Reporting

Amid so much highly visible dysfunction in the American response to the coronavirus, it’s worth appreciating the internet as an unsung hero of the pandemic. It has stayed on because people out there are keeping it on. The internet’s performance is no accident, but rather the result of long-term planning and adaptability, ingenuity and hard work—and also some characteristics that have become part of the personality of the internet itself.

The Federal Communications Commission's decision to allow a new terrestrial broadband service alongside spectrum for critical GPS uses drew fire from both sides of the aisle, as well as top military brass, in a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee. The military brass in attendance had not changed their marching orders or their target, and the committee's chairman and ranking member were clearly in bipartisan agreement with the Department of Defence. Ligado took some issue with the fact that there were no witnesses scheduled from Ligado or from the FCC at the hearing.

Arden Hills (MN) member-owned agricultural cooperative Land O'Lakes has started offering free Wi-Fi to various rural communities across the country that might not otherwise have access. It’s an initiative Land O’Lakes has been talking about for awhile, according to Chief Technology Officer Teddy Bekele. And with everyone shifting to life online during the COVID-19 crisis, the digital divide in rural communities has been further exacerbated.

Facebook is testing a new app to expand internet access in developing countries. The app, called Discover, provides users with a balance of free browsing data provided by several mobile partners. Facebook is running the first trial in Peru, but it plans to launch in a number of other countries in the future, including Thailand, the Philippines, and Iraq. Users will receive free data from their provider each day and will get a notification when it’s available.

The parking lot of Free Pentecostal Holiness Church in the historic town of Tatums (OK) is a little busier these days. The grassy areas on either side of the small, white building now serve as the town's main Wi-Fi hot spot. People in cars parked outside the church's doors can access broadband internet, which isn't common or cheap in the town of about 160.

CenturyLink's slow broadband deployment, already a problem before the pandemic, has gotten even slower as the public health crisis causes cities and towns to halt construction. Since 2015, CenturyLink has received $505.7 million each year from the US government's Connect America Fund to deploy Internet service to nearly 1.2 million homes and businesses in 33 states. CenturyLink was required to complete 80 percent of that deployment by the end of 2019 but recently told the Federal Communications Commission that it did not meet the end-of-2019 deadline in 23 of the 33 states.

With millions of employees now working from home due to COVID-19, asymmetric broadband offerings are a chokepoint for some business applications. Shrihari Pandit, the CEO of Stealth Communications, said that in addition to slower upstream speeds on DSL or cable broadband services, work from home (WFH) efforts have also been hampered by multiple users in a household using a single broadband connection for gaming, video streaming, video conferencing and remote learning.  "What we've seen is some difficulty in terms of making that successful.

Alphabet-owned Loon will be able to respond more quickly and effectively to disasters worldwide thanks to a new partnership with AT&T. Under the deal, Loon has integrated its system with AT&T’s network, which happens to be pretty big since it has roaming partners around the world.

Children are accessing the internet at a younger age, spending longer online and are at greater risk of cyber bullying as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps them at home, said the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The United Nations agency estimates that 1.5 billion children are out of school due to lockdown measures to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, forcing them to go online for their schooling but also their social lives and hobbies.

Business closures and stay-at-home orders have hit the real-estate sector hard. But an obscure corner of the industry is benefiting from people staying at home. Fiber-optic cables are drawing a growing interest from investors. These cables, which transmit data through light and are a crucial component of high-speed internet, aren’t technically real estate.