Reporting

Social-media usage is blowing up, but will it crash when real-life invitations start flooding back in?

Google’s parent abandoned plans to develop a “smart city” in a Toronto neighborhood, a controversial project that once embodied the tech giant’s futuristic ambitions. The move is the highest-profile example yet of retrenchment by Alphabet under new Chief Executive Sundar Pichai. The Toronto project, under Alphabet arm Sidewalk Labs, was a favorite of Google co-founder Larry Page, who held the CEO role until December. Sidewalk Labs cited economic uncertainty and pressure on the local real-estate market in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Baltimore (MD), nearly one-quarter of households lack internet access at home and 18% lack access to a device. The Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition includes 50 organizations from across the city to address the digital divide that has existed in Baltimore for years, but is being exacerbated in a time when school and work often require device and internet connectivity at home, and gathering points that would provide access like schools and community centers are closed.

Liberty Global and Telefónica have struck a landmark deal to combine their British operations O2 and Virgin Media in a £31.4bn agreement that will reshape the UK’s telecoms market. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will have equal ownership of O2 and Virgin Media and have built-in mechanisms for a potential float of the combined business in three years.

Relations between the US and China, strained for years, have deteriorated at a rapid clip in recent months, leaving the two nations with fewer shared interests and a growing list of conflicts. The Trump administration has moved to involve much of the US government in a campaign that includes investigations, prosecutions and export restrictions.

Amid so much highly visible dysfunction in the American response to the coronavirus, it’s worth appreciating the internet as an unsung hero of the pandemic. It has stayed on because people out there are keeping it on. The internet’s performance is no accident, but rather the result of long-term planning and adaptability, ingenuity and hard work—and also some characteristics that have become part of the personality of the internet itself.

The Federal Communications Commission's decision to allow a new terrestrial broadband service alongside spectrum for critical GPS uses drew fire from both sides of the aisle, as well as top military brass, in a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee. The military brass in attendance had not changed their marching orders or their target, and the committee's chairman and ranking member were clearly in bipartisan agreement with the Department of Defence. Ligado took some issue with the fact that there were no witnesses scheduled from Ligado or from the FCC at the hearing.

Arden Hills (MN) member-owned agricultural cooperative Land O'Lakes has started offering free Wi-Fi to various rural communities across the country that might not otherwise have access. It’s an initiative Land O’Lakes has been talking about for awhile, according to Chief Technology Officer Teddy Bekele. And with everyone shifting to life online during the COVID-19 crisis, the digital divide in rural communities has been further exacerbated.

Facebook is testing a new app to expand internet access in developing countries. The app, called Discover, provides users with a balance of free browsing data provided by several mobile partners. Facebook is running the first trial in Peru, but it plans to launch in a number of other countries in the future, including Thailand, the Philippines, and Iraq. Users will receive free data from their provider each day and will get a notification when it’s available.

The parking lot of Free Pentecostal Holiness Church in the historic town of Tatums (OK) is a little busier these days. The grassy areas on either side of the small, white building now serve as the town's main Wi-Fi hot spot. People in cars parked outside the church's doors can access broadband internet, which isn't common or cheap in the town of about 160.