I was surprised to find out by an FCC press release that agency leadership had suddenly reversed course on an $885 million infrastructure award that Elon Musk’s Starlink won in 2020 to provide high-speed Internet service to unconnected Americans. The agency’s decision here mirrors the Administration’s broader set of infrastructure missteps by costing taxpayer dollars while leaving rural communities behind. First, the FCC’s announcement claims that the agency is acting to ‘avoid extensive delays in providing needed service to rural areas.’ Yet that is exactly the outcome that this decision ensures. Second, the agency decision casts aspersion on the Starlink system in turning heel on the Commission’s 2020 award—calling the technology “risky” and “still developing.” But those arguments do not bear out. Third, the agency cites Starlink’s price point in denying it this universal service award. Yet right now, the FCC is providing universal service awards for far slower Internet services that cost consumers far more. Fourth, this agency decision will hit taxpayers in their pocketbooks. To the extent the federal government ever makes another commitment to serve these communities, it will cost us orders of magnitude more money to do so. 

The most important decision when designing and building a statewide middle-mile fiber-based network is whether to build a brand new long-distance fiber-optic cable route in areas where none exist, or use strands within an already installed cable via a pre-paid, discounted long-term lease called an IRU. In California for example, its great diversity of population centers, geographic and topographic terrains, weather conditions, and natural hazards greatly influences the presence, or absence, of fiber-based middle-mile infrastructure. Often, rural, rugged areas will lack middle-mile infrastructure, while urban areas possess ample amounts of such. Thus, should one build or buy their broadband, middle-mile solution? Building middle-mile connections is preferential in rural or remote areas due to the areas' lack of fiber or any internet service infrastructure, broadly speaking. Though it is intensive in terms of funding, labor, and time. Buying middle-mile connections is preferential in dense urban areas, where there is an abundance of fiber or broadband-related infrastructure already in place, which supports the "dig once" policy of minimizing construction costs and disruption to the local area. Overall, creating a fiber-based middle-mile network requires careful and customized decision-making, where the ideal decision in one area may differ radically from another. Thus, smart partnerships and and utilization of resources can provide ample, equitable, and future-facing broadband capacities for any community's needs.

In April 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to free up 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, earning cheers from Wi-Fi and fixed wireless groups. But more than two years on, scuffles between industry associations representing cable, broadcasting, utility and public safety interests have left the future of the 6 GHz band in limbo. The spectrum is extremely important to cable operators and operators in general because it enables cable companies to offer the fastest service not only to your home but within your home via Wi-Fi technology. When the FCC adopted its 6 GHz order, it approved operation of low-power indoor devices in the band and opened a proceeding to develop rules for an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) system for high-power devices. But the Utilities Technology Council, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and several other utilities groups petitioned the FCC to revisit its rules for the operation of low-power indoor devices (such as routers). They argued the power-levels adopted by the FCC in its original order would allow for harmful interference with licensed microwave systems used by utilities and public safety agencies for critical communications. The NCTA—Internet and Television Association and the National Association of Broadcasters appear to be at odds in terms of their position on the FCC's official position on the 6GHz band; where the NAB believes in the co-existence of the licensed and unlicensed operation within the band, and the NCTA believes that any delays within the band ruling would "rob consumers of the benefits of better Wi-Fi service." 

Meta Platforms signed a $37.5 million class settlement with Facebook users who say the platform continued tracking their locations after they turned off location services on their devices, according to a filing in San Francisco federal court. The settlement by the US District Court for the Northern District of California covered about 70 million US residents who used Facebook between Jan. 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and who turned off the location services setting for the Facebook application on their iOS or Android devices. Class members who submit claims through an online system will receive payments electronically or by check. The deal resolves litigation accusing the tech giant of improperly collecting users’ IP addresses and using those addresses to infer their location in contravention of the company’s own policies. Plaintiffs say Facebook profited from this information by using it to target ads.