Reporting

Wireless infrastructure deployment, particularly for small cell or distributed antenna systems, promise smart city innovation abilities. But this rollout is likely to be stymied until resolution of disputes between industry and municipalities. Local officials are upset that federal intervention – by Congress and by the Federal Communications Commission – is hampering their ability to govern their own rights-of-way.

Facebook will be updating the way news stories are ranked in its News Feed to prioritize original reporting and demoting stories that aren't transparent about who has written them. Facebook says that in order to identify which original stories to promote, it will use artificial intelligence to analyze groups of articles on a particular story topic and identify the ones most often cited as the original source. It's a minor but concrete tweak that Facebook can point to as doing something to minimize misinformation.

Comcast says its broadband network has earned high marks for its performance so far during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now Wall Street analysts are projecting more broadband subscriber growth for the company. Comcast claims its network is delivering above-advertised speeds nationwide, based on the results of more than 700,000 daily diagnostic network speed tests. Upstream traffic is up 32% as more Americans work from home, and downstream traffic is up 11%.

Since COVID-19 forced the Cherokee (IA) Public Library to close in mid-March, the computer lab is empty. But the library is still many residents’ most reliable source of connectivity to the digital world. Kids sit scattered in the library’s parking lot with phones or video game devices, catching some of the Wi-Fi outside that’s now left on 24/7. And Tyler Hahn, the library's director, spends his days trying to help some older patrons get online by shouting instructions to them through the library’s windows.

Issues around equity, access to broadband and the broader social ills related to racism are finding a stronger foothold in smart city strategies. The compounding events of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, its related economic fallout and nationwide protests calling attention to unjust policing and systematic racism are redefining how cities use technology as an instrument for achieving community goals. The coronavirus crisis, which either idled large segments of the economy or required workers to go remote, has laid bare lingering problems like the digital divide, as smart city leaders rethin

Thousands of people in communities across the country are about to grapple with losing broadband service. Free services started to help low-income families during the pandemic and a pledge not to cut off service or charge late fees to customers struggling financially are ending June 30. If left unaddressed, this end threatens to unravel a precarious thread of the social safety net at a particularly difficult time for many American families.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) has come up with an estimate of how much it has cost its members to Keep Americans Connected over the life of the Federal Communications Commission-prompted voluntary pledge that they do so during the pandemic. According to WISPA, which polled its members on June 23, the average cost was over $30,000 per operator. That was based on an average sub count of 1,500. The costs broke down this way: $25,000 to cover nonpayment; $3,200 in waived late fees, and $4,500 in free Wi-Fi. 

Windstream has asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve the transfer of its licenses to a restructured company so it can get out of bankruptcy. The approval will require a limited FCC rule waiver for the two-step restructuring Windstream has set up. The FCC has put that restructuring plan out for comment on whether it should grant the waiver and transfers, with comments due July 9 and replies July 16. The company filed for bankruptcy last February. It has set up the restructuring in two phases.

The Federal Communications Commission is helping Charter avoid broadband competition in New York State with a decision that will block government funding for other broadband providers in locations where Charter is required to build. The FCC plans to award providers up to $16 billion over 10 years from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in a reverse auction scheduled to begin in October.

Facebook is changing a number of policies relating to hate speech and voter suppression on the platform, said Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. The announcements were made in a hurried appearance by the executive on his personal Facebook page shortly after Unilever announced that it was pulling advertisements for the next six months – which sent Facebook stock tumbling more than 7%.