Competition/Antitrust

Common Networks, a Silicon Valley startup founded by former executives from payment company Square, announced the next stage in its fixed wireless broadband strategy with the launch of a symmetric 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) service for $49 per month. Common Networks is roughly three and a half years old, and said its fixed wireless broadband is made possible through the use of proprietary software built on open 5G technology, millimeter wave (mmWave) radio and its own software stack.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada's telecommunications regulator, says it has lowered the rates for wholesale broadband access as it looks to increase competition among internet providers. The lower rates announced by the CRTC means it will be cheaper for smaller internet providers to buy broadband capacity on the networks owned by the big telecom providers. The CRTC requires that the large cable and telephone companies make available parts of their network, at rates set by the regulator, to improve competition and lower prices.

Gov J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) launched Connect Illinois, a $420 million statewide broadband expansion project included in the Rebuild Illinois capital plan. Rebuild Illinois dedicated $400 million to partnering with Internet service providers and $20 million to the Illinois Century Network, which currently services K-12 schools, higher education, public libraries, museums, state and local governments, and the health-care community. To oversee the broadband initiative, Gov Pritzker appointed 25 people from the private and public sectors to a broadband advisory council.

The top 16 US high-speed internet providers, covering 96% of the market, added 370,000 customers in the second quarter, off from the 480,000 added on a pro forma basis in the same period of 2018, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group. The dip is an anomaly for now—customers growth metrics were up for landline broadband suppliers in the first quarter. Cable operators added 532,211 high-speed internet users in Q2, LRG said, about 90% of what they added in the same period of 2018.

Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has a plan for rural America. All of America should be concerned, because it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of economics and business.I’ll focus on the rural broadband plan. The overarching theme is that private businesses cannot be trusted, and neither can consumers (except maybe when they are voting for Senator Warren), so government officials should take control. Other takeaways:

I will make sure every home in America has a fiber broadband connection at a price families can afford. That means publicly-owned and operated networks — and no giant Internet service providers running away with taxpayer dollars. My plan will:

In 2017, Dr. Brian Whitacre was approached by Attorney Daryl Parks, who was preparing to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission based on the National Digital Inclusion Alliance's study of AT&T’s Digital Redlining of Cleveland (OH). Parks asked Whitacre to conduct an expert assessment of NDIA’s Cleveland research and provide sworn testimony about his findings, which he did.  Parks also asked Whitacre to conduct a similar analysis of AT&T broadband services in Dallas County (TX).

Under the new rule passed by the Federal Communications Commission, cable providers can now count “in-kind services” toward what they owe local communities. Such services include discounts for seniors and fiber-optic networks that link government buildings. That means two things: Cable companies will see their profits increase, and local community access television stations will see their budgets slashed.

Recent insights into successful broadband partnerships:

Jeffrey Houser launched the rural internet-service provider Rednet by shooting Wi-Fi from ridge-top antennas to customers from Punxsutawney (PA) of groundhog fame to homespun Blairsville (PA). His vision was to bring the internet to rural areas. And all was going well until Rednet connected off-campus apartments for students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, expanding beyond his rural base, but also encroaching on Comcast's turf.  And that’s when, Houser says, his company ran into the buzz saw of Comcast’s billing and collections department.