Reporting

A new paper by a pair of economists says the gains from infrastructure spending aren’t always clear-cut and recommends that policymakers examine the costs and benefits of each project. James Poterba, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-wrote the paper with Edward Glaeser of Harvard University for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, a division of the nonpartisan Aspen Institute. In some cases, the authors write, the best solution doesn’t involve c

The Alaskan service provider GCI has struck a $150 million deal with Intelsat to expand capacity for telecommunication services in rural areas. GCI has delivered geosynchronous (GEO) satellite-based connectivity for 35 years to provide data, video and voice services in the state. The new deal not only provides GCI with continued access to C-band and Ku-band capacity, which is already part of GCI's satellite service portfolio, but it also provides new access to statewide Ka-band capacity.

President Joe Biden wants net neutrality regulations back on the books. In his executive order on competition, Biden urged the Federal Communications Commission to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules and to take other measures to promote broadband competition, including asking the FCC to require broadband companies to provide transparency on pricing. Net neutrality supporters applauded the executive order and calls for the FCC to restore net neutrality protections.

Tim Wu, President Joe Biden’s competition adviser on the National Economic Council, said “There is a growing sense that the forms of market power we see today are often different from the ones that the merger guidelines had in mind.

AT&T is adding a few more benefits to its $85-per-month top-tier unlimited plan at no added cost. Unlimited Elite subscribers will now truly have access to unlimited high-speed data and will no longer be subject to deprioritization after hitting 100GB of data per month. Customers will also get a bump from 30GB of monthly hotspot data up to 40GB as well as up to 4K video streaming—boosted from a maximum of 1080p.

The Internet Association (IA) has been shedding staff, losing influence on Capitol Hill and shrinking to near-obscurity in media coverage of tech policy debates in Washington, even as the industry faces controversies ranging from alleged monopolization to privacy to how it treats its legions of workers. The declining prominence of IA, a nine-year-old group that used to call itself “the unified voice of the internet economy,” comes as a larger fragmentation is splitting the tech industry’s lobbying efforts into factions. In its place, other tech-focused advocacy groups—including a new startu

Democrats are racing to finalize a bipartisan infrastructure deal and set the contours of a broad child-care and education plan, aiming to maintain a delicate agreement with Republicans while simultaneously plowing forward with their own priorities. After a two-week recess, senators return to Washington this week to determine the fate of much of President Biden’s roughly $4 trillion agenda.

Tim Wu is getting a second chance to change how the government regulates American corporations. Wu, a law professor and progressive antitrust leader, is a key architect of the executive order aimed at making US businesses more competitive. He helped write a similar order in the waning months of the Obama administration, which resulted in a handful of new regulations.

SpaceX said it’s up to Dish and its allies to show their proposed use of 12Ghz spectrum won’t harm satellite companies.

Cable broadband operators are telling the Federal Communications Commission that if it opens up the 12 GHz band for sharing between direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and terrestrial 5G, it should not be influenced by incumbent users.