Network management

Dozens of state lawmakers from Massachusetts urged Comcast to halt enforcement of its 1.2TB monthly data cap, saying the cap hurts low-income people during the pandemic and is unnecessary because of Comcast's healthy network capacity. The letter to Comcast Senior VP Mark Reilly, spearheaded by MA State Reps Andy Vargas and Dave Rogers, disputed Comcast's claim that a 1.2TB cap only affects a very small subset of customers it calls "super users." The lawmakers also wrote that "Massachusetts has experienced the largest relative increase of food-insecure individuals in the nation due to COVID-

Welcome to the Federal Communications Commission’s first-ever Forum on the Quantum Internet! Quantum networks promise to unleash this power by enabling distributed quantum computing and giving us a level of computational clout far beyond what is possible with today’s Internet. This would be an incredibly powerful tool for solving complex problems and enabling scientific discoveries. When we think about the possible benefits of the Quantum Internet, the first big advancements we are likely to see involve network security.

School districts and cities across the country are racing to bridge a digital divide that has existed for decades. At least 39 states have said they would use funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act to help school districts close the tech gap. The fixes can be fairly simple. School-district and municipal IT departments are using technology that has been around for years, such as solar-powered antennas to transmit Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband, closer to more peoples’ homes.

A Q&A with John Horrigan, senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute.

Comcast will subject all its residential broadband customers to a 1.2 terabyte monthly data cap. The threshold that Comcast will start enforcing does, indeed, allow for a lot of online life before getting socked by surcharges of $10 for each extra 50 GB, up to $100 a month.

The Covid-19 lockdowns were expected to push the resilience of broadband and mobile networks to the limit. With millions of people suddenly working from home, it was widely expected that telecoms companies would struggle to keep everyone connected, particularly in countries where full-fibre broadband levels are low and 5G upgrades remain a distant prospect. Yet networks mostly held firm as minor outages and service difficulties such as jerky Zoom calls proved surmountable for most workers, children and furloughed staff stuck at home.

Comcast plans to 

Broadband companies can improve regional economic development, though positive effects vary depending on local and state contexts, said experts during a National Telecommunications and Information Administration webinar. Lauren Mathena, director of economic development and community engagement with the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC), spoke on how MBC allows Internet service providers to connect to its 1,900-mile fiber network in southern Virginia.

The number of broadband "power users"—people who use 1TB or more per month—has doubled over the past year, ensuring that broadband internet access service providers will be able to make more money from data caps. More customers exceeding their data caps will result in more overage charges paid to ISPs that impose monthly data caps. Higher usage can also boost ISP revenue because people using more data tend to subscribe to higher-speed packages.

A rapid rise in the number of “power users” consuming 1 TB or more of data per month and continued migration to faster speed tiers are creating new revenue opportunities for broadband service providers, according to the Q3 2020 OpenVault Broadband Insights report. The report also provides a more detailed breakdown of the outsized impact of power users and gigabit speeds on network capacity, particularly in the upstream. Key findings in the OVBI Q32020 report include: