April 2021

Falun Gong, Steve Bannon And The Trump-Era Battle Over Internet Freedom

Of all the disruptions unleashed by the Trump White House on how the federal government typically works, the saga of one small project, called the Open Technology Fund, stands out. The fantastical tale incorporates the spiritual movement Falun Gong, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, the daughter of a late liberal congressman and a zealous appointee of former President Donald Trump.

Sponsor 

Subcommittee on Communications and Technology

House Commerce Committee

Date 
Wed, 04/21/2021 - 10:30

Cable's Broadband Dominance Faces Threats From A Host Of Issues

Dominance in broadband services has buoyed Comcast stock and other cable TV firms for years, but now a host of issues — including President Biden's latest plan to fund municipal-backed broadband services — are making investors fret. Another concern is fixed 5G broadband services to homes now ramping up due to efforts from Verizon and T-Mobile. A second worry is the expansion of fiber-to-the-home broadband services by AT&T and other phone companies.

JP Morgan digs into broadband competition via service overlap

An analysis by JP Morgan looks to dig through sparse information into the overlap that key cable providers have with different telecom providers. Among conclusions the firm has drawn, it notes cable companies compete with one fixed telecom operator in essentially every home in their footprint. And it says that fiber broadband from legacy phone operators (or insurgent fiber providers) is available in about 46M homes - about one-third. Comcast has an approximate 30% overlap with fiber (Verizon's FiOS and AT&T Fiber).

Is broadband infrastructure? Republicans used to think so

The debate in Congress over President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan has featured a clean, simple attack line from Republicans: Most of the money wouldn’t really go to infrastructure. Of course, that depends entirely on how you define infrastructure.