USAToday

AT&T raised a few eyebrows fall 2016 when it announced experimental technology to deliver speedy “multi-gigabit” wireless Internet over existing power lines. Now that potential solution, called Project AirGig, appears much closer to becoming reality, and has moved well beyond the experimental stage.

AT&T says it is having “advanced discussions” with power companies to begin field trials of Project AirGig in at least two locations by the fall, and if all goes well commercial deployment could occur within 9 to 12 months. One of the trials will be in the US; a second, quite possibly, outside the country. Project AirGig technology involves placing small low-cost plastic antennas developed by AT&T Labs on top of existing power lines. These devices create a multi-gigabit signal that travels along or near the wire--but not actually through it. Using so-called mmWave surface wave launchers and inductive power devices, the signal can be moved from one pole to the next, and powered without a direct electrical connection. AT&T says it has secured more than 200 patents and patent applications. It also just reached an agreement to acquire a San Francisco company, FiberTower Corp, which holds mmWave spectrum rights. The AirGig technology can be deployed anywhere there are power poles, AT&T says: urban environments, rural areas, overseas.

Congress certified Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s victory in the 2016 election for president and vice president during a joint session Jan 6. Several Democratic House members raised formal objections to the Electoral College results, but they did not have the backing of any senators — a requirement for being considered. Vice President Biden, who presided over the session, repeatedly slammed the gavel on debate, saying the objections could not be entertained. "It is over," Vice President Biden said as Republicans applauded. Three protesters shouting from the visitor galleries were escorted out of the chamber.

Facebook’s secretive lab Building 8 has signed a collaboration deal with 17 universities to speed up the research cycle for hardware and software. Building 8, headed by former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chief and Google executive Regina Dugan, has entered into a "Sponsored Academic Research Agreement."

That means Facebook can get new research projects launched in weeks, bypassing the nine to 12 months it usually takes, Dugan said. Facebook is hoping to tap "the best research minds in the world" to speed up product development, Dugan said. The academic institutions, which include Stanford, Harvard and MIT will be paid a fee by Facebook.

Sprint has been aggressively trying to alter wide-held perceptions that its network lags other carriers—it has built an advertising campaign around the fact that its network reliability is within 1% of Verizon’s. On Dec 12, Sprint unveiled new technology that promises to take the nation’s fourth largest carrier well on the way towards superior next generation “5G” network coverage.

The tech is called High Performance User Equipment, HPUE for short, a geeky moniker that the company claims will bolster its high band 2.5 GHz spectrum coverage by up to 30%, including indoors where the company says most wireless traffic is generated. “The knock on high-band spectrum has been propagation and reach,” says John Saw, Sprint’s chief technology officer. “But at the same time we also know that high band spectrum is the future for the industry (and 5G.)” Saw says the limiting link for strong coverage is typically the uplink, that is the connection from your handset back up to the base station. “If we can improve that link it means that you can stretch coverage out even further,” he says. That’s the promise behind HPUE.

Google announced that it signed a new deal with Cuba's state-run telecommunications company to speed up Internet service for Cubans using YouTube and other Google products. The move, however, will affect only a small percentage of Cubans since the vast majority of communist country's 11 million residents do not have access to the Internet.

Google has been making small inroads into Cuba over the past two years as the United States works to re-establish diplomatic relations with its Cold War foe. On Dec 12, Google CEO Eric Schmidt signed the latest deal in Havana with Mayra Arevich Marin, president of State Enterprise of Telecommunications of Cuba, the government-run communications company known as ETECSA that handles all Internet and phone services in Cuba. The deal will provide Google's "Global Cache" service to the island, which reduces the amount of time it takes high-bandwidth content to load by storing data on servers on the island.Google previously made available some of its other products on the island nation, including its Google Chrome Web browser and Google Play music service.

President-elect Donald Trump has invited technology industry leaders to a roundtable Dec 14 in New York. The invitation for the summit was sent by President-elect Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and transition team adviser Peter Thiel. Among the CEOs who will attend the meeting is Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. The tech industry, which bet heavily on Hillary Clinton in the months leading up to the presidential election, is looking to build bridges to the incoming Administration.

