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Web hosting company WP Engine has filed an amended complaint with brow-raising new allegations in its ongoing legal battle with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic (WordPress.com’s parent company). The company now claims that Mullenweg intended to target 10 different hosting companies with royalty payments for their use of the WordPress trademark and tried to get payment processor Stripe to cancel its contract with WP Engine. At the heart of the dispute, Mullenweg believes WP Engine is profiting from the open source WordPress project without contributing back to the community, and demanded the hosting company pay 8% of its monthly gross revenues as a royalty fee for using the WordPress brand.
INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Together with the Indiana Broadband Office, Comcast announced the completion of construction of its fiber broadband project in communities across Indiana. More than 4,600 previously unserved and underserved residents and businesses now have access to reliable, high-speed Internet services across nearly 550 miles of fiber. Comcast’s multi-million-dollar investment in Bartholomew, Carroll, Fayette, Hamilton, Johnson, Marshall and Morgan counties comes in partnership with the State of Indiana’s broadband grant program, which focuses on improving Internet access and adoption across the state.
State Sen. Rachel Ventura has introduced two new measures that her office said would expand on and protect broadband access for Illinoisans. “Investments in broadband are essential for all Illinoisans, regardless of whether they live in a rural, suburban or urban community,” Ventura, a Joliet Democrat, said in a news release. “We’ve entered a new age where broadband is no longer a luxury, but an essential amenity, driving economic activity, improving education, expanding health care access and enhancing public services for all,” Ventura said.
A 1 GW orbital data center would cost roughly $42.4 billion — almost three times its ground-bound equivalent. In a sense, this whole thing was inevitable. Elon Musk and his coterie have been talking about AI in space for years — mainly in the context of Iain Banks’ science-fiction series about a far-future universe where sentient spaceships roam and control the galaxy. Now Musk sees an opportunity to realize a version of this vision. His company SpaceX has requested regulatory permission to build solar-powered orbital data centers, distributed across as many as a million satellites, that could shift as much as 100 GW of compute power off the planet. He has reportedly suggested some of his AI satellites will be built on the moon. “By far the cheapest place to put AI will be space in 36 months or less,” Musk said last week on a podcast hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 "Digital Beat Revisiting the Themes Underlying the Telecommunications Act of 1996" The Telecommunications Act of 1996 turned 30 years old on February 8, 2026. As one of the principal staffers responsible for drafting the 1996 Act, I am simultaneously proud of our efforts, disappointed with some of its failings, and frustrated by the inconsistent implementation by regulators, yet pleased with our overall progress. The Telecom Act, though far from perfect, helped to usher in a competitive climate that has allowed the U.S.to innovate and lead the world in high-tech. One of the key motivators behind the Act was the bipartisan agreement that Congress, not a single federal court judge, should set U.S. telecommunications policy. The Ford Administration Justice Department had filed an antitrust suit against AT&T in the 1970s, claiming that AT&T’s monopoly control over local phone service allowed it to stifle emerging competitors for long-distance service. In the settlement agreement to the case – called the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) – the parties agreed that AT&T would relinquish its control over local telephone service in exchange for the right to engage in electronic publishing and other information services. But local service was still regarded as a natural monopoly. Thus, the MFJ created seven “Baby Bell” companies that were allowed to retain their monopolies over local service but were barred from entering the manufacturing, long-distance, or information services markets. Perhaps the biggest driver of the Telecommunications Act was the Baby Bell companies’ effort to convince Congress to overturn these prohibitions. But the Bells were not alone in seeking legislation.
Mediacom Communications on Tuesday said it has finished upgrading broadband speeds for more than 92,000 homes and businesses in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, bringing multi-gig and symmetrical service options to the city. The company, through an announcement provided to Broadband Communities, said the work builds on its existing fiber-rich network and was completed without new digging or cable burial, a move it says allowed for faster, less disruptive upgrades for customers.
In December, the White House issued a short Presidential Memorandum titled “Winning the 6G Race”. The document states that 6G technology will be “foundational to the national security, foreign policy, and economic prosperity of the United States. 6G will play a “pivotal role in the development and adoption of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics,…
Sens. Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday introduced the first bipartisan bill in Congress aimed at preventing data center power usage from spiking consumers’ electric bills. The legislation, dubbed the “Guaranteeing Rate Insulation” or “GRID” Act, seeks to guarantee two things: no data-center related price increases for consumers’ utility bills, as well as ensuring first priority for grid access to everyday electric users. The bill also seeks to make new data center operators power their structures via off-grid sources, with a 10-year off-ramp for existing data centers. The legislation would also mandate that data center operators publicly disclose current and future power usage.
