Ars Technica

“This is crazy”: FCC kills part of San Francisco’s broadband-competition law

The Federal Communications Commission voted to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that promotes broadband competition in apartment buildings and other multi-tenant structures. The FCC's decision "stop[s] efforts in California designed to encourage competition in multi-tenant environments," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Specifically, we say to the city of San Francisco—where more than half of the population rents their housing, often in multi-tenant units—that they cannot encourage broadband competition.

Amazon plans nationwide broadband—with both home and mobile service

Amazon is seeking government permission to launch 3,236 broadband satellites that would cover nearly all of the US and much of the rest of the world.

ICANN eliminates .org domain price caps despite lopsided opposition

Earlier in 2019, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sought public comment on a new contract for the Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization that administers the .org top-level domain. The results were stark; more than 3,200 individuals and organizations submitted comments to ICANN, and most of them focused on a proposal to remove a cap on the price customers could be charged for .org domains. The existing contract, signed in 2013, banned the Public Interest Registry from charging more than $8.25 per domain.