Cities across the US are trying to become “smart cities,” as they invest in digital technologies to help monitor the environment, enhance mobility, and improve the delivery of municipal services. An examination of several cities which have sought to embrace smart city technology while keeping equity in the forefront shows that:
Google has fired about a half-dozen of its largest lobbying firms as part of a major overhaul of its global government affairs and policy operations amid the prospect of greater government scrutiny of its businesses. In the past few months, the company has shaken up its roster of lobbying firms, restructured its Washington policy team, and lost two senior officials who helped build its influence operation into one of the largest in the nation’s capital. The firms Google has dumped make up about half of the company’s more than $20 million annual lobbying bill.
Pole attachment rental rates are a fraction of the overall cost to build broadband systems in rural areas. Rather, the major impediments to rural broadband development are low population densities, high capital costs and other major operating expenses in rural areas. Because electric cooperatives are led by and belong to the communities they serve, they are keenly familiar with these challenges.
The Federal Communications Commission is renewing the charter of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment for a two-year period. The purpose of the Committee is to make recommendations to the FCC on how to empower disadvantaged communities and accelerate the entry of small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities, into the media, digital news and information, and audio and video programming industries, including as owners, suppliers, and employees.
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