It’s hard to fathom that we are just 266 days away from the 2026 midterm elections. But the efforts to distort, confuse and disenfranchise voters are well underway. While President Trump is making dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional calls to “nationalize” elections, his Big Tech allies are doing their part to spread disinformation about voting. Unsurprisingly, Elon Musk is at the core of the problem. X users can prompt Musk’s AI tool, Grok, to confidently give “answers” that are wrong at the exact moment voters need basic, accurate information. We already saw the warning signs in 2024, when secretaries of state raised concerns about Grok spreading election misinformation. 2026 is looking even worse. Given that Grok — and now Grokipedia — is designed to present itself as an authoritative answer engine within the platform millions of people use every day, it’s important to understand not just what it says — but what it can produce when pushed. Right now, Grok is in the news for becoming a child-porn generator. I can’t remember a bigger red flag, but it’s also a reminder of how easily this AI tool — and others like it — can be prompted to produce things it was never supposed to produce. All of this makes voting information harder to find and easier to distort as Grok — for lack of a more technical term — just makes shit up. To better understand what this all looks like, I spoke with Raelyn Roberson, an independent researcher, journalist and election-protection organizer who tracks how misinformation spreads online — and what it does to voters when it lands at the worst possible moment.
Every year Congress rediscovers Section 230 and decides it’s the reason children are unsafe online. The frustration is real. Platforms have spent years designing products that predictably expose kids to harm. But the proposed solution is always the same: repeal or gut Section 230 and hope the internet becomes safer through liability alone. That approach won’t work. Repealing Section 230 would not address the design-driven harms lawmakers are rightly worried about. Instead, it would destabilize the legal framework that allows platforms to moderate at all, while leaving the most dangerous platform design choices largely untouched. Section 230 is often framed as a sweeping immunity that shields platforms from accountability. In reality, it does something much narrower. It prevents online services from being held liable as the publisher or speaker of user-generated content, while allowing them to remove or restrict that content without incurring liability for trying. This is an important distinction, because dismantling Section 230 will not fix the problems lawmakers actually want to solve. Repeal Section 230, and platforms are forced into one of two bad choices.
- Fixed wireless access won fewer BEAD locations than Tarana hoped but it remains upbeat about the program’s future, said exec Carl Guardino
- Guardino is skeptical about satellite’s viability in the BEAD program
- Tarana is encouraged by ongoing discussion about protecting CBRS spectrum
The revised Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program aimed to give non-fiber providers a bigger seat at the table. Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite gained traction but the same can’t be said for fixed wireless access (FWA), according to Tarana VP of Government Affairs and Policy Carl Guardino. In his view, FWA “underperformed” as only about 11% of BEAD eligible locations were awarded to fixed wireless providers, per Connected Nation data. The lion’s share of funds went to fiber providers who won approximately 67% of locations.
SPOKANE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast today announced that it has completed the expansion of its network in three underserved areas of Spokane County. These projects bring reliable, high-speed, symmetrical Internet from America’s smartest and most reliable converged network to more than 2,200 homes and businesses in Chattaroy, Four Lakes, and Medical Lake.
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2026 – The “Enhancing Administrative Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act” a bill aimed at removing barriers to deploying broadband on federal lands, cleared the House Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent on Wednesday. Introduced by Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., on December 11, 2025, the measure would require the Interior and Agriculture Departments to study and create a report on any barriers, rules or regulations–within their agencies–that are delaying broadband deployment.
The FCC adopted new rules for voice providers that are part of the FCC’s effort to curtail robocalls. The new rules apply to every voice provider that sells a retail voice product to end-user customers, along with other categories of providers like voice wholesalers and international providers. The new rules were effective on February 5. The key new rules include the following:
A Good read! Also to be clear, this isn’t about government running an ISP. It’s about separating infrastructure ownership from retail service — the same way we separate roads from trucking companies; or, airports from airlines. It is important to have an impartial and professional management organization run the network. Companies like UTOPIA, or EntryPoint, or STRATA have been great operators! UTOPIA Fiber; EntryPoint Networks, Strata Networks. Yes! The city should build in the right of way and wholesale out the capacity. It will bring the “service” part of service provider up to the forefront and let the competition begin, keep the streets from getting dug up, an ridiculous permit timelines that are crushing to providers and their customers.
