Reporting

For many, it's been a years-long pipe dream: Ultra-fast, lag-free Internet that comes to your PC or smartphone via satellite instead of a wire into your home. Facebook, Google and even SpaceX have all explored the idea, partly in hopes of selling broadband access to a growing market with enormous potential — the developing world. But now, a former Googler and friend of Elon Musk has beaten them all to the punch, becoming the first to receive permission to actually build a next-generation satellite Internet service that targets US customers. If it takes off, the project could benefit Americans nationwide by providing broadband anywhere in the United States, particularly in rural areas where it can be difficult to provide fast Internet connections using traditional ground-based cables.

At the heart of Greg Wyler's new network are a fleet of 720 satellites, all orbiting the earth at an altitude of roughly 745 miles. The first satellites would launch next year, and service could start as early as 2019. On June 22, federal regulators voted to give Wyler and his company, OneWeb, approval to use the airwaves that will beam the Internet down to earth.

A tiny Internet service provider has sued Comcast, alleging that the cable giant and its hired contractors cut the smaller company's wires in order to take over its customer base. Telecom Cable LLC had "229 satisfied customers" in Weston Lakes and Corrigan (TX) when Comcast and its contractors sabotaged its network, the lawsuit filed recently in Harris County District Court said. Comcast had tried to buy Telecom Cable's Weston Lakes operations in 2013 "but refused to pay what they were worth," the complaint says.

Starting in June 2015, Comcast and two contractors it hired "systematically destroyed Telecom’s business by cutting its lines and running off its customers," the lawsuit says. Comcast destroyed or damaged the lines serving all Telecom Cable customers in Weston Lakes and never repaired them, the lawsuit claims. Telecom Cable owner Anthony Luna estimated the value of his business at about $1.8 million, which he is seeking to recover. He is also seeking other damages from Comcast and its contractors, including exemplary damages that under state statute could "amount to a maximum of twice the amount of economic damages, plus up to $750,000 of non-economic damages," the complaint says.

Charter has agreed to pay $13 million to New York State after failing to complete broadband construction that was required as part of its purchase of Time Warner Cable. Charter can get $12 million of that back if it completes the buildout under a revised schedule.

Charter was required to extend its network to 36,250 homes and businesses in the state within one year of the TWC merger being approved, but it only completed the buildout to 15,164 of them by the May 18 deadline, state officials said. The NY Public Service Commission is taking public comments on the settlement before giving it final approval. The $13 million payment includes $1 million in grants for computer equipment and Internet access for low-income residents. The other $12 million is "a security to meet its network expansion commitment going forward," which Charter can recover upon completing the merger conditions. "To ensure the company keeps its promise, Charter will forfeit its right to earn back up to $1 million each time it misses a six-month build-out target," the state said. Charter can "earn back up to $12 million based on future performance," the settlement said.

Local Des Moines (IA) CBS affiliate KCCI featured a story recently on ‘cord cutting’ of wireline telephone service that highlights the challenges of the current rural broadband regulatory framework for small, rural telecommunication companies. The report is somewhat misleading, in that it doesn’t provide a full explanation. An Ogden Telephone Company customer, Christina Janssen-Solheim, was featured because she complained about a policy of the phone company that is directly tied to the current regulatory framework. Janssen-Solheim complained that she was going to be charged $80 per month if she wanted to disconnect her landline telephone.

Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai told members of the Senate that the Commission is moving ahead with cost-cutting initiatives that are already on track to save $1.1 million annually. But while Chairman Pai touted efforts to slash costs, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the FCC is operating with a skeleton crew of employees, noting staffing levels are at their lowest point in 30 years.

While efficiencies have been created in some departments, the reduced staffing has forced other employees to double their workloads, often with little or no change in compensation, she said. Commissioner Clyburn noted a recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey showed nearly 40 percent of FCC employees feel they don’t have enough resources to get their jobs done. Further budget cuts will exacerbate this crunch, she said, which will be a big problem in terms of allowing the FCC to carry out its function.

