An article from the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at the New York Law School claims that over 1 million locations were missed by Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grants. They identified these as locations that are still shown as unserved and underserved on the Federal Communications Commission broadband maps, but which did not make it into the BEAD program. ACLP also identified two other sources of locations that will likely not get broadband. They predict some BEAD defaults since a number of small and untested internet service providers won sizable BEAD grants. They also believe there will continue to be defaults in other grant programs. ACLP recommends that up to half of the $20 billion+ that will not be spent on BEAD grants be deposited into a BEAD Reserve Fund to be used to cover the shortfalls. It’s a sensible idea, but unlikely to gain any momentum. 

Wi-Fi connectivity is a consumer expectation throughout the travel industry. There are any number of reasons for needing to be connected online on a cruise ship. Staying in touch with people back home directly (messaging, video calls) and sharing the experience via social media are a given. Staying up on things—sports, news—seemingly antithetical to the spirit of taking a cruise, is certainly welcome as well, including access to one’s on-shore streaming habits. Key takeaways on cruise ship connectivity:

• iPhones prevail: Over 60 percent of cruise passengers carry iPhones compared to 25 percent with Samsung Galaxy, based on Speedtest samples. This iPhone share, similar to that in the United States, reflects a relative mass-market, financially comfortable cruise line customer.
• Older Wi-Fi limits customer experience: With 12.6 percent of access points on Wi-Fi 4, there is an instant opportunity to improve the quality of connectivity for passengers and crew by upgrading to a newer Wi-Fi generation.
• Starlink is the provider of choice: Most cruise lines have equipped their ships’ connectivity with Starlink to take advantage of the speed and latency performance of low-Earth orbit satellites.

Netflix and Spotify share much in common. The two media companies have spent the first quarter of this century reshaping audience behaviors around on-demand streaming, and normalizing creative economies where consumers pay for subscriptions rather than music and films directly. They are known for their highly personalized recommendation feeds, built with massive pools of behavioral data extracted from users. And both companies operate with what often feels like an ambivalence towards the health of the mediums they’ve disrupted. Now they have a deal. Spotify will begin distributing some of its original video podcasts to Netflix at the start of 2026. Few details were revealed, in terms of monetization or licensing terms; just a list of the sports, pop culture and true-crime titles included. But it makes for a fitting partnership.

[Liz Pelly is the author of ‘Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist’]