Karl Bode

New York City unveiled a massive new Internet Master Plan in Jan that experts say is the largest and most aggressive local broadband improvement project in US history. If successful, the city's proposal could become a template for other towns and cities looking to improve broadband access and provide a leg up to regional economies.

For decades, broadband providers have abused the lack of meaningful competition in the telecom market by not only refusing to shore up historically awful customer service, but by raising rates hand over fist. This usually involves leaving the advertised price largely the same, but pummeling customers with all manner of misleading fees and surcharges that drive up the actual price you'll be paying each month. And by and large regulators from both major political parties have been perfectly okay with this practice, despite it effectively being false advertising.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai continues to double down on the claim that net neutrality was a huge boon for American consumers, even if supporting evidence for that claim remains largely nonexistent. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Chairman Pai once again insisted that his decision to ignore the public and repeal net neutrality protections resulted in faster broadband speeds for consumers—and a spike in overall network investment. “Since we made the decision in December 2017, broadband speeds are up 60 percent according to Ookla, infrastructure investm

The Federal Communications Commission's Orwellian-named “Restoring Internet Freedom” order all-but obliterated the FCC’s authority to hold broadband internet access providers accountable for any number of bad behaviors.

To gain federal approval of their $26 billion merger, T-Mobile and Sprint have spent years promising a universe of incredible benefits, from lower prices to better rural wireless coverage. So far, agencies like the Federal Communications Commission have been more than happy to believe them. But US telecom history suggests you shouldn’t believe a word coming out of their mouths.

A new study has found the Federal Communications Commission’s primary justification for repealing network neutrality was indisputably false. For years, big Internet service providers and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai have told anyone who’d listen that the FCC’s net neutrality rules, passed in 2015 and repealed in 2018 in a flurry of controversy and alleged fraud, dramatically stifled broadband investment across the US.

Telecom experts have long pushed for a “dig once” law that would mandate the installation of fiber conduit during roadway construction and upgrades. A new study by BroadbandNow states that passing “dig once” legislation could have saved the US $126 billion in broadband deployment costs. Dig once legislation has been routinely proposed since 1996 by a rotating crop of lawmakers, but the legislation rarely goes anywhere.

A new PCMag 1study once again highlights how community-run internet service providers (ISPs) offer better, faster broadband than their private sector counterparts. All told, six of the ten fastest ISPs were either directly run by a local community, or involved some form of partnership between the public and private sectors.

We've noted repeatedly that the repeal of network neutrality did far more than just kill popular net neutrality rules. It effectively neutered the Federal Communications Commission's ability to do its job and oversee lumbering natural telecom monopolies.

With all of the hype surrounding fifth-generation (5G) wireless, there’s one subject wireless carriers haven’t talked as much about: how much this amazing new connectivity is going to cost you. But in more recent weeks cell providers have started to make it clear that whatever incredible advancements 5G brings—higher prices are going to be part of the equation. For example, Verizon recently stated it would be imposing a $10 monthly fee (on top of your existing charges) simply to connect to its shiny new 5G network.