1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2019

May 2019

Native American Tribes Across the Country Are Pushing for Better Internet Access

The internet on the Havasupai reservation (AZ) has been a mixed bag. Tribal employees could sign on to their email and do internet searches but not much else. The tribe began working with a company called MuralNet in 2017 to get teachers and students better access. They successfully sought temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission to use the Educational Broadband Services (EBS) spectrum that wasn’t being used. “We’re really putting our chips on EBS,” said Mariel Triggs, chief executive of MuralNet. “It works in extreme cases.

2019 Promising Year for Rural Broadband in Missouri

Access to rural broadband internet should become easier in 2019 with the passage of a Missouri law and the awarding of federal grants from the Federal Communication Commission. The budget that passed the MO legislature recently included $5 million toward the new Rural Broadband Development Fund, and the FCC has recently announced more than $25 million in federal grants from the Connect America Fund (CAF).

BrightRidge Creating 10 Gig Connectivity in Tennessee Communities

About ten years ago, we first reported on Johnson City (TN). At that time, the community was in the process of installing fiber to improve reliability for their public electric utility. The Johnson City Power Board (JCPB) discussed the possibility of offering broadband via the new infrastructure, but they weren’t quite ready to move forward. Now JCPB has renamed itself BrightRidge and has not only started connecting local subscribers with fiber optic connectivity, but is offering 10 gig symmetrical service.

The legal fate of Apple, Facebook, and Google depends on judges and regulators

As calls mount to break up big tech companies or limit their power, their legal fate will hang on how judges and regulators define their markets. "The social networking category" is a way to define this market that most readily casts Facebook as a monopoly. But if you call it "messaging," then Apple, Snapchat, and the cellphone providers all look like hearty competitors. Similarly, in many countries, Google looks to have a monopoly in the search market.

Chairman Pai Proposes Robocall Blocking by Default

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing bold action to help consumers block unwanted robocalls. He has circulated a declaratory ruling that, if adopted, would allow phone companies to block unwanted calls to their customers by default. In addition, companies could allow consumers to block calls not on their own contact list.

Utilities Warn FCC About Impact of 6 GHz Wi-Fi Effort

The American Public Power Association, American Water Works Association, Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, and the Utilities Technology Council -- which together represent almost all of the nation's utilities, water, and wastewater facilities -- wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, warning him about the FCC moving too quickly to open up 6 GHz midband spectrum currently used by those utilities. The utilities say they need the spectrum for their mission-critical communications and that the FCC's proposal to open it up for unl

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