Wireless Internet

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association and ACA Connects–America’s Communications Association submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) regarding the agency’s proposed guidance on the use of alternative broadband technologies in deployment projects funded by the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.  NTCA and ACA Connects urged NTIA, in enabling the use of alternative technologies, to:

Comcast still sees fiber networks as its biggest competition in the long term, but a top exec acknowledged fixed wireless access (FWA) as a "near-term issue" that is taking a piece of the lower end of the market. Although the pace of FWA subscriber growth among some of the top US service providers is showing signs of slowing, T-Mobile, Verizon and 

Demand for wireless data continued to skyrocket in 2023, with Americans using more than 100 trillion MBs—enough data for every single U.S. household to watch the first season of House of the Dragon every day for the entire year. 100T MB of data is nearly double the amount of data used just two years ago and represents the largest single-year increase in wireless data ever—26 trillion MBs—a 36% increase over 2022. In fact, Americans used more wireless data in 2023 than they did from 2010 to 2018 combined.

During Digital Connectivity and Lifeline Awareness Week, the Federal Communications Commission announced the implementation of a key provision of the Safe Connections Act that will help survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and related crimes get discounted phone, internet, or bundled services through the FCC’s Lifeline program. Survivors can now make a request with their service provider to separate their mobile phone lines from family plans where the abuser is on the account.

On September 6, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission launched its latest (and 18th overall, if you're scoring at home) inquiry into the state of broadband in the United States.

Kara Frederick, the Heritage Foundation’s director of tech policy, on her sweeping vision for re-imagining how conservatives relate to tech, including low earth orbit satellites (LEOs), Smart Cities, and generative artificial intelligence. She spoke about what the government could be doing but isn't, saying "Having a national data protection framework is also, to me, an extremely common-sense measure.

The recent Georgia school shooting was every parent’s worst nightmare, and one that highlights potential downsides to efforts among states, school districts, and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cellphones in classrooms. The moves to restrict phone use in schools have been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom.

It’s been a heated summer for school cell phone bans. Worried politicians and school districts in several states have been swarming to limit cell phone use during class time. In all, seven states have banned or restricted cellphone use in schools, and fourteen have introduced bills doing the same. Among the bills underway is California’s Phone-Free Schools Act, which cleared the state legislature in August and is expecting the governor’s signature.

How will the elections determine how the stock markets react? Traditional wisdom says internet service providers (ISPs) will do better in policy terms under Republicans than under Democrats as Democrats are more likely to take regulatory action that hurts ISPs. This may have been true in the past, but it’s now wrong, according to NewStreet Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin. “There are discrete issues on which ISPs favor the Republican approach.

Brightspeed is on a big mission to deploy more fiber, currently passing about 90,000 new premises per month with fiber. But it is also retiring copper on a home-by-home basis for customers who are experiencing service problems.