Tech’s graying workforce is increasingly voicing its displeasure about ageism – in court. Since 2012, 90 age-related lawsuits have been filed against a dozen top tech companies in Silicon Valley, according to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

The suits were filed in California, where the companies are based and a vast majority of their employees are located. With 28 such suits since May 2013, Hewlett-Packard is most likely to spend the most time in court. Cisco Systems is named as defendant in 11 suits, followed by Apple (9), Google (8), and Oracle (7) and Genentech (7). Yahoo, Intel, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tesla Motors and Twitter were also sued. Most claim wrongful termination, while a smattering cited hiring or promotion. Plaintiffs' names were omitted because the DFEH, a state civil rights agency, does not provide them to third parties. The rash of suits isn't surprising to those in Silicon Valley. Legal experts and employees say a confluence of factors have deepened the problem: an aging workforce of people who want to, and have to, work longer; a spike in mergers and restructurings that have led companies to shed tens of thousands of workers; and evolving skill sets that have marginalized some workers and put a premium on others.

Sprint could soon be the majority owner of Newport (KY)-based prepaid cell phone service provider i-wireless. The Overland Park (KS)-based company is in the final stages of regulatory review on a deal where Sprint would acquire a 70 percent stake in the business. Kroger and Genie Global Inc., which jointly own i-wireless, would each retain a 15 percent stake in the company. Sprint initially announced the deal in May. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sprint has had a partnership with i-wireless for several years, serving as its network provider. I-wireless serves customers in 42 states and Washington (DC).

Sprint needs the blessing of federal regulators to merge its Assurance Wireless business and i-wireless' Access Wireless into one company. I-wireless Founder and CEO Paul McAleese would continue to run the new company. Both businesses are participants in the federal Lifeline program, which was established more than 30 years ago to ensure low-income consumers could have affordable access to phone service. Sprint also told regulators that i-wireless customers who receive 250 minutes on their Lifeline service plan would be upgraded to the Assurance Wireless plan, which offers existing subscribers 350 minutes per month.

[Commentary] While much of Silicon Valley and the tech industry is still reeling from an election outcome that none of the best data analytics models predicted, there’s another important question that’s starting to be asked: How might a Trump Administration’s priorities impact tech investments and the resulting tech developments? The short answer, of course, is no one really knows.

But given the staggering disconnect that’s been highlighted by the recent election results between the tech community and a large portion of the US population, it’s not unrealistic to think that the changes could be profound. At a simple level, there are already signs that the business climate is moving into a more conservative phase with a focus on basic types of developments. All the discussion about infrastructure improvements, for example, clearly highlights the areas that are going to receive attention from the new administration. Wall Street and many observers have interpreted this to mean that industries like construction, steel, and heavy equipment are the likely beneficiaries of this shift in investment priorities. While that is no doubt true, there are also potentially interesting pockets of opportunities for tech companies—if they’re focused in the right areas.

[Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research]

Twitter suspended a number of accounts associated with the alt-right movement, the same day the social media service said it would crack down on hate speech. Among those suspended was Richard Spencer, who runs an alt-right think tank and had a verified account on Twitter. The alt-right, a loosely organized group that espouses white nationalism, emerged as a counterpoint to mainstream conservatism and has flourished online. Spencer has said he wants blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Jews removed from the U.-S. Twitter removed Spencer's verified account, @RichardBSpencer, that of his think tank, the National Policy Institute @npiamerica, and his online magazine @radixjournal.

"This is corporate Stalinism," Spencer told The Daily Caller News Foundation. In a YouTube video, entitled Knight of the Long Knives, an apparent reference to the purge of Nazi leaders in 1934 to consolidate Adolf Hitler's power, Spencer said Twitter had engaged in a coordinated effort to wipe out alt-right Twitter. "I am alive physically but digitally speaking there has been execution squads across the alt right," he said. "There is a great purge going on and they are purging people based on their views."