January 2020

EducationSuperHighway Partners with Connected Nation to Carry Forward its Mission

Connected Nation has been selected by EducationSuperHighway to carry forward its mission to ensure state and school district leaders have the information they need to improve school broadband (high-speed internet) connectivity. This will be made possible through a new tool—Connect K-12—that will equip them with key information and analytics needed to improve school broadband access in their communities.

Google Chrome's privacy changes will hit the web later in 2020

Google's Chrome team, advancing its web privacy effort, later in 2020 will begin testing the "privacy sandbox" proposals it unveiled in 2019. The Chrome tests are part of an effort to make it harder for publishers, advertisers and data brokers to harvest your personal data without your permission and to track you online. Other browsers, including Apple's Safari, Brave Software's Brave, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's new Chromium-based Edge, have pushed steadily to cut tracking for the last few years.

SpaceX Continues to Blast Satellites Into Orbit as the Space Community Worries

Early in 2020, SpaceX became the operator of the world’s largest active satellite constellation, with 180 satellites orbiting the planet. The milestone is a mere starting point for Starlink, SpaceX’s ambitious project to provide internet capabilities to every inch of the globe. To get that kind of connectivity, the company wants the option to launch up to 42,000 satellites over the next decade. That’s about 21 times the number of operational satellites currently in space — and the true impact of the company’s nascent mega-constellation is still very much a mystery.

Sen Kennedy asks FCC Chairman for updates on 5G

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai requesting that the chairman update him on any progress made on FCC auction plans and compensation proposals for satellite companies operating within the C-Band. At present, foreign satellite companies are operating within the C-Band, a part of the spectrum that the FCC is attempting to set aside for future 5G wireless use. Spectrum refers to electromagnetic waves that wireless devices use to deliver voice, text, video and other wireless communications.