Reporting

Rates for many of the communications and content services we’ve all grown to rely on over the last year have risen recently or will rise in 2021, and there’s little you can do about it. Pay-TV service providers have watched their revenue decline as a growing number of Americans cut the cable cord and rely instead on internet-based streaming services. To compensate, and to keep shareholders happy, the industry keeps steadily increasing the cost of broadband internet access — and claiming that the higher fees are justified by ongoing investments in data networks.

AT&T has agreed to a $12 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over its throttling of "unlimited" mobile data plans. As usual, refunds to individual customers amount to a fraction of what the customers paid for the hobbled service. The paltry nature of expected per-person payments was explained by plaintiffs in a filing that asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to approve the settlement.

As wireless providers move towards using data instead of voice calls, the Texas Universal Service Fund (TUSF), which is responsible for offsetting the high cost of connecting Texans across the state, has reduced payments received by rural telephone providers by 66 percent.  In response to this decrease, rural telephone providers, which are now facing financial uncertainty, filed a suit in Travis County District Court against the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC), which oversees the fund.  The lawsuit requests that the PUC fully provide previously approved funds to rural telephone cus

The House Commerce Committee now officially labels the hot-button issue of Section 230 under the jurisdiction of its communications and technology subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA). During the previous Congress, Commerce 

Progressive groups have lambasted a number of potential candidates for the role of Justice Department antitrust chief over the individuals’ ties to tech companies.

Perhaps no chief executive lobbied harder than Comcast’s Brian Roberts for the Federal Communications Commission's 2017 rollback of net neutrality rules under Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Roughly 5% of North Carolina households surveyed in 2020 lack access to the internet, according to a pair of new dashboards published by the state’s technology agency. The new dashboards reflect data about broadband adoption, coverage and quality on a county-by-county and address-by-address basis, informed largely by a state broadband survey created last July in partnership with the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University.

Minnesota officials announced the winners of $20.6 million in grants to develop high-speed internet across Minnesota, the latest infusion of money approved by lawmakers to fully connect the state. Many celebrated the cash, which Steve Grove, commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, called a “vital” push to correct disparities in internet service that were highlighted during the pandemic. Yet the grants also drew frustration from some broadband developers. That’s because Gov.

Executives from ACA Connects, NCTA-the Internet & Television Association, INCOMPAS, and WISPA (the wireless internet service providers association) met with staffers in the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau to present a unified front on some key elements of the proposed Emergency Broadband Benefit Program recently created by Congress. The executives want the FCC to allow providers who are new to participating in federal support programs to be eligible for the new funds and get the training to be able to participate in the applications process from "day one.

Charter offered some details about its $1.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) win. Perhaps the most interesting detail is that Charter plans to spend $5 billion in total on the RDOF rural broadband buildout, which means the company will be investing $3.8 billion of its own money on RDOF projects.