Protocol

The ‘original sin’ of broadband buildouts is keeping people offline

Deer Isle (ME) is one of many places in the US where it can be a pain to get good internet access. At least, that’s what residents, visitors, the town manager and the state — all the folks who actually try to use a connection — say. Spectrum tells another story. In recent months, the internet provider has cited Federal Communications Commission maps to insist that it covers almost all of the island and that the area doesn’t need federal money that might help a rival build out more capacity and access.

Elon Musk’s satellites are in the middle of a corporate dogpile at the FCC

Scale matters, SpaceX’s lawyer Pratik Shah argued to a panel of three federal appeals court judges — but only the comparatively small-scale plans for upcoming satellite launches, not the gargantuan scale of Elon Musk’s ambitions in the sky and the coming frenzy of launches from some of the most powerful companies on the ground. Shah assured the court the issue wasn’t 4,400 or so satellites originally on the license the Federal Communications Commission granted to SpaceX.