Kim Hart

The world’s biggest tech companies are spending billions of dollars on projects to get more people around the world connected to the internet. Facebook is in talks to develop an underwater data cable ring around Africa.

The Federal Communications Commission — the agency tasked with authorizing new devices using radio frequencies — is on furlough along with the rest of the federal government. In addition to product authorizations, other suspended activities include work on consumer complaints, enforcement actions and licensing proceedings. The FCC also reviews major deals — like the pending merger of Sprint and T-Mobile — and those reviews have also stopped.

The "homework gap" affects 12 million U.S. school-age kids. By the numbers:

Some less-populated areas may technically have internet, but it's slower satellite, or DSL service delivered over old copper phone lines. So some towns have taken matters into their own hands, experimenting with novel solutions to connect unserved residents or give them new options to existing services:

The federal government's efforts to provide ubiquitous internet access have had varying levels of success. The Federal Communications Commission says  that more than 24 million Americans still lack fixed service that meets the FCC's broadband speed benchmark (25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload). About 14 million rural Americans lack mobile LTE broadband.

President Donald Trump said his administration is looking seriously at antitrust investigations of Google, Facebook and Amazon. In the next breath, he argued they are great companies that he wants to help. "I leave it to others, but I do have a lot of people talking about monopoly when they mention those three in particular." "We are looking at [antitrust] very seriously ... Look, that doesn't mean we're doing it, but we're certainly looking and I think most people surmise that, I would imagine," he said.

Cheaper rocket launches and better technology may make satellites a more viable option for delivering fast, affordable consumer broadband services around the world. A handful of companies from SpaceX to ViaSat are launching satellites that orbit closer to the earth, which is expected to reduce the lag time — or latency — because the signal will not have to travel as far. Lower-Earth constellations have the potential to compete more directly with cable or fiber networks on speed and price than the older satellite systems.

5G technologies are expected to put mobile broadband on par with fiber networks — and they're rolling out on a city-by-city basis similar to how Google Fiber deployed networks between 2010 and 2016. Google has stopped expanding its expensive fiber build-outs and, as a result, is seen as a failed experiment.

Speedy 5G networks may be on the horizon, but consumer demand for wireless broadband is so intense that mobile companies like AT&T and Verizon need alternatives now — even if it means sharing airwaves with each other and with rival tech firms like Google. 5G networks are far from being fully deployed.

Cities are increasingly marketing themselves as "smart cities" — hyper-connected, sensor-equipped communities — in their latest economic development pitch to attract workers and businesses. Metropolitan areas across the country are trying to take advantage of new technologies to become more efficient and sustainable — two qualities that appeal to younger generations of workers, as well as the startups and big corporations who want to employ them.