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Google just lost approximately $500 billion in market value in a single day. Its shares collapsed 12.6% on October 29, one of the largest shareholder-value destructions in history. What makes this more shocking is that Google’s business is growing. Third-quarter revenue increased 25% to $127.6 billion, while Google Cloud revenue jumped 103% to $30.7 billion. Apparently, even doubling your cloud business is no longer enough to please Wall Street.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is circulating a proposal to preempt California "carrier of last resort" regulations that AT&T says are slowing its copper retirement plans in the state. The proposal arrives amid an ongoing clash between federal deregulation goals and state consumer-protection authority. The proposal follows recent FCC rules designed to speed up the retirement of power-hungry copper networks and to free up dollars for network upgrades and the deployment of IP-based wireless or fiber alternatives. It also tied into AT&T's FCC-approved plan to turn down copper services in certain parts of California that's been getting pushback from state regulators. The proposal aims to ensure that "state obligations cannot be used in a manner that prevents a provider from effectuating a discontinuance that the Commission has approved," the FCC said. Carr believes that the proposed order, if eventually adopted, would preempt state regulations related to copper retirements. However, there would be a comment and reply period that would take place before an FCC vote.
The FCC made two decisions relevant to direct-to-device (D2D) services on Thursday, kicking off a proceeding to modernize D2D spectrum sharing rules, and proposing to auction 25 MHz of mid-band spectrum. The Thursday vote begins the process to auction 1675-1695 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands up for auction to be used for D2D operations and flexible-use, terrestrial networks like 5G. “The FCC intends to open this auction to a broad range of connectivity providers — from 5G and 6G to D2D, or some hybrid network. We expect big interest in this seemingly modest amount of spectrum — indeed, similar D2D bands are selling for tens of billions of dollars on the secondary market today,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement.
The Department of Justice's statement of interest supporting OpenAI and Microsoft in the New York Times' copyright infringement lawsuit surprised critical agencies like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office, sources told Axios. Why it matters: Statements of interest (SOI) allow the government to declare an official position on a legal matter in private lawsuits. While not binding, they can hold significant weight and help persuade cases. Zoom in: The Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft argues AI firms illegally stole their copyrighted works to train their large language models and that AI-generated outputs unlawfully produced market substitutions. - The DOJ's SOI argues copyrighted works to train models should be considered fair use because that practice is new and transformative, but also says outputs aren't necessarily covered by that same legal argument.
- Unlike many SOIs, no career antitrust attorneys signed the filing alongside senior DOJ officials.
The disaster will happen first, then the action to prevent it. The entire thing is backwards. Talk to any cybersecurity professional these days and you’ll be met with exasperation, weariness, and an absence of their typical whimsy. These people are tired. They’re calling the past month “Black October” after AI-detected vulnerabilities emerged with unprecedented rapidity, faster than many could patch. They’ve been driven to discouragement. This is sort of what happens when you create technology far more powerful than what came before it, and let it loose on a society whose defenses were built for a prior era. Safeguards that seemed solid before AI are now seemingly at risk. To many in the field, a major AI-driven catastrophe seems like a matter of when, not if.
There is currently a lot of news circulating about the financial troubles of two of the largest cable companies. Both Optimum (formerly Altice USA) and Cable One are in distress. Optimum is in financial distress because of its $26 billion in total debt, which includes payments coming due in 2027 of $6 billion. While the company is profitable , it’s not nearly profitable enough to meet the debt payments. Altice’s debt comes from the money the company spent to buy two other cable companies; Altice bought Cablevision in 2016 for $17.7 billion. The company bought Suddenlink in 2022 for $9.1 billion. These transactions were highly leveraged with debt. The company has been hemorrhaging broadband customers and has lost over 580,000 customers since the end of 2022. The company’s stock has plummeted over time. Five years ago, the stock traded at more than $28 per share. As I’m writing this blog, the share price was $0.65.
