The broadband construction firm Trueline Infrastructure Solutions was supposed to bring competition to the market, but instead the company has gone out of business. Trueline sent an email to its approximately 300 employees, terminating their employment immediately. The email said, “As many of you are aware, Trueline has been facing unprecedented changes in the market, compounded by increasing competitive pressures.
A look at the impressive history of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. John Windhausen will help us retrace the evolution of this exemplary association of diverse interests and how they have come together to create a formidable unifying policy force for: "Closing the digital divide one anchor institution at a time."
“For me, being a Digital Navigator is an opportunity to give back to the community that shaped me,” shares Tyler Smith, Gila River’s Digital Navigator. “I want to help elevate our digital skills and uplift our voices in the pursuit of digital equity.” Born and raised in the Gila River Indian Community, Tyler embodies the mission of the Digital Navigator program. With his deep roots and passion for giving back, he is bridging the gap between infrastructure and accessibility, empowering residents one connection at a time.
Rep Tom Kean (R-NJ-7) introduced the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill that would bolster American technological leadership by bringing key trusted leaders together and encourage U.S. participation in global standards-setting for 5G networks and for future generations of wireless communications networks. This bill would direct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to:
A broadband company promised to bring high-speed internet to many Michigan residents and businesses and then left them in the lurch. In 2024, Kansas-based Mercury Broadband defaulted on federal grant obligations and relinquished more than 60,000 locations across the state, said Eric Frederick, who heads the Michigan High Speed Internet Office. Mercury will not be completing the vast majority of the internet buildout projects.
It’s been a strange year for internet performance in the United States. Data from the HighSpeedInternet.com speed test indicates the overall improvement of internet speed in the country has slowed by more than 50%, an unexpected development as both cable and fiber internet have seen substantial technological advances. Are internet service providers dragging their feet with the next wave of internet tech? Thankfully, the disappointing trend isn’t present in the data for all providers.
To date, telecommunications networks using light to transmit data relied on fiber to carry and direct that light. X—a division of Google, not the social media platform—says that the next iteration of its Taara chip harnesses the light without the need for fiber. The post says that Taara transmits at speeds of 20 Gbps up to a distance of 20 kilometers. The connection is made when beams of light from two units create a link. To date, the system—and the current chip, called Lightbridge—relies upon a system of mirrors, sensors, precision optics, and smart software to create the links.
There is a new network tool that’s starting to be eased into networks that can significantly lower latency. The new standard L4S (Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput) was released in January 2023. Comcast has started to work L4S into their networks in some of its major markets. They report that the technology can cut load latency at least in half, in some cases bringing the latency under load to close to the ping latency. The real key to making this work is to have the largest content providers build L4S into their networks.
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