Broadband plays a pivotal role in facilitating essential activities for residents and fostering societal advancements across various domains, including economic development, healthcare, public safety, government services, and education. The federal government is embarking on an unprecedented investment in broadband, allocating over $100 billion nationwide.
Years after a lawsuit alleged Apple was adding software that slowed down older iPhones, the tech giant has agreed to pay a settlement worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Cotchett, Pitre & McCarty, one of the firms representing Apple customers in the suit, announced Aug. 9, 2023, that the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals dismissed two appeals from people challenging the settlement.
Partnering with counties is an asset for electric co-operatives seeking capital for the matching requirement in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, said an expert. Darren Farnan, chief operating officer of rural electric co-op United Fiber. He said that Missouri counties used Capital Project Fund (CPF) and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money to help with the co-op’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) application. Counties have the same goal as co-ops to connect every address to high-speed internet, said Farnan.
The Federal Communications Commission has lost—albeit hopefully temporarily—its authority to conduct spectrum auctions. But luckily for consumers and industry, the agency still has tools to make desperately needed mid-band spectrum immediately available for terrestrial broadband uses. Thanks to changes in technology, the landscape around the lower 12 GHz band (12.2-12.7 MHz) has evolved significantly over the last several years. At the same time, 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) has taken the connectivity world by storm.
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