The Guy With the Dish on the Roof: Starlink in Rural America The camp’s founder is a former Nashville touring musician who started a website and YouTube channel years ago to teach banjo, guitar, mandolin, and just about everything you can think of (sadly, the jaw harp lessons aren’t yet available). He has built an impressive business with a full brand and following, a retail store, and an event business. One afternoon, he walked us through his production workflow. He records in his studio, creates separate audio and video files, and shuttles everything back and forth with his editing team, who are located in different parts of the country. Being the telecom geek in the room, I asked the obvious question: Who’s your provider? Starlink. There’s no fiber to his place. Given the volume of files he moves, his monthly bill runs to an amount that would make most of us check the invoice twice. I frankly had never heard of a residential bill at that level. Even most business locations don’t pay that much.
Every ten years, the telecommunications equipment lobby invents a new miracle to convince mobile operators to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on radio hardware they cannot afford. For 5G, the miracle was remote robotic surgery and self-driving cars—applications that either stayed in conference demos or bypassed the public cellular billing system entirely. As the 6G standardization machine rolls through 3GPP Release 20 and toward Release 21, the industry has settled on its new salvation story: Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). The pitch from vendor keynotes is sexy. Mobile operators already own millions of cellular towers covering the planet. By upgrading those towers to 6G, every base station will supposedly double as a high-resolution radar. Operators will stop just selling cheap data plans; they will sell a live “digital twin” of the physical world, charging cities to monitor street intersections, aviation authorities to track low-altitude drones, and defense ministries to guard the skies. Let’s call this narrative what it is: commercial bullcrap.
Schoharie County is one step closer to having 100% broadband coverage. The county has applied for the ConnectALL state grant to help bridge the gap and bring digital equity to rural communities. The county could receive up to $30 million for infrastructure upgrades. Currently 92% of the county has access to high-speed internet.
NTIA on Track to Complete 1675–1695 MHz Band Study in Early 2027 WASHINGTON—Today, Arielle Roth, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), released the following statement on the FCC’s vote to begin a rulemaking for an auction of the 1675-1695 MHz band:
The choice of model is only the beginning of an AI request. Take an insurance claim moving through an AI agent. It reads a photo of a damaged bumper, pulls up the policy, checks a repair estimate against regional pricing, drafts a summary and hands the file to a human adjuster. What this business countsas one task is actually 40 or more calls to a model. Each of those calls carries its own requirements. Reading a scanned form is simple work that a small model handles for a fraction of a cent. Judging whether the claim looks fraudulent needs a larger and slower model, and if the file contains medical records, those may not be allowed to leave the country. For most of the past three years, enterprises have focused on which AI model to use. Now, the focus is turning to a broad question of placement: which model handles each call, where it runs, and whether there is capacity to take it.
Sources tell WIRED that an Accenture employee’s personal Claude agent ran on a DOD network for two months before it was identified and the vulnerability could be patched.
The Senate permitting plan would cut emissions from power plants in the near term and help keep electricity prices down, a new analysis finds. Why it matters: The study from scholars at Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan think tank, offers some of the most detailed independent modeling yet of the bill's effects. - It will help inform lobbying and advocacy around the bill ahead of a test vote looming on Nov. 9.
Driving the news: The analysis models how the bill would affect the power sector compared with current law and policies. Among the findings from its central scenario:
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RICHLAND COUNTY — A multiyear effort to bring high-speed fiber internet to underserved rural residents in northern Richland County has officially crossed the finish line, delivering connections to hundreds more addresses than originally anticipated. Ashley Karlen, director of government affairs for Charter Communications, told the Richland County Board of Commissioners Thursday the buildout was completed Oct. 6. The initiative brought high-speed fiber broadband to 1,167 serviceable locations — surpassing the 748 locations initially contracted under the agreement. Charter’s overall service footprint for the project encompasses 1,211 passed addresses, according to follow-up data provided by Karlen.
