Internet/Broadband

It's true that extreme weather conditions like torrential rain, wintry conditions and even heavy cloud coverage can interfere with your internet service, depending on the type of internet connection you have.

AT&T will shut down its 3G network in February 2022, making way for 5G spectrum and services. But other operators worldwide, whose customers roam onto AT&T, still require the use of circuit-switch fallback, and that’s where Syniverse comes in. On January 25, Syniverse announced, in collaboration with AT&T, the development and deployment of a solution that preserves inbound voice roaming after AT&T phases out its 3G network on February 22, 2022.

As of October 2021, the majority of people in AT&T’s 21-state footprint were not aware of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program. According to a survey conducted by Recon Analytics on behalf of AT&T, 55% of consumers were not aware of the EBB program. Recon Analytics used Qualtrics to conduct the online survey, which garnered more than 10,000 respondents. Only 12% of respondents were aware of the program and had applied for EBB benefits.

The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has been funding infrastructure since its original inception in 1935 as the Rural Electrification Service. The agency is currently accepting ReConnect loan and grant applications for broadband projects with the latest round making available $750 million available in grant monies, $250 million available in a combination of loans and grants and another $200 million in loans available at a fixed 2% interest rate. Meanwhile, the agency has recently funded more miles of fiber than power line using electric funding.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an Order ending the ability of China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited to provide domestic interstate and international telecommunications services within the United States. The Order on Revocation directs China Unicom Americas to discontinue any domestic or international services that it provides pursuant to its section 214 authority within sixty days following the release of the Order.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an order updating rules in the E-Rate program to clarify that Tribal libraries can access funding to provide affordable internet access in their communities. The Order updates the definition of “library” in the E-Rate program rules to make clear that it includes Tribal libraries, resolving a longstanding issue that limited their access to affordable broadband connectivity through the program.

Comcast said it added fewer broadband customers than in recent quarters, a slowdown that comes after record growth during the height of the coronavirus lockdowns. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the company's Peacock streaming service and its broadband business were two of Comcast’s top priorities for the year ahead. The company added 212,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter 2022, down 61 percent from the same quarter in 2021. Its cellphone business, Xfinity Mobile, added 312,000 customers, while Comcast’s pay-TV business continued to shrink, losing 373,000 subscribers.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules that would require broadband providers to display easy-to-understand labels to allow consumers to comparison shop for broadband services. The proposal would require broadband providers to display, at the point of sale, labels that show prices, including introductory rates, as well as speeds, data allowances, network management practices, and other critical broadband service information.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will testify February 1 before Senate appropriators about how to implement the $48 billion in broadband dollars that the infrastructure law slated for her department. The session will take place before the panel’s Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee, which Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) chairs. Shaheen was one of the lead negotiators who put together the law’s $65 billion for broadband, in tandem with Raimondo and Sen Susan Collins (R-ME), who also sits on this subcommittee.

During his time on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer authored and signed onto a slew of significant antitrust and regulation opinions that loom large over the cases against Facebook and Google today. His departure from the bench will mean the loss of serious antitrust expertise — a development that will sadden some traditionalists and cheer progressive antitrust activists that say change is long overdue. Breyer’s views on corporate power shifted somewhat over the years, but antitrust experts point to his decision to sign onto Justice Antonin Scalia’s 2004 opinion in Verizon v.