Doug Dawson

I've written a lot recently about the impact of AI on broadband. There are other, more subtle, impacts from the AI boom. One of the unexpected issues is the sudden shortage of electricians in regions where AI data centers are being constructed. Electricians are needed during the massive effort to wire a new data center used for AI.

I’ve been hearing for years about how good broadband can open access to telemedicine. It’s certainly something that is increasingly needed as rural hospitals and clinics are closing across the country. But telehealth is not just a rural issue, and a recent article by Sean Gonvales points out a successful telehealth program in San Francisco.

The industry and the press have been laser-focused on Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants for the last few years. It’s easy to forget that there are a lot of federal broadband grants that have been issued under other grant programs, many of which are facing completion deadlines.

Amazon announced a new device that offers broadband backup for broadband outages. The new device is the eero Signal, which is an add-on to Amazon’s eero WiFi system that will automatically connect a customer to cellular broadband any time the primary broadband connection fails. The Signal device will connect with the strongest carrier signal in your area, meaning that Amazon has made arrangements with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

I’ve worked with rural counties across the country, and one of the most common recurring themes is a hope from elected officials that local internet service providers will step up and build fiber and solve the broadband gaps in the area. County officials often beg local ISPs to pursue grant funding. Far too many times, local ISPs are unable to expand to provide what they are being asked to do. Only rarely have I ever heard a small ISP admit to local leaders the real reason it can’t solve the broadband gaps.

February 8 is the thirtieth anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The legislation brought sweeping changes to the industry and was the impetus for me to start my consulting company in 1997. The Act was both overdue and premature. It was overdue because market forces had been creating pressure for rule changes since the divestiture of AT&T into the Baby Bell companies in 1984.

Some broadband topics that interested me in January: 

We’ve spent a lot of time and money in recent years to get better broadband for rural America, so I thought it would be of interest to look at who lives in rural America, based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency:

A partnership has been announced that has the goal of creating a low-latency private Internet for artificial intelligence (AI) traffic. The three partners involved are Moonshot Energy, a manufacturer of electrical and modular infrastructure for AI data centers, QumulusAI, Inc., a provider of GPU-as-a Service, and Connected Nation Internet Exchange, which has been promoting the creation of more Internet Exchanges.

A recent report, From Gig City to Quantum City: The Value of Fiber Optic Infrastructure in Hamilton County, TN 2011-2035, quantifies the benefit of the citywide municipal fiber network to the City of Chattanooga (TN). The fiber network is operated by EPB, the electric and fiber utility owned by the City of Chattanooga.