Internet/Broadband

Alan Davidson, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Commerce Department, dismissed Republican criticisms of the Biden administration’s $42 billion broadband expansion program as "election-year politics." Recent attacks have shifted toward Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been dubbed the "Broadband Czar" by Republicans like Sen.

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) put the kibosh on the business plans of internet service providers (ISPs) working to tackle the urban digital divide. I’m aware of a several ISPs working to bring broadband to neighborhoods where the majority of customers qualified for the $30 ACP discount.

Verizon announced an update to its broadband strategy, with new fixed wireless subscriber goals, household targets and broadband offerings to accelerate its premium broadband and mobility services to millions more customers nationwide. Verizon has more than 11.9 million total broadband connections as of the end of third-quarter 2024, up nearly 16 percent year over year. Verizon is expecting more than 30 million fiber passings in the combined Verizon/Frontier footprint by 2028. Over time, Verizon is expecting 35-40 million fiber passings. 

November marks the tenth anniversary of NextLight: the municipal broadband provider for the city of Longmont, Colorado, launched in 2014 as the first municipal broadband network in the state.

The same technology that puts artificial intelligence chatbots on your phone and computer is coming to the car. Having a powerful voice assistant at a time when you can't afford to take your eyes off the road could be enormously beneficial. Qualcomm announced it is bringing its next-generation Oryon processor to its in-car computer systems for both entertainment and automated driving. Generative AI in the car will ideally let drivers get help with everything from finding the nearest cheap gas to pointing out landmarks to understanding a dashboard warning light.

Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) says she will build an Opportunity Economy where everyone has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead. Renewing the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is part of that agenda. Earlier this year, Congress failed to allocate funding for ACP and made monthly broadband bills more expensive for 23 million households enrolled in the program.

The upcoming election is poised to have major ramifications for regulation of the tech industry, with control of Congress and the White House virtually a toss-up just two weeks out. A look at the three top races to watch this cycle:

The internet plays an ineffable role in our election process. But imagine if you didn’t have internet access to livestream the recent debates, or if you couldn’t read up on the candidates’ policy platforms with a quick Google search. Worse than that, what if you missed your state’s voter registration deadline or couldn’t locate your polling site, since you couldn’t look it up online? It’s often overlooked that many Americans still don’t have high-speed internet access, even in 2024 when our lives have increasingly shifted online.

“You are walking on a street and generative AI can tell you, ‘I just found a great restaurant that aligns with your tastes, and you haven’t eaten Italian in a month!’” That’s an example that Kaveh Vahdat—Founder and CEO at RiseAngle and Founder and President at RiseOpp—used to describe the future with artificial intelligence. RiseAngle is a game-creation platform and RiseOpp is a fractional marketing agency, both powered by generative AI.

The arrival of on-device artificial intelligence could radically reshape the app/app-store model that has ruled the tech industry in the smartphone era. Traditionally, Apple and Google have dominated the mobile era by controlling the two major smartphone ecosystems and their associated app stores.