Early data from USTelecom’s broadband mapping pilot in Missouri and Virginia indicates the new methodology is working and is “superior to other [mapping] proposals,” the lobbying group tells the Federal Communications Commission. The broadband map pilot is an effort aimed at better defining where there are gaps in rural broadband coverage. According to USTelecom, the national map can be fixed for $10-12 million versus $350 million previously allocated for what USTelecom says is flawed broadband mapping methodology. The USTelecom Broadband Mapping initiative relies on new digital resources, databases and crowdsourcing platforms, combined with existing provider service address information, to improve understanding of unserved/served areas.

Two parties have gone to court to try to put to a vote of the public the city of Tacoma’s proposal to enter into a private-public partnership to manage Click, the municipal cable and internet network. Both cases, filed recently in Pierce County Superior Court, contend the proposal violates the city’s charter, a charge the city rejects. The section of the charter in dispute is Section 4.6, titled, “Disposal of Utility Properties.” It states: “The City shall never sell, lease, or dispose of any utility system, or parts thereof essential to continued effective utility service, unless and until such disposal is approved by a majority vote of the electors voting thereon at a municipal election in the manner provided in this charter and in the laws of this state.”

The Presidential Memorandum of October 25, 2018, “Developing a Sustainable Spectrum Strategy for America’s Future,” calls for the development of a National Spectrum Strategy. The development of the strategy is to be informed by three interim products, one of which is a report on emerging technologies and their expected impact on non-Federal spectrum demand, to be submitted to the President by the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) or the Director’s designee. The purpose of this paper is to assist OSTP in developing the required report.

AT&T President of Operations Scott Mai, confirmed AT&T nationwide 5G plans, saying that, by this time next year, the carrier will have nationwide coverage for 5G, albeit with a somewhat liberal view of what nationwide means. To AT&T, nationwide 5G coverage means 200 million pops covered, which leaves a lot to be desired when talking nationwide in geographic terms. AT&T’s definition can be achieved by targeting major metros only. The plan includes:

1. Leveraging millimeter wave spectrum for dense urban areas.
2. For broader, more macro coverage, AT&T will use their sub-6 GHz spectrum holdings, with 700 MHz a likely 5G workhorse. This capability will be put on existing AT&T towers, with their FirstNet build helping facilitate the transition to 5G.
3. Lastly, AT&T’s controversial 5Ge, or 5G evolution will fill in the gaps where true 5G is not available. 5Ge is nothing but 4G LTE-A technology that uses carrier aggregation, masquerading as a form of 5G from a marketing perspective. To the end consumer though, the better mobile broadband performance of 4G LTE-A, may make them feel like they’re getting 5G.

Behavioral advertising, which involves collecting data about readers’ online behavior and using it to serve them specially tailored ads, often through bits of code called cookies, has become the dominant force in digital advertising in recent years. But in one of the first empirical studies of the impacts of behaviorally targeted advertising on online publishers’ revenue, researchers at the University of Minnesota, University of California, Irvine, and Carnegie Mellon University suggest publishers only get about 4% more revenue for an ad impression that has a cookie enabled than for one that doesn’t. The study tracked millions of ad transactions at a large US media company over the course of one week. That modest gain for publishers stands in contrast to the vastly larger sums advertisers are willing to pay for behaviorally targeted ads. A 2009 study by Howard Beales, a professor at George Washington University School of Business and a former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, found advertisers are willing to pay 2.68 times more for a behaviorally targeted ad than one that wasn’t.