Bloomberg

AT&T and Verizon, conceding that phones won’t be available in time for the launch of fifth-generation mobile service in 2018, plan instead to offer 5G through portable hotspots called pucks.  “I would expect that there are a range of handsets available in 2019 and some of those will be in the first half of 2019,” said Verizon’s wireless chief, Ronan Dunne. “If there’s anything available in 2018, it’s more likely to be a hotspot.” In a race to be first with technology that will let cars drive themselves and robots perform surgery, the wireless service providers, including No.

The decision to end network neutrality has to withstand a court challenge, and Democrats in Congress will do their utmost to overturn it. Regardless of the outcome, the fight marks Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai as a brawler in bureaucrat’s guise. Says Kevin Werbach, a former FCC staffer who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: “He’s going through, pretty systematically, to reverse rules put in place during the Obama administration.” 

According to a Bloomberg analysis of Senate disclosures dating back to 2000, lobbying of the White House and its key bureaus by US tech companies has increased steadily, with an acceleration in the past six years. In 2000, only Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle disclosed lobbying then-President Bill Clinton’s White House, including offices potentially representing his closest advisers. Disclosures filed with the government show that, in 2017, lobbyists working for Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Twitter,  and Uber Technologies sought to influence parts of the Executiv

[Commentary] Just seven years after the $30 billion mega-merger between Comcast and NBCUniversal, the behemoth company has been freed from the temporary rules the Federal Communications Commission imposed to prevent it from discriminating against its competitors. Whether you’re a TV consumer, another cable company or a content provider, there’s good reason to be concerned. Comcast-NBCU has found ways to leverage its assets in ways that harm consumers and competition, and some of these moves have violated the FCC's conditions.

In Jan 30's State of the Union message, President Donald Trump called on Congress to allocate at least $1.5 trillion for "the infrastructure investment we need."   Much of the conversation relates to people's most tangible perception of infrastructure: roads, rails and bridges. The media rightly give us increasingly frequent images of derailed train cars, collapsed trestles, cracked stanchions and crumbling bridges. But in the 21st century, infrastructure is more than concrete and metal. Equally important is the digital infrastructure that underlies America’s economy and governments.