October 2022

President Biden Signs Executive Order to Implement the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

President Biden signed an Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) directing the steps that the United States will take to implement the US commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-US DPF) introduced by President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen in March of 2022. Transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion EU-US economic relationship. The Executive Order bolsters an already rigorous array of privacy and civil liberties safeguards for U.S.

Executive Order On Enhancing Safeguards For United States Signals Intelligence Activities

The Biden administration introduced sweeping new limits on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, a step aimed at crippling Beijing’s access to critical technologies that are needed for everything from supercomputing to guiding weapons. The moves are the clearest sign yet that a dangerous standoff between the world’s two major superpowers is increasingly playing out in the technological sphere, with the US trying to establish a stranglehold on advanced computing and semiconductor technology that is essential to China’s military and economic ambitions. The package of restrictions, wh

Minnesota Governor Walz Appoints Bree Maki as Director of the Office of Broadband Development

Governor Tim Walz appointed Bree Maki to serve as the Director of the Office of Broadband Development. Maki will replace previous director Angie Dickison. Bree Maki is the senior outreach director and state broadband and telecommunications outreach director for Senator Tina Smith (D-MN).

Vermonters Put Full Court Press on Middle Mile Funding Application

Vermont stakeholders have collaborated on an application for $114 million in funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) middle mile grant program. If awarded, the funding would represent over 10% of the approximately $1 billion allotted to the NTIA program, which has proven to be a highly competitive one. The Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) spearheaded the application. The request would cover some of the costs of the proposed 1,663-mile fiber network.

Wireless internet service providers embrace fiber as they face do or die moment

Wireless internet service providers (WISPs) have hit a breaking point. With fiber players gaining steam and both public and private funding fueling overbuilds of their territories, the heads of several fixed wireless providers say that they don’t expect WISPs to survive beyond the next five to 10 years—at least not in their current form. WISP executives said they are up against rising construction costs, staffing struggles, spectrum questions, and the impending retirement of long-time CEOs.