Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr called publicly for the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into the nonprofit Crisis Text Line (CTL) over the suicide hotline’s former data-sharing practices with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai.
For the last twenty years, the industry has talked about broadband in cities as a duopoly, meaning there was competition between cable and telecom companies – competition between cable modem broadband and DSL broadband. Whether coordinated by backroom deals or by listening to smart advisors, both industries have given up trying to compete on price. By the time cable modem speeds hit 30 Mbps speeds, the market competition was over, and cable clearly won the price war.
Despite the more than $1.6 trillion private internet service providers (ISPs) have invested in broadband infrastructure since 1996, the internet landscape in the US faces significant challenges. As private ISPs have struggled to tackle these challenges, two related models have emerged as creative alternatives: municipal broadband and cooperatives.
Government leaders in the Ozarks (MO) are taking steps to increase broadband access in their communities. Access to fast and reliable internet is an issue city leaders in Republic (MO) have heard about for years, and it was only made worse by the pandemic. “The discussion has always been there, at least since I’ve been here,” says David Cameron, Republic City Administrator. “We heard about it a lot when people were home.
A “gold rush” is on for Alaska tribes and Native corporations that are trying to capture a surge of federal infrastructure money to provide city-quality broadband service in more than 200 villages statewide. Representatives for the groups say this could be their moment to transform lives and village economies by upgrading the glitchy, slow and often unaffordable cell phone and internet service that exists across rural Alaska.
Although fixed wireless is getting a lot of attention these days, the technology is not in Frontier’s plans “in a material way,” said Frontier Chief Network Officer Veronica Bloodworth, adding “we’re a fiber-first company.” Bloodworth is part of a new Frontier management team put in place as the company emerged from bankruptcy.
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