December 2022

Biden-Harris Administration Awards More Than $8.1 Million to Texas in ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grants

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that Texas received its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative.

GeoLinks scopes out opportunities to scale with Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support

GeoLinks took home $84.6 million of the $234.9 million it won in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction for broadband projects in Arizona and Nevada. While its top priority is ramping up those fiber and fixed wireless builds, company President Ryan Adams said it's also keeping its eyes peeled for expansion opportunities from the Southwest to the East Coast which could help it scale over the next decade.

The TPI Broadband Connectivity Index for 2022, First Half

The Broadband Connectivity Index (BCI) measures overall internet connectivity and compares it across areas. The BCI uses principal components analysis of the availability of internet service, how many people have internet service at home, and the speed of internet service. The BCI is adjusted to range from zero (worst) to one (best), by county.

Hidden Unserved Locations

There is a mountain of complaints to be made about the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map. In some parts of the country, there are a lot of missing rural locations, including entire subdivisions. Close analysis of the map shows what folks in the broadband world have always known, but were unable to prove, that the big cable companies and telcos don’t cover everybody. It is these unserved folks in the middle of cities that I call the hidden unserved locations. These little pockets came about for a variety of reasons.

Slow fade for Google and Meta's ad dominance

Google and Meta, known together in the ad industry as the "duopoly," are expected to bring in less than half of all US digital advertising this year for the first time since 2014.

Tech legislation's 2022 scorecard

A bevy of proposals to limit Big Tech firms' power gave up their last gasp as Congress released the text of its year-end spending bill. But the following major tech-related b

European Commission accepts commitments by Amazon barring it from using marketplace seller data, and ensuring equal access

The European Commission has made commitments offered by Amazon legally binding under European Union antitrust rules. Amazon's commitments address the Commission's competition concerns over Amazon's use of non-public marketplace seller data and over a possible bias in granting sellers access to its Buy Box and its Prime program. Amazon's practices raised three competition concerns: