250 Years of American Independence & 150 Years of American Telecommunications

An in-person event at the National Press Club
Thursday, October 1, 2026

Register for Only $150!

Mark your calendar for the National Press Club on Thursday, October 1, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET!

In the lead-up to the October 1 event, Broadband Breakfast hosted a three-part online series, with each event covering a distinct 50-year arc of American communications history. The sessions gathered historians, technologists, and policymakers.

Session 1

1876–1926, The Telephone and the Transatlantic Cable. The first session covered the half-century from Alexander Graham Bell's patent and the founding of Bell Telephone through the rise of AT&T, the buildout of nationwide copper networks, and the completion of the first transcontinental telephone line in 1914. 

Telephone’s Rise Was Shaped by Courts and Lobbying, Not Just Wires, Historians Say

The patent Bell filed in 1876 never described a speaking telephone. His lawyers later argued it did.

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Session 2

1927–1976, Broadcasting, Cable and the Creation of the Media. The second session opened with the creation of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927. It then traces the passage of the Communications Act of 1934, the postwar television boom, the landmark 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates, the emergence of PBS, and cable systems that began challenging the big three broadcast networks. 

From the Beginning, Politics Triggered Broadcasting

Media scholars argued that politics, not technology, shaped American broadcasting from 1927 on, repeatedly shielding incumbents from competition.

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Session 3

1977–2026, Computing, the Internet and Artificial Intelligence. The third session opened with the breakup of Ma Bell and traces the transition from ARPANET to the commercial internet, the World Wide Web, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the dot-com era, the rise of broadband and big tech, net neutrality battles, the smartphone revolution, and the explosion of large language models in the ChatGPT era. 

The Internet Dispersed Power. The Supreme Court is Concentrating It

Panelists at BroadbandLive event including the ‘father of the Internet,’ the author of the maxim that ‘Code is Law’ and a pivotal FCC chairman

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Partner with us

Sponsorship opportunities are available for organizations that want to be part of that story and reach Broadband Breakfast's audience of broadband professionals, policymakers, and industry leaders.

Want to learn more about partnering with Broadband Breakfast on "250 Years of American Independence & 150 Years of American Telecommunications?" Fill out the form to receive the Media Kit, or email Sales & Marketing Director Quinn Nghiem at quinn@breakfast.media or Development Associate Akul Saxena at akul@breakfast.media