Network management

Microtrenching – using microtrenches just 1 to 3 inches wide and 5 to 12 inches deep – has become a mainstream method for installing fiber, and many network operators use it successfully under certain conditions. City planners and engineers use the technique to leverage overcrowded utility corridors in right of ways, providing more high-speed broadband services to meet the demands of the growing population. Suppliers speak about the products they offer for microtrenching and where they think those products might best be used.

Backed by the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission as told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that it knew what it was doing when it deregulated pole attachments, and had the authority to do it. The FCC voted in Aug 2018 (unanimously, though with one partial dissent) to adopt various reforms related to new broadband attachments on utility poles. The petitioners, a group of electric utilities companies, challenged the FTC's authority to undertake the reforms in Oct.

The Wall Street Journal studied the internet use of 53 of our journalists across the country, over a period of months, in coordination with researchers at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. Our panelists used only a fraction of their available bandwidth to watch streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, even simultaneously. Quality didn’t improve much with higher speeds. Picture clarity was about the same. Videos didn’t launch quicker.

California-based company Cloudfare, which is a market leader in web infrastructure, was thrust into the spotlight of international debate after abruptly terminating its contract with 8chan, the far-right internet forum known for perpetuating conspiracy theories and hate speech, in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

Telecom experts have long pushed for a “dig once” law that would mandate the installation of fiber conduit during roadway construction and upgrades. A new study by BroadbandNow states that passing “dig once” legislation could have saved the US $126 billion in broadband deployment costs. Dig once legislation has been routinely proposed since 1996 by a rotating crop of lawmakers, but the legislation rarely goes anywhere.

Installing high-speed fiber-optic infrastructure is incredibly expensive. By some accounts, it can cost up to $8,000 per home to have the cabling put in place. Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, a Federal Highway Administration report detailed that up to 90 percent of this cost was tied up in the process of actually digging up roadways, not the fiber lines themselves. As a result, some cities and states champion the idea of future-proofing PROW’s (public rights-of-ways) during road construction projects.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that promotes broadband competition in apartment buildings and other multi-tenant structures. The FCC's decision "stop[s] efforts in California designed to encourage competition in multi-tenant environments," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Specifically, we say to the city of San Francisco—where more than half of the population rents their housing, often in multi-tenant units—that they cannot encourage broadband competition.

Earlier in 2019, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sought public comment on a new contract for the Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization that administers the .org top-level domain. The results were stark; more than 3,200 individuals and organizations submitted comments to ICANN, and most of them focused on a proposal to remove a cap on the price customers could be charged for .org domains. The existing contract, signed in 2013, banned the Public Interest Registry from charging more than $8.25 per domain.

This is the paradox of 5G, the collection of technologies behind next-generation wireless networks: They require a gargantuan quantity of wires. This is because 5G requires many more small towers, all of which must be wired to the internet. The consequences of this unavoidable reality are myriad.

Joe Franell is a fan of Huawei’s equipment. As the CEO of Eastern Oregon Telecom, he’s responsible for providing internet to about 4,000 customers, many in small communities or remote farmland. He’s been lucky: the Huawei equipment he uses has never failed, which he hasn’t been able to say about everything else in the company’s network.