Reporting

While broadband advocates appear to broadly support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's move to open up a supplemental funding round to reach remaining unserved Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program locations, it's also clear that many are 

Many governments struggle to get a handle on a technology that has rapidly outpaced their ability to respond. A.I. is evolving so quickly that laws passed two years ago are having limited effect, proposed bills to regulate the technology are stalling without a vote and international summits to discuss what to do are being swiftly forgotten. A.I. has made the gap between policymaking and technology one of the widest ever, according to more than 20 interviews with lawmakers, technologists and policy experts. Many governments are torn between wanting to harness A.I. and fearing its risks.

A recent Innovative Systems survey of 132 rural operators found 82% have no clear or defined AI strategy and 49% have only limited or informal adoption of the technology.

President Donald Trump is determined to leave AI companies to their own devices when it comes to building safety guardrails. But tech executives and former government officials say they’re skeptical the accord will lead to tangible changes because the stipulations aren't legally binding and likely aren’t much different from what the companies are already doing. The accord underscores a simmering tension between some major AI companies and the Administration over safety guardrails: Executives such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

President Trump summoned the world’s most powerful technology executives to the White House and praised the assembled billionaires as “very brilliant” minds who wanted to make the world a better place through job creation, the construction of data centers, and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. President Trump faces questions about whether A.I. should be regulated, and particularly whether restrictions should be put in place to protect humans from technology that has learned to outmaneuver existing safeguards.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket thundered into the sky over South Texas on September 28. It was the 14th test flight of the world’s most powerful launch vehicle. This time, however, the rocket’s massive upper stage squeezed out some extra oomph from its Raptor engines and accelerated to orbital velocity. On all of Starship’s previous flights, SpaceX intentionally dialed back the full capability of the rocket to fly a suborbital trajectory, slow enough for Earth’s gravity to pull the vehicle back into the atmosphere before it could complete a full lap around the planet.

SpaceX has now told the Federal Communications Commission multiple times that the agency should begin the process of phasing down and eliminating all rural high-cost subsidies from the Universal Service Fund. The company filed comments asking for the end of subsidies in FCC Docket 26-96, which is looking at reforming the High-cost fund for an all IP Future, and in Docket 10-90 that was looking at Universal Service Fund reform. In both filings, SpaceX says that its proliferation of low-orbit satellites means that rural subsidies are obsolete and are no longer needed.

Maverix Broadband pushed back on claims the company has misused millions of dollars in public funding that resulted in the Colorado Broadband Office freezing all projects linked to the company, including rescinding a federal grant for more than $100 million. The report caught the Parker-based internet provider off guard because they had been responding and providing hundreds of documents to state officials for months, said David Lindauer, the company’s cofounder.

Meta is seeking to make privacy protections a centerpiece of new products including its viral assistant Muse, marking a major shift for a company built on

The Indiana Broadband Office has announced the results of the 18th round of the Indiana Connectivity Program, awarding $133,943 to connect 28 households across 15 counties. The Indiana Connectivity Program pairs unserved and underserved locations with broadband providers and awards them grants to help offset construction costs. The providers have nine months to complete their projects. Indiana Connectivity Program awards are announced every few months, and more are expected.