Federal

Context, Courts and Commissions: The 6th Circuit Got Net Neutrality Wrong

In issuing a temporary stay of the Federal Communications Commission 2024 Net Neutrality order, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has gone beyond recent teachings of the Supreme Court to erroneously block exercise of regulatory authority that Congress clearly intended the FCC to exercise. From the Federal Reserve Board to the Federal Trade Commission and beyond, expert agencies have been created as a means for Congress to ensure that durable legislative principles keep up with the times. The current Supreme Court seems not to share that view.

State of Nevada Launches $400 million High Speed Nevada Phase III Subgrantee Selection

The State of Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) announced the start of subgrantee selection for Phase III of the High Speed Nevada Initiative (HSNV).

Satellite broadband joins the party for BEAD: What you need to know

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released long-awaited draft guidance on the use of non-fiber technologies for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, with unlicensed wireless spectrum and satellite broadband entering the funding fray.

Big Tech defends free speech amid government pressure

The long-standing tension between censorship versus safety online is coming to a head as CEOs start

The U.S. is investing billions of dollars in fiber internet. Here’s what makes it run.

One goal of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is to connect every household in the United States to high-speed internet. The law created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, to take that $42 billion and allocate a portion to each state, as well as several territories.

Libraries are essential for internet access, even as national broadband projects ramp up

Kentucky’s mountains, hills and large rural population have historically made broadband rollout challenging for the state, so in lieu of home internet, some residents depend on local libraries, such as the Spencer County Public Library in Taylorsville. The library has all the things you’d expect to find: children’s and teens’ sections, reading areas, community meeting spaces, as well as more than a dozen computers scattered around. Director Debra Lawson said that wh

Breaking Up Google Isn’t Nearly Enough

federal judge recently told us what we already knew: that Google is a monopolist in the Web search market. In his scathing 277-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta noted that Google has an 89.2 percent share of the overall search market and a 94.9 percent share of searches conducted on mobile devices. Fixing the problem will be tricky.

Mark Zuckerberg Says White House Was ‘Wrong’ to Pressure Facebook on COVID

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that touched on a series of controversies, Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it was improper for the Biden administration to have pressured Facebook to censor content in 2021 related to the coronavirus pandemic, vowing that the social-media company would reject any such future efforts. Zuckerberg wrote that senior Biden administration officials, including from the White House, had “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot

Choosing the right mix of technologies to achieve Internet for All

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking public comment on one of the most challenging aspects of the Internet for All initiative: projects serving the most difficult and remote locations to connect. Connecting everyone in America will require a variety of technologies.

FCC Settles AT&T 2023 911 Outage Violations for $950,000

The Federal Communications Commission announced a $950,000 settlement with AT&T to resolve an Enforcement Bureau investigation into whether the company violated FCC rules by failing to deliver 911 calls to, and failing to timely notify, 911 call centers in connection with an outage AT&T experienced on August 22, 2023, in parts of Illinois, Kansas, Texas, and Wisconsin.