September 2026

What should the social contract be between the communications sector, the government, and the public in the next two decades? Its terms should reflect that the purpose of communications policy is to ensure that all Americans can fully participate in the economy and civic life of their communities. In 1996, there was a bipartisan consensus that policy should drive competition that, in turn, would drive the communications sector to continually deliver faster, better and cheaper communications for all.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved permanent, automatic disaster relief protections for customers enrolled in the California LifeLine program, helping ensure that low-income Californians can maintain access to essential communications services when disasters cause a disruption. Under the decision, affected California LifeLine customers will receive:

There is a lot of talk about improving the Federal Communications Commission broadband maps. I published a blog a few weeks ago that described a bill passed by the Senate that would require a new review of the FCC broadband maps. The bill is labeled the Modernization, Accountability, and Planning for Broadband Funding Act. I’m all for changes that would create an accurate broadband map.

Days after Sam Altman and other AI executives joined calls for a slowdown of artificial intelligence development, OpenAI disclosed additional instances of its models going rogue over the past six months. The company published a blog post last week detailing six instances of models acting in “unexpected or concerning” ways since April.