Reporting

The cable industry's policy people are working through a smorgasbord of issues, including surprise litigation tied to the Universal Service Fund, a temporary stay on the return of network neutrality rules, tricky nuances tied to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, and even the recent temporary injunction slapped on Venu, a new sports streaming service. Yet another challenge: a US Supreme Court decision in June that 

Many small and midsized cable and broadband operators are exploring a potential launch into the mobile arena, but other priorities, including fiber network buildouts, are keeping some of them on the sidelines. But the option is there for many operators that want it thanks to the National Content & Technology Cooperative's (NCTC's) mobile partnerships with Reach and AT&T. NCTC is 

While billionaires have pushed Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) to depart from President Joe Biden’s antitrust policy, the Democratic Party seems to be doubling down. The word “competition” comes up 18 times in the party’s 2024 platform, compared to nine in the 2020 version.

When former President Barack Obama takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention, he’ll address a party that has done a major about-face on its relationship with technology since he left office. Hailed as the first “internet president” for his campaign’s embrace of then-nascent social media and blogs, Obama’s rise was inextricable from that of the digital landscape we now take for granted.

Is it still fiber broadband if it doesn’t include the optical glass or the cable coating surrounding the glass? X-Lumin, a company that does free-space optical technology, says the answer is “yes." And the company thinks it has something special to offer operators deploying fiber because its technology is useful in places where physical fiber connections are impractical. Free-space optical technology uses laser-light beams to wirelessly transmit data without having to use fiber optic cable.

Maryland has named the senior leadership team for its Digital Service, an IT department division that launched in January. The Digital Service aims to improve residents’ access to digital services and benefits, lower the costs of providing these services and help state agencies offer “well-designed and user-centered digital experiences.” Rather than rely on vendors or contractors for this work, the state chose to make the Digital Service an in-house team of full-time employees.

The Washington Post recently published its first-ever story built on the work of a new AI tool called Haystacker that allows journalists to sift through large data sets—video, photo or text—to find newsworthy trends or patterns.

Montana’s broadband efforts took a leap forward when the state became first in the nation to open its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program application portal. “We’ve been working behind the scenes to be ready,” said Misty Ann Giles, Director of the Department of Administration and Chief Operating Officer for the state of Montana. And Montana was ready.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband offering touts an edge in service reliability over its cable counterparts, despite most of its customers residing in rural areas. Recon Analytics found Starlink customers experience fewer service outages than cable customers, though they still face more outages than consumers on a fiber broadband connection. Unsurprisingly, the majority of Starlink customers (85%) reside in rural areas.

For the past couple of years, unrelenting change has come fast. New education technologies seem to flow out in an unstoppable stream. These often have consequences, from an increase in cheating on assignments enabled by prose-spewing chatbots, to experiments that bring AI into classrooms as teaching assistants or even as students. For some teachers and school leaders, it can feel like an onslaught.