Many people take access to high-speed internet for granted, but the Federal Communications Commission says more than 800,000 Pennsylvanians do not have access to broadband. Broadband coverage has always been spotty in rural areas, but with students forced to stay home, the problem has become critical. Even when there is reliable service, the cost of broadband can be a barrier.
About 95,000 Kansas households have no access to the internet or lack what has been defined as the bare minimum of internet access, said State Rep. Mark Schreiber (R-Emporia ), a member of the Statewide Broadband Expansion Planning Task Force. Fast internet is so crucial to daily life that Kansans are finding creative workarounds, from turning their phones into hotspots to finding someplace nearby where they can access Wi-Fi. Some schools in rural areas allow students to access their Wi-Fi from the parking lot on evenings and weekends.
With the Federal Trade Commission expected to unveil long-awaited antitrust action against Facebook in the near future, the agency's mixed record on regulating tech has experts viewing the case as a "put up or shut up" moment. Most of the tech cases the FTC has tackled involve consumer protection rather than restraining monopolistic behavior. Past antitrust investigations of tech mergers or companies, like a review of Google that ended in 2013, led critics to paint the FTC as toothless.
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