Reporting

Facebook, Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Ugandan unit, and Mauritius-based Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group laid nearly 500 miles of fiber-optic cable across the isolated northwest of Uganda. The project, begun in early 2017 and completed at the end of 2017, has expanded the region’s network capacity, providing faster internet access to an area with some three million people, many of whom live in towns still haunted by memories of the three-decade insurgency led by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. The Ugandan cable is the largest terrestrial network Facebook has helped c

Does California have authority to impose net neutrality rules? Both the US Department of Justice and the broadband industry claim that the inherently interstate nature of the internet means that only the federal government can regulate broadband services. A second, even thornier question is whether the Federal Communications Commission was within its rights when it effectively banned states from adopting net neutrality rules. At its heart is this conundrum: In repealing the Obama-era rules, the FCC said it didn’t have authority to impose net neutrality regulations.

The Federal Communications Commission’s lone administrative law judge has still not weighed in as to whether he will shut down the designated hearing on allegations that Sinclair Broadcast Group misled the agency about its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media, leaving that serious “lack of candor” charge hanging over the company. It has been more than 10 weeks since the FCC unanimously voted to refer the deal to Judge Richard Sippel, signaling it had issues with how Sinclair represented the spinoff stations in the deal.

Verizon is touting its commitment to firefighters and public safety in a new ad, released weeks after Verizon throttled the Santa Clara County fire department while it was fighting California's largest-ever wildfire. "From coast to coast and everywhere in between, people rely on us to ensure they can communicate when they need it most," Verizon said in an introduction to the new ad. "Our innovations and technology allow first responders to do their jobs.

Apparently, Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage.

At the request of Federal Communications Commission staff, Verizon executives met with FCC officials just prior to Verizon’s Oct. 1 5G launch in parts of Houston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Sacramento. In the meeting, Verizon executives once again noted the need for low-, mid- and high-band spectrum and encouraged the FCC to continue its work to make more spectrum available for 5G. The meeting was related to T-Mobile’s application to combine with Sprint, although Verizon didn't take an official position on that transaction.

A Q&A with Jeremy Hegle, a senior community development adviser for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The Federal Reserve Bank is trying convince businesses that the digital divide is their problem, too. He said:

A new battle for cellular airwaves is under way as governments around the world start to auction off spectrum for mobile coverage that could power near-instant video downloads and help run factories, control gadgets and navigate driverless cars.

Brett M. Kavanaugh has won Senate confirmation to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court and will take his seat on Tuesday, October 9. Although Judge Kavanaugh has discussed his dissent on network neutrality, the Supreme Court's agenda for the coming term now has very few cases dealing with technology, telecommunications or media. Several cases scheduled to come before the Court may produce decisions that affect these sectors though -- especially the regulatory aspects.

Lampposts around downtown Los Angeles are being wired with fiber optic cable and shoebox-sized gadgets to beam the fifth and fastest generation of cellular data, known as 5G, into homes and mobile devices. This high-tech infrastructure build-out is the result of a deal between the city and Verizon — Los Angeles gave the wireless carrier a break on the fees for taking up space on streetlights in exchange for a package of amenities and services.