding Awarded to 26 Carriers Including FairPoint, Frontier, and… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: One advocacy group reacts to the actions from the Federal Communications Commission on Friday, in which numerous decisions and actions of the Obama administration FCC were overturned in a “Friday news dump.” New FCC Chairman Releases a Friday-Afternoon Flurry of Anti-Consumer Items WASHINGTON, February 3, 2017 — In a flurry of items… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 31, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday announced the formation of a new federal advisory committee that would seek to accelerate deployment of high-speed broadband nationwide, and to close the digital divide, by providing a model approach to deployment for municipalities. “Access to broadband is increasingly critical for all… Keep Reading
EVANSTON, Illinois, January 30, 2017 – Benton Foundation CEO Adrianne Furniss on Monday sent the following letter to to President Donald Trump and leaders both in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission. She wrote: Just as ten years ago when Benton Foundation Founder Charles Benton called on then-President George W. Bush to develop a national broadband… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: Some intelligence into the possible third Republican to join the Federal Communications Commission, from TVNewsCheck.com Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 26, 2017 – In his first substantive action since being named to his position on Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced approval of the petition by New York State’s broadband program to access the Connect America Fund. The agency’s full press release is below: FCC VOTES TO EXPAND BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT IN… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2017 — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday announced a series of staff appointments, one day after his selection as chairman was confirmed by President Donald Trump. Among the appointments include Brendan Carr as acting general counsel, Matthew Berry as chief of staff, and Nicholas Degani as senior counsel. About… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 23, 2017 — In a statement released on the web site of the Federal Communications Communications, and emailed to reporters at 4:48 p.m. ET, Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican announced his selection as Chairman of the agency, a nominally independent agency whose chairman is designated by President Donald Trump. Pai said:… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: This was an excellent webinar discussion probing connectivity, and helping government, non-profit and industry users to visualize data about connectivity. Think of this as the kind of activity that the National Broadband Map was designed to achieve. -> Mapping Connected Health County by County Webinar, a webinar of the Federal Communications Commission… Keep Reading