Reporting

The Biden Administration recently announced the designation of 31 ‘tech hubs,’ areas intended to become hotbeds of innovation, across the United States. The more than two-dozen new tech hubs will ‘have the tools they need to compete on a global scale,’ including Economic Development Administration funding opportunities and access to a range of technical assistance from agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration. According to Eric Smith, the Tech Hubs Program Director at the Department of Commerce’s Economic Develop

Dozens of states appear to be set to cap how much broadband providers can charge low-income households.

A jury ruled that Google violated antitrust laws to extract fees and limit competition from Epic Games and other developers on its Play mobile app store, in a case that could rewrite the rules on how thousands of businesses make money on Google’s smartphone operating system, Android. After deliberating for a little more than three hours, the nine-person federal jury sided with Epic Games on all 11 questions in a monthlong trial that was the latest turn in a three-year legal battle.

The White House is racing to overcome internal differences and hash out a new policy over how the US and other governments should view the rapid rise of global data flows that are fueling everything from artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing. In a series of sessions due to begin on December 13, 2023, President Joe Biden’s national security and economic teams will meet with companies, labor and human rights advocates, and other experts on the digital economy as part of a review launched last month, according to people directly involved.

There is a plan to almost eliminate latency. It’s a new internet standard called L4S that was finalized and published in January, and it could put a serious dent in the amount of time we spend waiting around for webpages or streams to load and cut down on glitches in video calls.

European Union policymakers agreed to a sweeping new law to regulate artificial intelligence, one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to limit the use of a rapidly evolving technology that has wide-ranging societal and economic implications. The law, called the A.I.

It turns out that the “smart homes of the future” cannot run on Wi-Fi alone thanks to the materials we’ve been using to construct our homes cheaply and quickly for decades. Over the last several years, more engineering and architecture firms have started including ethernet wiring in their building plans, but that’s as far as the digital infrastructure of a home usually goes. What’s forgotten is not only where the pre-built internet hub is placed inside the building but also what materials are used for construction.

A conflict between state and federal laws may delay the first distribution of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds to the states. Sixteen states bar or restrict municipally owned broadband—and nearly all of those states appear unwilling to amend their laws as they finalize plans for how they will use their share of BEAD funds.

As US states and territories put the final touches on Initial Proposals outlining how they will utilize funding for broadband expansion through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, state broadband offices are gearing up for what is expected to be a months-long challenge process ahead, said panelists at the Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit 2023.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2024 is just around the corner, and while telecommunications executives were eager to shout about 5G to the rafters just a few years ago, you’ll probably be lucky to hear so much as a whisper about it this time around. While it’s true that 5G has actually arrived, the fantastic use cases we heard about years ago haven’t materialized. But deploying 5G at the breakneck speeds required to win an imaginary race resulted in one fewer major wireless carrier to choose from and lots of debt to repay.