- Commerce Secretary Lutnick told senators NTIA has rejected SpaceX’s proposed BEAD subgrantee agreement
- Lutnick added that if SpaceX does not comply with BEAD requirements, states are free to select an alternate provider
- Lutnick confirmed the Treasury will not rescind BEAD non-deployment funding, though he did not address whether Trump’s AI order will impact disbursement
States can proceed with their Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) plans without any say from SpaceX, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told senators Tuesday. Regarding the proposed subgrantee agreement SpaceX sent to states, Lutnick confirmed at a hearing “that rider is outside of our guidelines, it is outside the statute, and it is rejected by us.”
I’m sitting here reading my new Spectrum New York bill for a basic triple play. — that includes cable TV, phone, and broadband — internet and I’m appalled that my new monthly charges are $262 dollars, for a basic service that is carried on the same exact wire that that has been used for my triple play service since 2012. But is using the original coax-cable TV wire infrastructure service that was installed in 1982. The monthly fee for basic, no frills or multiple devices service has gone up over 191% since 2012, and since Chairman Carr took over as the FCC Chairman in 2025-beginning of 2026 the bill went up over $40 a month. As we will discuss in upcoming stories, these increases were in large part, ‘Cramming” — putting customers on services they did not order, want or need — is prevalent. In this case, we have multiple egregious billing practices.
DojoNetworks and regional fiber provider Gigapower said Wednesday they have struck a partnership to bring fiber-backed, bulk managed Wi-Fi to multifamily housing across Gigapower’s service areas. The companies, in an announcement provided to Broadband Communities, said the arrangement will pair Gigapower’s fiber infrastructure with DojoNetworks’ managed Wi-Fi deployments to deliver building-wide connectivity for residents and common areas.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2026 – More than 1,300 people listened in, and just under 50 voiced opinions at, a Zoom webinar on how to spend the remaining $21 billion in funds under the government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. They brought forth a wish list of funding items including permitting reform, digital literacy programs and emergency response improvements. A very small minority wanted to return the funds to the taxpayer, even though Congress has already allocated them.
A technically grounded explanation of how the Philippine data communications grid actually functions, why its failures are predictable, and what engineering principles must be respected before any policy or funding solution can succeed.
In the decade before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. and Russia were engaged in high-stakes exchanges of advanced technology involving the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Skolkovo Innovation Center—a Russian government-backed technology hub that aimed to jump-start a “venture” innovation ecosystem in Moscow. Jeffrey Epstein sat at the crossroads of academia, philanthropy, and venture finance as these global capital flows were threatened by the brewing confrontation in Ukraine. In 2013, during the early cryptocurrency boom, Epstein sought an audience with Vladimir Putin to encourage the Russian president to shift course from the MIT–Skolkovo model. Instead of playing “catch up” with the United States through venture-backed startups, Epstein proposed, Russia could help lead a new financial system based on a novel global currency. Epstein funded the early development of cryptocurrency through the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, founded in 2015.
News broadcast giants that have curried favor with President Donald Trump and disseminated right-wing talking points are now urging the administration to eliminate rules holding back their monopolization of local and national TV stations under the guise of promoting competition with Big Tech companies, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. Amid a multimillion-dollar lobbying and media blitz on the matter, the companies could find an ally in the country’s top communications regulator, Brendan Carr, who championed abolishing regulations limiting corporate ownership of local news stations in a Project 2025 chapter he authored that advocated for gutting the agency he now leads. As Trump continues his crackdown on media outlets that he considers a threat, experts warn that ending the broadcast ownership caps could erode local news’ trustworthiness by allowing their parent companies to push highly partisan news stories.
Several major tech companies, private space firms and national agencies are racing to develop AI data centres in orbit to overcome the earth’s growing constraints around energy, cooling and land. The most valuable private company in the world ever is in the making. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to take over his artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, xAI, best known for its Grok chatbot. Reports estimate xAI’s valuation at at least around $125 billion and SpaceX’s at $1 trillion. The deal is not just about consolidating Musk’s sprawling business empire, it also reflects a strategic, forward-looking vision for technology development. As per Musk, this combination would form an ‘innovation engine’ placing AI, rockets, space-based internet and media under one roof. He feels that in the long term, space-based AI is the only way to scale and wants to make space-based data centres a reality.
This scorecard evaluates pending federal child safety legislation in the 119th Congress against Public Knowledge's framework for creating a safer internet for everyone. Rather than restricting children’s access to technology or specific content, we believe the most effective path forward lies in requiring technology companies to design services with children’s well-being as a primary consideration. Our assessment draws from seven core principles outlined in our paper “The Kids Aren’t Alright Online: How To Build a Safer, Better Internet for Everyone,” summarized below:
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