Attorney General Merrick Garland signed a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure the accessibility of web content and mobile applications (apps) for people with disabilities. This final rule clarifies the obligations of state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible. Every day, people across the country use the web and mobile apps to access public programs and services, including emergency information, courts, healthcare providers, schools, voting information, parking, permit applications, tax payments, and transit updates. If these technologies are not accessible, it can be difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to access critical services. Consequently, individuals with disabilities may be excluded from accessing public services that other people routinely use. The final rule mandates technical standards for state and local governments to help ensure the accessibility of their programs and services provided through the web and mobile apps. By providing clarity on how to make sure these platforms are accessible for people with disabilities, this final rule advances the ADA’s promise of a more inclusive society. 

They’re calling it a moonshot—akin to sending men to the moon in the 1960s. It’s all about developing a dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) framework to share spectrum between the Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial wireless users. Establishing a secure, nationwide DSS system that operates at light speed will be challenging and require some super brainy people, but DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman said he’s motivated by it all. The moonshot will be focused initially on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, led by the DoD and National Information and Telecommunications Administration (NTIA) with participation from academia and industry. It follows on the Biden Administration’s National Spectrum Strategy and implementation plan for it, as well as the Emerging Mid-Band Radar Spectrum Sharing, or EMBRSS effort, and the Partnering on Advanced and Holistic Spectrum Solution, or PATHSS. One of the objectives of the government’s DSS effort is the development of a next-generation spectrum sharing prototype. They’re also talking about leveraging open Radio Access Network (RAN) and more specifically, the Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) to ensure that sharing is quickly and efficiently implemented in commercial networks and that existing infrastructure is part of the process.

The city of Joplin (MO), has taken broadband competitiveness into its own hands and has wooed ALLO Fiber to build a fiber network in the city that will compete against the long-time incumbent Cable One. This is bad news for Cable One. But it could also spell bad news for cable providers all over the country. For several decades cable operators have been careful to respect each other’s footprints, rather than competing against each other in many markets. And they’ve always fought hard against municipal broadband efforts, arguing that taxpayer dollars should not be used to compete with their networks, which were built with private investments. But that way of approaching broadband may be coming to an end. This deal between Joplin and ALLO is not by definition a municipal network. The network will be funded, built and operated entirely by ALLO. The city is involved because it was fed up with what it considered sub-par internet for its residents, and it put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a fiber company to enter the market.