Internet/Broadband

Coverage of how Internet service is deployed, used and regulated.

Elon Musk Helped Elect Trump. What Does He Expect in Return?

Even before Donald Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk, had come to him with a request for his presidential transition. He wanted Trump to hire some employees from Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department. That request, which would seed SpaceX employees into an agency that is one of its biggest customers, is a sign of the benefits that Mr.

Commissioner Carr Congratulates President Trump on Historic Election

I want to congratulate President Trump on his historic election victory. The American people have sent a clear and decisive message to Washington. It is time to change course. That is why I agree with congressional leadership that the FCC should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial matter and focus on the transition.

Elon Musk, Trump and the rise of the tech right

Of all the groups celebrating Donald Trump’s reelection, maybe no one has more of a reason to celebrate than his boosters in the tech world.

What the Trump win means for telecommunications and broadband economics

Donald Trump’s most clearly articulated economic plan is that he intends to impose a lot of tariffs on foreign-made goods entering the U.S. We can also speculate that he won’t allow tax breaks given in 2018 to lapse as they’re scheduled to do, and that Republicans will probably address taxes as one of the first items on their agenda.

What a GOP sweep of Congress would mean for tech policy

When it comes to tech policy, the next Congress has a seemingly endless to-do list. It includes hashing out a deal on an elusive federal privacy law, coalescing on how to address booming products driven by artificial intelligence and countering harms on social media.

The Importance of Digital Inclusion in Disaster Recovery: A Response to Climate Change

From communities in Appalachia and Florida to the Hawaiian Islands, no part of the US is untouched by the increased climate-related disasters we’ve seen in the past few years. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is updating and publishing a disaster response framework, and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance submitted comments to advocate for stronger integration of digital inclusion activities into post-disaster efforts. NDIA's key recommendations fall under five main categories:

Under Trump, satellites could steal fiber's BEAD bonanza

It's very likely that the incoming Trump administration will smile on satellite Internet companies such as SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper. And that could have serious implications for fiber vendors like Calix and Corning, as well as fiber network operators like AT&T, Brightspeed, Altice, Windstream and others. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is designed to funnel $42.45 billion through US states for broadband networks in rural areas.

FWA hits middle age and gets boring

The fixed wireless access (FWA) market has largely matured, and it's no longer offering many surprises. As a result, the pressure the technology has put on the cable industry appears to be easing. "We now have better insights into FWA collectively," wrote the financial analysts at New Street Research. The analysts now expect T-Mobile to gain around 1.45 million fixed wireless customers next year.

Merger Mania

The industry is suddenly awash with talks of acquisitions and mergers. In September, Verizon announced the acquisition of Frontier Communications in an all-cash deal valued at $20 billion. T-Mobile has announced two acquisitions of fiber overbuilders.

Mercury to return RDOF-awarded census block groups

Mercury Broadband filed letters notifying the Federal Communications Commission that the company is returning census block groups (CBGs) awarded funding in Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. Mercury said deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction and factors outside of its control, including rising costs and competitive encroachment, have rendered deployment to many of these RDOF CBGs economically unviable and ultimately unachievable.