Network management

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai emphasized the importance of keeping Americans connected as the country experiences serious disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. And in order to ensure that Americans do not lose their broadband or telephone connectivity as a result of these exceptional circumstances, he specifically asked them to take the Keep Americans Connected Pledge. The Keep Americans Connected Pledge reads as follows:

Given the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on American society, [[Company Name]] pledges for the next 60 days to:

Ethos Capital voluntarily committed to limit price hikes on .org registrations for the next eight years. Ethos framed this as a concession to the public, and strictly speaking, a 10 percent price hike limit is better for customers than completely uncapped fees. But 10 percent annual increases are still massive—far more than inflation or plausible increases in the cost of running the infrastructure powering the .org registry. Ethos Capital's proposed limits are also much more than historical increases in the .org fee.

Local officials in eight mostly-rural counties in southwest Pennsylvania are combining efforts to determine first, what connectivity is available and, second, what can be done to improve it. Westmoreland, Fayette, Cambria, Somerset, Blair, Bedford, Huntingdon, and Fulton counties have been working with consulting firm Design Nine to develop a survey to share with residents in the region.

City Utilities, Springfield's (MO) city-owned electric utility, recently announced plans to expand its fiber optic network to every home in the city and lease excess fiber—on a nonexclusive basis—to the internet service provider (ISP) CenturyLink. CenturyLink, in turn, will offer high-speed fiber broadband services citywide and pay for marketing and customer service costs.

New York City unveiled a massive new Internet Master Plan in Jan that experts say is the largest and most aggressive local broadband improvement project in US history. If successful, the city's proposal could become a template for other towns and cities looking to improve broadband access and provide a leg up to regional economies.

In its quest for solutions and partnerships, the New York City's Internet Master Plan is a sharp contrast to the Federal Communications Commission’s approach, which started with the idea that the primary tool for deploying next generation networks was deregulation, and that cities themselves were the major cause of most delays.

The organization managing .org addresses is Public Interest Registry (PIR). It’s one of several so-called top-level registrars managing the internet’s address book on behalf of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Now, PIR could be sold to a for-profit company that’s attracted protesters and the attention of California’s attorney general. Since its creation in 2002, PIR has been part of a nonprofit called The Internet Society.

Remaining globally competitive in the digital age will require a highly skilled workforce, genuine digital security, and fast and reliable telecommunications networks—all areas directly impacted by infrastructure policy. However, there are still millions of Americans who do not have basic digital skills, do not have direct access to computing equipment, and do not have personal access to a broadband connection. Many rural and metropolitan neighborhoods do not have any high-speed connections, putting every business there at a disadvantage.

Most of us think of the internet as existing “virtually,” yet cyberspace requires a physical infrastructure that is mostly hidden from view. And it requires workers to go under city streets to tie things together. They run fiber-optic cables—incredibly thin strands of glass that carry the super-fast data signals providing high-speed internet, or “broadband,” service—and connect them underground to commercial buildings. There are many things that wouldn’t be the same without broadband. Here’s a look at 10 things broadband has brought to, or changed about, the world:

Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said that the company is installing 1400 miles of fiber per month and that it will begin offering multi-access edge computing (MEC) in fourth quarter. Verizon fiber deployments are critical to supporting a mixture of services, Vestberg said. “One part of the whole intelligent edge network was that . . .