Surfing the Broadband Bit Stream

Four leading broadband deployment scholars release new analysis today that may help state broadband offices evaluate “the capacities and saturation limits of the Starlink satellite infrastructure.” The overarching goal is to help states determine where – and if – Starlink can meet federal requirements for broadband, which is defined as delivering minimum connection speeds of at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload.

Good journalism is making sure that history is actively captured and appropriately described and assessed, and it's accurate to describe things as they currently are as alarming.

And I am alarmed.

Alarm is not a state of weakness, or belligerence, or myopia. My concern does not dull my vision, even though it's convenient to frame it as somehow alarmist, like I have some hidden agenda or bias toward doom. I profoundly dislike the financial waste, the environmental destruction, and, fundamentally, I dislike the attempt to gaslight people into swearing fealty to a sickly and frail psuedo-industry where everybody but NVIDIA and consultancies lose money.

I also dislike the fact that I, and others like me, are held to a remarkably different standard to those who paint themselves as "optimists," which typically means "people that agree with what the market wishes were true." Critics are continually badgered, prodded, poked, mocked, and jeered at for not automatically aligning with the idea that generative AI will be this massive industry, constantly having to prove themselves, as if somehow there's something malevolent or craven about criticism, that critics "do this for clicks" or "to be a contrarian."

Lots of monopoly and finance related news this week, as usual. Seems like Fed independence will end, giant railroad mergers are on deck, the rare earth magnet crisis abated, Trump caved to China on advanced semiconductor exports, and billionaires like Mark Cuban continue to attack NYC mayoral primary winner Zohran Mamdani.

Before getting to the full round-up, I want to take a step back and examine Trump antitrust enforcement so far. I’m doing so because of the news last week that a D.C. district court judge reinstated Democrat Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as a Federal Trade Commissioner, after she and her colleague Alvaro Bedoya were illegally fired by Trump in March. Her case is likely to go to the Supreme Court, to test the Constitutional theory of whether the President can fire anyone in an independent agency.

Since her firing, the FTC has been a fully Republican agency, which meant no dissents and almost no public debate. 

U.S. | Charter has called the damage from recent fiber cuts “nothing short of domestic terrorism.”

Increasing rural internet connectivity continues to be a priority for the state and Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday attended a ribbon cutting event on a new provider’s entrance into Montana.

Billionaire Elon Musk's development of a supercomputer in Memphis is another environmental blow to a marginalized Black community.

Recent college graduates are facing one of the most challenging job markets in years — with the exception of the pandemic period — even as the overall unemployment rate remains low.

From inaccurate broadband mapping data and an over-reliability on industry-provided coverage claims, to inconsistent broadband definitions and patchwork federal oversight, a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts examined decades of U.S. broadband policy, and data analysis and found plenty of room for improvement. Pew’s analysis of U.S. broadband data collection found numerous areas of concern that have been repeatedly brought up by researchers over the last few decades.

Our report highlights the problems posed by employers’ excessive and inappropriate use of technology to monitor and manage workers.

There was a recent article in LightReading that asked a great question – BEAD bet big on CBRS and 6 GHz bands, so why is Congress gutting them? Answering that question needs some context. NTIA leaned into supporting fixed wireless throughout the BEAD process. During the original BEAD map challenge process, NTIA made it clear…

Democrats and Republicans alike have concerns about AI and want to see the rapidly developing technology regulated to protect the public.

Indiana County is watching as Pennsylvania offers another round of broadband, equity, access and deployment funds.

STOP TRYING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

Despite the fact that generative AI has been a destructive force against their businesses, their industry, and the truth more broadly, media executives still see AI as a business opportunity and a shiny object that they can tell investors and their staffs that they are very bullish on. Everything else they have tried hasn’t worked, and pretending that they are forward thinking or have any clue what they are doing will perhaps allow a specific type of media executive to squeeze out a few more months of salary. But pivoting to AI is not a business strategy.

Rocket Community Fund and Detroit Housing Commission Launch Pilot Program to Bring Free, High-Speed Internet to 450 Families in Detroit Public Housing MeritNetwork, via founding member Wayne State University, is providing the fiber network infrastructure and DigitalC will be the internet service provider for the project. Rocket Community Fund committed $850,000 to the project; Microsoft also provided […]

Comcast has invested millions into an expansion in Bossier City, Louisiana, according to published reports.

The move to establish fiber infrastructure in Arcata follows Vero Fiber’s prior work in Eureka and the wider Humboldt County region.

Hudson, Ohio officials are now accepting bids on a promising new fiber-to-the-home network that should dramatically improve affordable, next-generation broadband access in the city of 23,000. It’s just the latest effort by a city that has been exploring the option of municipal broadband infrastructure for more than a decade.