Internet/Broadband

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the appointment of a diverse group of leading technology experts to serve as members of the Technological Advisory Council (TAC). The TAC will hold its first meeting on Monday, February 28, 2022, beginning at 10:00 am EDT via video conference and will be available online. The advisory council provides technical expertise to the FCC to identify important areas of innovation and develop informed technology policies.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued new approvals that allow an estimated 62 percent of the US commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at airports where wireless companies deployed 5G C-band. The new safety buffer announced January 18 around airports in the 5G deployment further expanded the number of airports available to planes with previously cleared altimeters to perform low-visibility landings. The FAA early January 19 cleared another three altimeters. Even with these approvals, flights at some airports may still be affected.

Ookla's Speedtest released its mobile and fixed broadband speed rankings in the United States for December 2021. Speedtest Intelligence revealed T-Mobile was the fastest mobile operator in the United States during Q4 2021 with a median download speed of 90.65 Mbps on modern chipsets. AT&T was second and Verizon third. This represents a strong increase in download speed for T-Mobile from 62.35 Mbps in Q3 2021.

To commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, Sens Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D-MD) joined Historically Black College and University (HBCU) presidents and representatives at a roundtable to discuss digital equity. The January 15 roundtable in Baltimore (MD) focused on closing the digital divide as a part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides $65 billion dollars to expand broadband to unserved and underserved areas.

The City of Amarillo (TX) is working with Airspan to set up a $4 million fixed wireless access (FWA) network to help connect school kids to the internet. The 4G FWA network, which has achieved symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps, is being deployed to the homes of children who do not have internet access. And of course, this will benefit others who live in those households as well. Based on the urgency of serving students, the goal is to have 50 square miles covered by the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) will be allocating $10 million to ConnectMaine for the agency’s grant round in spring 2022 following approval from their Board of Directors on an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ConnectMaine. Combined with existing bond funds available to ConnectMaine, $16 million will be granted to local communities and ISPs to expand broadband access — over four times more than ever before.

Several international airlines canceled some US-bound flights after American wireless operators and aviation officials were unable to fully resolve a months-long standoff over the launch of new 5G signals. AT&T and Verizon agreed to temporarily water down expansion plans for 5G wireless service to address air-safety regulators’ concerns about the network signals’ effect on aircraft instruments.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a joint public inquiry aimed at strengthening enforcement against illegal mergers. Recent evidence indicates that many industries across the economy are becoming more concentrated and less competitive, and that these problems are likely to persist or worsen due to an ongoing merger surge that has more than doubled merger filings from 2020 to 2021.

The Italian government buckled down on broadband, launching a new multi-billion euro fund that aims to provide enough support to help operators push gigabit services to nearly 7 million locations in the coming years. Dubbed Italia a 1Giga (or “Italy to 1 Gig”), the funding initiative is set to provide a total of €3.65 billion (approximately $4.14 billion) in grants to fuel deployments across 15 regions in Italy. Operators will be permitted to submit bids for the grants through March 16, and will be able to win funding in a maximum of eight regions.

January marks the anniversary of a series of coordinated protests that led to the withdrawal of two proposed laws in the United States Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). SOPA-PIPA showed the power of collective action, rooted in shared values, to shape the future of the internet. In the decade since the SOPA fight, new issues have risen based on the development of new innovations in technology and the challenges that they create.