Reporting

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it's going to more carefully look at the "competitive effects" of T-Mobile's plan to purchase more 2.5GHz spectrum for its 5G network.

Legislation currently wending its way through Congress could extend 100 percent bonus depreciation of property for US businesses.

The top three telecommunications companies in the US are shrinking quickly. Across the industry, telecommunications companies are shedding employees as quickly as they can as they automate their networks, outsource tasks to other companies and do less when it comes to customer service. 

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez and Stephen Baldwin, Senior Advisor to the President, spoke about the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program at an event hosted by the Information Technology Institute in Washington DC. “We want to make sure that every user is connected to the internet, it is so important for participation in society, in our economy,” Commissioner Gomez said.

Enrollment for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has frozen, as of 11:59 pm on February 7, according to the website for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but advocates like Gigi Sohn believe that momentum is on their side to keep the program alive. Sohn, the American Association for Public Broadband’s executive director, has been a leading voice to keep the program, which provides subsidies for nearly 23 million Americans to help pay for broadband services.

Consumer advocates want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to impose a phone unlocking condition on T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of Mint Mobile, the operator made famous by part owner Ryan Reynolds. T-Mobile struck an agreement in 2023 with Ka’ena Corporation to acquire Mint Mobile and its affiliate brands, Ultra Mobile and Plum, for up to $1.35 billion.

2023 set the stage for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced how much funding each state would get and states began drafting their initial proposals. According to Sarah Morris, NTIA’s principal deputy assistant secretary and deputy administrator, 2024 will be “the year of execution” for BEAD.

T-Mobile is making steady progress with its initiative to offer fiber internet service. It’s now selling fiber service in 13 markets, according to the “availability” tab on its T-Fiber website. The wireless carrier seems to prefer working with providers who build open-access networks. These networks are deployed by one company and then leased to multiple internet service providers, which can then offer broadband service to end customers. In its 13 markets, the company is working with:

A California lawmaker introduced a bill aiming to force companies to test the most powerful artificial intelligence models before releasing them—a landmark proposal that could inspire regulation around the country as state legislatures increasingly take up the swiftly evolving technology. The new bill, sponsored by Sen Scott Wiener (D-CA), who represents San Francisco, would require companies training new AI models to test their tools for “unsafe” behavior, institute hacking protections and develop the tech in such a way that it can be shut down completely.

While the world awaits closing arguments later this year in the US government's antitrust case over Google's search dominance, a California judge has dismissed a lawsuit from 26 Google users who claimed that Google's default search agreement with Apple violates antitrust law and has ruined everyone's search results. Users had argued that Google struck a deal making its search engine the default on Apple's Safari web browser specifically to keep Apple from competi