internet

The rules package, which the commission ratified on Wednesday, would empower the agency to review and investigate instances of discrimination by broadband providers to different communities based on income, race, ethnicity and other protected classes.

When people want to make the case that journalism matters, they often begin with perhaps the most foundational and least controversial idea: that people rely on professionally produced news about public affairs to make decisions that shape the social and democratic wellbeing of communities. And it’s undeniably true. For decades, research has shown that news media play this vital role, for societies and for individuals — that when people follow the news, they are more likely to be informed, vote, engage in their communities, and so on. What’s not to like? Well, apparently a lot, it turns out.

Generative AI models are changing the economy of the web, making it cheaper to generate lower-quality content. We’re just beginning to see the effects of these changes.

New age restrictions for minors on sites like TikTok and Pornhub could also hinder adults’ access to online services.

New survey data from Parks Associates shows that subscription video services are nearly ubiquitous in U.S. homes, with 87% of U.S. internet households having at least one OTT subscription service, and that password sharing is also widespread, with 40% of homes sharing login credentials.

The FCC said that over one million subs in the path of Hurricane Fiona — in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — are without cable or wireline phone, TV or internet service. About 7% of cell cites were out of service in the affected areas, but the FCC pointed out that does not necessarily equate to outages since wireless networks are designed often with numerous overlapping sites to help provide continuity of service. Plus, wireless companies often use temporary, including mobile, sites or initiate roaming agreements. By contrast, no TV or radio stations reported being out of service.

Twenty internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to low-income Americans. The $1 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress last year included $14.2 billion funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides $30 monthly subsidies ($75 in tribal areas) on internet service for millions of lower-income households.

Competing with SpaceX, OneWeb and others, the e-commerce titan will rely on small rockets to get prototypes of its satellite constellation into space.

Elon Musk on Thursday touted SpaceX’s plan to use Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi, emphasizing that his company is in discussions with airlines to add the high-speed satellite internet service. “Please let them know if you want it on your airliner,” Musk wrote in a tweet, adding that Starlink could add “low latency half gigabit connectivity in the air!”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has added his voice to that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are calling on the Biden Administration to allow private industry to get internet access to Cubans being denied that access by the Cuban government amid protests there.

Several major websites, including those of the British government, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian and Le Monde, were inaccessible for many users on Tuesday morning. According to Downdetector.com, which tracks internet disruptions, sites reporting problems also included Etsy, Hulu, PayPal, Reddit, Twitch and Twitter. Many of the affected sites appeared to have been restored after a little less than an hour. The outage was connected to Fastly, a provider of cloud computing services.

Virginia, Florida, Arkansas and Maryland are among dozens of states that have introduced bills to curtail the power of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter.

As advertised, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), joined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has reintroduced a bill to close the digital divide by connecting everyone to the internet at high speeds — 1 Gig is the goal.

A bill that would limit the president — of either party’s — ability to “shut down the internet” has been introduced. The bill, from Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), would limit the president’s power to “control or shut down communications networks, including the internet.”

AT&T has notified its existing DSL customers that they can’t transfer their service to a new address, and effective Oct. 1, the telecom is no longer even selling new DSL-based internet […]

The internet is changing, and the freewheeling, anything-goes culture of social media is being replaced by something more accountable.

The National Association of Broadcasters this week recommended to the FCC that it adopt new ownership rules that would encourage broadcasters to offer “Broadcast Internet” services via ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV).

With many stuck at home during the pandemic, Americans have been spending more of their lives online. This is how our habits have changed.

Despite recently initiated efforts by major platforms to throttle back their use of the internet’s bandwidth during the surging use driven by the coronavirus pandemic, the internet is showing growing signs of strain. Potential shutdowns or compromised net service are of grave concern to governments and health care professionals around the world, of course.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt talks about antitrust, Big Tech platforms, the future of the 1996 provision that provided legal protection to social media companies from liability for harmful content, and Facebook. 

Using an emerging wireless technology known as 5G, Verizon’s 5G Home service provides an alternative to cable for connecting laptops, phones, TVs and other devices over Wi-Fi. It launches in four U.S. cities on Monday.