After what felt like years of hammering Hillary Clinton for failing to adhere to federal e-mail transparency policies, you might think politicians would take pains not to make the same mistake. But now, the White House has been accused of just that.

One June 22, the nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed suit against President Donald Trump for violations of three separate federal records laws, including the automatic deletion of internal e-mails. In each case, the effect of the violations would be to place internal communications outside the reach of public transparency measures like the Freedom of Information Act — exactly what politicians spent an entire campaign season arguing about.

President Donald Trump said that expanded access to broadband internet service in rural areas will be part of the infrastructure plan he will submit to Congress, helping to bridge a digital divide that leaves small towns behind.

"I will be including a provision in our infrastructure proposal -- $1 trillion proposal, you’ll be seeing it very shortly -- to promote and foster, enhance broadband access for rural America also," President Trump said. Trump’s plan to use $200 billion in federal funds to leverage investment in national infrastructure improvement has prompted rural groups to fight for broadband’s inclusion, arguing that such access is a 21st-century version of the electrification and water projects that brought prosperity to sparsely populated areas in the past.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters while aboard Air Force One en route to the event that private investors haven’t found rural areas as profitable as urban ones, potentially making a greater federal role in expanding broadband appropriate. "We think we ought to have the same push to have broadband connectivity all over the country because in the 21st century it is just as important as a telephone, water, sewer, roads," Sec Perdue said. "It has become an infrastructure of necessity."

The White House is gathering technology leaders on June 22 to discuss how the industry aims to drive economic growth in emerging technology areas like wireless broadband and drones.

Administration officials from the Office of Science and Technology Policy will bring in leaders from 25 technology companies and venture capital firms for an event titled “American Leadership in Emerging Technology.” The meeting is part of “tech week,” an initiative aimed at bolstering the Trump administration's relationship with the technology industry — which has been contentious — and the administration’s own information technology infrastructure. The event at the White House departs from tech week’s previous focus on modernizing technology within the federal government and instead will focus on “outward facing tech policy,” and “defending America’s leadership in the technology economy.” Jared Kushner is slated to be at the event, along with other administration officials and advisers including Ivanka Trump, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn and Deputy US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios.

The tech leaders will break into three working groups to discuss drones, 5G wireless broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT), and financing emerging technology before meeting with President Trump to discuss the breakout sessions.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, urged the agency to find ways to better utilize spectrum in the mid-band range for commercial use.

Chairman Thune’s letter, sent amidst the Trump administration’s focus on tech policy this week, stresses the need to modernize spectrum policy to keep pace with innovation as the nation moves toward a 5G world: “While the U.S. has pushed ahead with efforts to free new spectrum at both low and high frequencies, we lag behind other countries in ‘mid-band spectrum’ - the range of frequencies between 3GHz and 7 GHz,” wrote Thune to Pai. “Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are all moving ahead to allocate hundreds of megahertz of mid-band spectrum, for licensed and unlicensed uses, in anticipation of both new Internet of Things applications as well as rising demand for mobile broadband that can be met with small cell deployments.” To bolster development of next generation wireless services, Chairman Thune re-introduced the bipartisan MOBILE NOW Act in January 2017 that would help free up large swaths of spectrum for commercial use by 2020.

The House Communications Subcommittee drilled down on coverage mapping and definitions in a hearing June 21. Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also made some news, saying the subcommittee was looking to hold a Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing in July. The hearing focused on updating the National Broadband Map, which has not happened since June 2014, "if you can believe that," she added, as well as what the definition of access to broadband should be, high-speed or basic, unserved or underserved.

Chairman Blackburn said the digital divide continues to plague rural America, echoing the consensus at the Senate hearing a day before, but also said the government needs to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money by having accurate data so that areas with the greatest need are targeted "by both public and private investment." She said accurate definitions and mapping data is imperative so that "hardworking taxpayer money" goes to areas that most need it. On the other side, Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) said he and Chairman Blackburn agreed broadband was critical for the nation and the economy, and the country was still struggling to connect unserved and underserved members of the community. He said that while Universal Service funding was making a dent, more needed to be done.