A $6.3 billion heist exposes crypto's dependence on financial gatekeepers, the limits of Binance's safety net, and a potential payday for North Korea. Thirty Minutes Shortly after four Thursday afternoon, Eastern time, five wallets controlled by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, began hemorrhaging digital assets. The first transfers totaled roughly $300 million. Then the attackers struck again and again across ten blockchains. Within half an hour, nearly all of $6.3 billion was gone. A smaller wave followed hours later. To put that in perspective, the previous record for a crypto theft was the $1.5 billion North Korean hackers took from the exchange Bybit in February 2025. This one is more than four times larger. Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, calls it almost certainly the largest theft of any kind in history, surpassing even the roughly $1 billion Saddam Hussein’s regime hauled out of Iraq’s central bank in 2003. Saddam needed trucks. These thieves needed access to Binance’s transaction systems and half an hour. Binance quickly froze withdrawals and assured its 335 million registered users that their money was safe. That reassurance is the real story here. Cryptocurrency was sold as a way to escape banks and financial gatekeepers. Binance became one of the largest gatekeepers of all. So when that money vanished, who actually stood behind the promise to get it back? The answer says a great deal about what crypto has become.
Do we really want to outsource our First Amendment–protected journalism to Big Tech billionaires who may not share the ethical standards or commitment to public accountability? Since leaving the daily news business eight years ago, I’ve remained deeply committed to improving California’s media landscape and supporting journalists as they navigate an increasingly difficult time for our profession. Journalism has given so much to our communities, and I want to do what I can to support the people who keep it alive. That commitment has led me down a couple of paths. I teach journalism at Fresno State, where I have the opportunity to work with the next generation of journalists. I also founded the Institute for Media and Public Trust to help support the news industry and explore ways to strengthen public trust in journalism.
Lawmakers Argue DOJ Is Encouraging the Court to Ignore Federal Statutes and Grant AI Companies a Blanket Exemption to Copyright Laws Washington, D.C. (October XX, 2026)— Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, and Rep. Hank Johnson, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, submitted an amicus brief opposing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) bizarre argument that there is some sort of national security exception to current copyright law that allows AI companies to train their models on copyrighted work, including New York Times journalism, without compensation.
The brief, filed in the Southern District of New York in In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation, reminds the court that the arguments in DOJ’s brief violate the plain text of the Copyright Act, which does not contain any national security exception to allow private companies free and unfettered use of copyrighted materials.
It was a bad week for Big Tech. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, lost $500 billion in stock value on Thursday following a rough third quarter earnings report. On Friday, more tech giants joined the fray: Meta reported a negative free cash flow, and its stock dropped, along with Microsoft and Amazon. Intel fell the most, down 28.58% at the close of the market on Friday. It was Intel’s worst day on the stock market since 1974. What struck Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, was just how fast these companies took a turn for the worse. “Monday, Tuesday, everyone was smiling,” he said. “Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, everybody was crying.” Newman said that all these companies invest a lot in AI — but that wasn’t the problem. “SpaceX, Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, all actually performed extremely well inside their cloud businesses,” he said, “but interestingly enough, we started to see some cracks inside other parts of the businesses.”
AT&T claims only 1% of Copper lines left; 70–90% of Lines are Missing. Why is FCC Brendan Carr supporting this obfuscation? We will focus on the manipulation of the counting of these lines and how the media and the public have been snookered. Light Reading’s headline quotes AT&T’s recent announcement that it has only 1% of legacy customers remaining. “AT&T copper network retirement set to accelerate as legacy base shrinks to 1% Then we have The Street, also quoting AT&T: AT&T accelerates the end of a network that’s losing customers “The carrier has decommissioned copper-based services in over 500 communities covering 1.3 million locations across 18 states. Broadband Breakfast reports: AT&T Says Just 1% of Eligible Customers Still Use Copper Voice Lines AT&T cites rising copper theft and longer repair times for moving customers to newer technologies. AT&T even published their update to previous stats. But please notice the words “eligible customers”, “copper” and “voice technology”. “Today, only 1% of our eligible customers are still using legacy copper voice technology, and we’ve discontinued copper services in more than 500 communities, making up more than 1.3 million locations across 18 states.” We know this is all pure manipulation of the number of copper access lines as we’ve been documenting that AT&T and Verizon have failed the lie-detector test. Here’s 2 recent stories we created to discuss the accounting of access lines, and the massive shell game that has been underway.
