Reporting

New York State's Public Service Commission required Spectrum Internet, formed by the Time Warner Cable-Charter Communications merger, to significantly boost internet speeds upstate and expand broadband service to 145,000 residential units that currently don't have it. Lara Pritchard, a Charter spokesperson, claimed the company has completed the extension of its network to 100,421 new homes and businesses as of Jan. 31, 2020, which she claims is 13,000 ahead of the PSC schedule. Charter plans to meet the state requirement of 145,000 by Sept. 30, 2021, she said. 

A new coalition, backed by a wide range of players in the mobile ecosystem --, including U.S. operators AT&T and Verizon -- has formed to advocate for government policy that helps drive open radio access network (RAN) adoption to fund research and development of open and interoperable 5G networks. Executive director for the 31-member Open RAN Policy Coalition, launched today, is former Acting Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Diane Rinaldo.

The dependence on Wi-Fi in parking lots shows the lengths to which people are going to combat the country’s digital divide, one of the most stubborn problems in technology — and one the coronavirus has exacerbated. In recent weeks, numerous federal lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have pushed for legislation to make service more affordable, especially for families with school-age children. But such legislative pushes have happened in the past without ever crossing the finish line.

The National Association of Broadcasters is warning the Federal Communications Commission not to mess with the hard-fought compromise broadcasters struck with Microsoft over freeing up more white spaces spectrum for 5G, particularly in rural areas, while not interfering with broadcasters sharing the spectrum band. In comments on the FCC's white spaces proposal, which was unanimously adopted Feb.

With the shift to distance learning due to COVID-19, some rural telecommunication providers – including South Dakota’s Golden West Telecommunications and Golden Belt Telephone (GBT) of Kansas — have stepped up to add free Wi-Fi hotspots and even to bring broadband to homes with school-age children at no charge. In bringing broadband directly to some homes, Golden West technicians avoided direct contact with residents by using what CEO Denny Law called a MacGyver approach in a reference to the vintage and current television series about a government agent who uses an engineering approach to

Key findings in the OpenVault Broadband Industry Report (OVBI) Q1 Quarterly Advisory: 

As the Senate returns, Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) says he’s ready to dive in on broadband discussions, an especially prime topic as Congress mulls its next phase of coronavirus relief. Chairman Wicker specifically invoked interest in reviewing Federal Communications Commission plans to dole out billions of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund dollars this fall. Chairman Wicker said that the auction would bring broadband to rural America. “We’re going to try to speed that up. It’s scheduled for October of this year.

The Covid-19 crisis, by laying bare the so-called “digital divide” at school systems and communities across the country, may achieve what years of lobbying by interest groups has failed to deliver: significant new federal funding to narrow the gap. A growing number of politicians of both parties in Washington are coming to agree.

Some top Trump administration officials are moving to take a more aggressive stand against China on economic, diplomatic and scientific issues at the heart of the relationship between the world’s two superpowers, further fraying ties. The bitter information war over the virus has become a core part of the competition, but the Trump administration’s efforts to counter China have sharpened across the board.

CenturyLink has warned the Federal Communications Commission that the company may not meet deadlines for completing broadband deployments funded through the CAF (Connect America Fund) program. In a meeting with senior commission officials, CenturyLink representatives attributed the deployment delays to the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the commission for a deployment deadline extension.