WASHINGTON, May 16, 2018 -- The absence of Arizona Senator John McCain (R) from the Senate means Democrats appear to have enough votes to pass a bill to roll back the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of network neutrality rules put in place under the Obama administration, 50-49. Without McCain, who remains at home in Arizona while undergoing treatment… Keep Reading
SOURCE: The Federal Communications Commission WC Docket No. 10-90 The Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces the availability of illustrative model results intended to aid parties that are preparing comments in response to the 2018 Rate-of-Return Reform NPRM.1 In that NPRM, the Commission sought comment on, among other matters, whether to provide a new model offer based… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 14, 2018 -- The strong network neutrality rules put in place during the Obama administration's final months will get an up-or-down vote in the United States Senate on Wednesday when a bill to overturn the FCC's repeal of those rules reaches the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday. “The… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 13, 2018 - AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson on Friday announced that the company was parting ways with the executive responsible for hiring Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen in an apparent effort to grease the skids for the company’s merger with Time-Warner. The revelations of the AT&T payment to Cohen revived questions over whether Trump… 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
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2018 -- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday declined to say whether President Trump would sign a bill that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of network neutrality rules promulgated during the Obama administration. "We'll keep you posted when we have a specific policy announcement on that front,"… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2018 -- Prospects for the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion infrastructure package appear to have dimmed to the point that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted Wednesday that she can't say there would be any movement on that legislation by year's end. "I don't know that there will be one by… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: We were present at the Broadband Communities Summit at which Blair Levin gave this remarks; thanks to the Coalition for Local Internet Choice for providing the complete and unvarnished record of this important and scathing speech by the former executive director of the (former) FCC's ambitious National Broadband Plan. Blair Levin at… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2018 — Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced plans to invoke a rarely-used Senate procedure to force a floor vote on a bill to roll back the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of Obama-era regulations preventing internet providers from blocking or throttling internet traffic. “Today we are officially filing the discharge petition to force… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2018 -- The White House on Tuesday announced it would hold an Artificial Intelligence summit, which will "bring together over 100 senior government officials, technical experts from top academic institutions, heads of industrial research labs, and American business leaders who are now adopting these emerging technologies to benefit their customers, workers, and… Keep Reading
BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: This great piece from a news site devoted to state, county and municipal government tackles what one state is doing in order to advance better broadband throughout its state. All states include a rural component (more or less), and Delaware shows that state-wide broadband planning can help to put broadband deployment on… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2018 -- Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday said he is "always hopeful" that progress will be made on President Trump's $1.5 billion infrastructure plan, even as Congress shifts its focus to the upcoming primary election season. "I'm always hopeful," he said when asked about the plan's prospects shortly after a swearing-in… 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: The role of wireless, which is one key piece of the broadband puzzle for rural areas, will be considered at the New America Foundation on Tuesday at Noon, together with Kelsey Guyselman, policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and an array of industry players. Spectrum as… 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
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2018 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at the Rayburn House Office Building Wednesday for the second day of his first trip to Capitol Hill as a witness, this time before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His prepared testimony was the same, but the atmosphere was quite different. Not… Keep Reading