Danny heads to Nashville to emcee a panel hosted by Stand Up Nashville, which has assembled “The Avengers” of the data center fight in the American South. But Nashville has meaningful data center regulations already in place — why is this activist group convening such a powerful panel in a city that appears to have it figured out? First, the Nashville community is demanding more, and who is Stand Up Nashville to rest on its laurels? And second, for the data center fight to succeed, it must grow from a local fight to a statewide, and even a regional one. In talking with these Tennessee changemakers, including a charismatic young legislator making good trouble in the Tennessee House, Danny finds once again that Big Tech’s efforts to divide and isolate us are actually building bridges to bring us together.
A company like Microsoft, one of America’s great technological innovators, is unaccustomed to harsh public reprimands from the White House. So it reacted with indignation when Vice President JD Vance took to a Washington stage to announce a crackdown on H-1B visa abuse, saying of Microsoft that there had been “no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more” and warning it could no longer “lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.” Microsoft pushed back hard, with company president Brad Smith calling Mr. Vance’s remarks “completely off base.” Someone “had failed to inform the vice president accurately about our numbers,” he said. Most of Microsoft’s applications were for workers already employed, he said, not for new hires.
After decades of deregulation, governments are back in control of their energy sectors. Energy is no longer just a commodity. It's become an instrument of economic power and geopolitical influence. This 47-page perspectives report from Shift Lab gives you a data-rich view of how the US, China and Europe are reshaping global energy. Get the report and access to the webinar recording
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s recent executive order barring data centers on state lands is creating roadblocks for telecommunications companies building out fiber-optic cable networks that transmit internet data and that are typically buried along state highways. Kotek’s September order directed state agencies to pause approving new or pending leases, easements and right-of-way permits for data centers sited on state properties and lands. In response, the Oregon Department of Transportation placed on hold at least 20 state right-of-way permit applications from fiber-optic companies, according to records the transportation agency released to the Capital Chronicle.
General Motors will pay $220 million to 36 states to settle allegations that it illegally sold private driving behavior and location information to data brokers. As part of the settlement, GM must get drivers’ express consent before it collects or shares their driving and location data — terms that are in line with separate agreements it previously reached with California and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This settlement does contain a new requirement that GM must have a third party assess the automaker’s compliance with the privacy program it has put in place. The agreement announced Thursday settles a lawsuit brought by a coalition of attorneys general from 36 states that alleged GM had sold the information to data brokers, which in turn then sold it to insurance providers.
On October 11, a confidential memo went out to military officers across Ukraine, urging them to brace for a catastrophe. Donald Trump had decided earlier that week to ease U.S. sanctions on Russia and to begin buying its diesel fuel. Based on that shift in White House policy, the memo foresaw another act of American betrayal: the loss of access to the Starlink satellite network, which Ukraine uses to operate its drone fleet. The document warned that Elon Musk, the creator of Starlink, might soon restrict service in Ukraine, and it urged users of the technology to “keep all communication alternatives to Starlink on standby—ready for immediate use—and develop contingency plans.” Two days later, the warnings began to come true. Starlink faltered across the war zone, grounding drones and halting military operations. In one case, it led to the loss of Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea, according to two people familiar with that mission. The memo predicted worse to come. It came from a nongovernmental organization called Narodnyi Starlink, or “People’s Starlink,” which helps the armed forces of Ukraine acquire and operate this technology. In the memo, the group’s founder, Volodymyr Stepanets, envisioned several ways Musk could restrict service. The worst-case scenario—a total shutoff—would result in a cascade of disasters, potentially leading to Russia’s victory in the war. One senior U.S. military officer told us that “without Starlink, the war would grind to a halt.” Musk himself has suggested that might be his goal.
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