Avoiding another multi-billion-dollar broadband boondoggle
Efforts to connect the unconnected have fallen way short. Many billions of dollars have been thrown at this, through multiple initiatives, programs and subsidies.
June 2020
Four sources of funding for rural broadband networks
Some of the current sources of funding for rural telecommunications network infrastructure:
Vermont Emergency Broadband Action Plan Proposes Universal Access Road Map
Vermont’s Department of Public Service recently released an Emergency Broadband Action Plan that is among the most aggressive of all state responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The state currently has 944 cases of COVID-19, with 54 attributable deaths.
HBO Max won’t hit AT&T data caps, but Netflix and Disney Plus will
HBO Max, AT&T’s big bet on the future of streaming, will be excused from AT&T’s mobile data caps, while competing services like Netflix and Disney Plus will use up your data. Tony Goncalves, the AT&T executive in charge of HBO Max, when asked whether HBO Max would hit the cap said his team “had the conversation” but didn’t have the answer.
The Trump Administration Goes to War over 5G, with Itself
Things have now come to an all-out war between the Department of Defense and the Federal Communications Commission, with the Defense Department claiming that a recent decision by the FCC (on a 5-0 bipartisan vote) resolving a decades-long dispute with a company now called Ligado will interfere with vital GPS operations.
‘The terror of wearing both a press badge and black skin’: Black journalists are carrying unique burdens (Washington Post)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Tue, 06/02/2020 - 09:43Mark Zuckerberg spoke with civil rights leaders about President Trump's posts. It didn't go well.
Top Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, spoke with civil rights leaders June 1 as the company confronts a wave of backlash over its decision not to moderate President Donald Trump's controversial posts. But the roughly hour-long call, intended to show the company takes concerns from the black community seriously, only further inflamed tensions. Color of Change President Rashad Robinson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifil and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights chief executive Vanita Gupta immediately blasted Zuckerberg following the call. Robinson