Surfing the Broadband Bit Stream

Thousands of Texans rely on Joe Biden's Affordable Connectivity Program to pay for high-speed internet access. Congress must extend the program before it ends.

I wrote a recent sequence of blogs that look at the increasing demand for broadband usage. In today’s blog I’m going to look at some concrete examples of situations where broadband demand has expanded a lot faster than expected. The first example is in schools. Ten years ago, there was a scramble to get gigabit…

The biggest artificial intelligence firms train their products on oceans of public data, using massive amounts of energy — and a new poll shared exclusively with POLITICO shows Americans would like regulation on both.

The Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute, a pro-regulation AI think tank, found that 60 percent of respondents said AI companies should not be able to train freely on public data. Nearly three quarters of people polled said companies should be “required to compensate the creators of that data.” And 78 percent said there should be regulations on the use of public data to train AI models, with Democrats only slightly more enthusiastic than Republicans.

The online poll of 1,039 people was conducted on April 12 and 13. It’s the first time AIPI, a prolific pollster since its launch last August, has taken the public’s temperature on AI companies’ data training practices — as lawmakers agree that the boom in generative AI has made data training an urgent policy concern.

The iPhone maker has detected spyware attacks against people in more than 150 countries. Knowing if your device is infected can be tricky—but there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself.

This week: Gene Crusie, CEO of Surf Internet, an ISP in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, on using a blend of private and public funds to reach unserved and underserved areas, how Surf plans to participate in BEAD and more.

Google users suing the company over alleged privacy violations are now battling with it over a key issue in the case -- whether the company adequately disclosed its analytics practices.

Short-form video took center stage at tech and social media companies' annual presentations to advertisers, as platforms like Snap and Meta look to capitalize on TikTok's political uncertainty in the U.S. to take ad dollars from their rival.

Why EducationSuperHighway is submitting challenges to help states prioritize MDU connectivity in BEAD and Digital Equity Act (DEA) planning.

Following the restoration of net neutrality rules, the two agencies will coordinate their enforcement efforts

Hello, and welcome to this week’s installment of the Future in Five Questions. Today I spoke with Ben Recht, an engineering and computer science professor at the University of California Berkeley and author of the arg min Substack, where he writes about “the history, foundations, and validity of decision making by people and machines.” We discussed his belief that while “artificial intelligence” per se is overrated, the underlying statistical technology is deeply underrated, the late anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber, and the shortcomings of AI legislation. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows:

As federal ACP support wanes, state broadband subsidy solutions in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia offer innovative solutions to maintain connectivity.

This week in broadband builds: Spectrum, Brightspeed and more win millions in Tennessee; Blue Suede starts Memphis construction; IQ Fiber activated in Gainesville, Florida – and more.

'We're kind of running out of power in the next 18 to 24 months,' warned Marc Ganzi of DigitalBridge. How data center operators might address this power shortage remains unclear.

At its NewFronts presentation, TikTok announced new premium ad-placement options and additional publishing partners.

The way people use and operate technology has greatly changed over the years. Whether it be the innovative dial-up introduced in the late 20th century that completely transformed the way people stay connected or the intricate fiber services we see today, high-speed internet is a field that evolves...

Nearly a third of Americans who don’t have broadband say the reason is because it costs too much — and unfortunately, Congress is prepared to let that

SpaceX is hinting it’ll make refurbishing old or returned Starlink dishes a main part of its business. 

The company published a new environmental responsibility document that goes over SpaceX’s efforts to recycle and reuse Starlink hardware. “In the event that a Starlink product reaches end-of-life, we provide guidance to ensure proper recycling and recovery,” the document says. 

A “retired product” can be returned to a local recycling facility or to Starlink itself “for a refurbishment process, enabling another life spin of the product.”

A public-private partnership between has announced plans to deliver high-speed broadband for the first time to thousands of locations in rural Southeast Georgia.

Dish had first dibs on the spectrum but didn’t have the finances to buy it T-Mobile’s sale of the 800 MHz license is underway now Big ques | T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert didn’t spend a lot of time talking about his company’s 800 MHz spectrum during last week’s earnings call, but he said enough to pique some interest.

Unlock the power of gigabit internet infrastructure. Discover how it fuels innovation, enhances everyday activities, and promotes digital inclusion.