After turning the data-usage meter off for the last three months of the pandemic quarantine period, Comcast has restored its limit on residential broadband usage for most customers. But Comcast will now allow subscribers to use 1.2 terabytes of data before it imposes additional charges, as opposed to the pre-pandemic limit of 1 TB. The limit was imposed July 1. Comcast said it will now allow users to exceed the limit during one month without charges — it was previously offering two months’ worth of mulligans. However, the MSO reset the clock for all customers, meaning if you previously used one or more courtesy overages during 2020, that won’t count. Comcast bills customers $10 for every 50 Gigabytes of data used once they exceed the 1.2 TB limit.

A description of five viable models for municipally enabled broadband. Eight percent of US markets are “well served” with broadband are “municipally enabled.” The other 92% of well-served municipalities get broadband from private service providers. Moving forward, however, public and hybrid networks may be a viable alternative for bringing broadband to communities that are not well served, researchers said. The researchers estimate that there are 6,500 such communities nationwide. The five models for municipally enabled broadband:

• Full municipal broadband. This category includes more than two thirds (68%) of current municipally enabled networks. It includes deployments such as the one completed by EPB in Chattanooga in which a city or utility company owns and operates the network and serves end users.
• Publicly owned, privately serviced. With this model, which represents 17% of municipally enabled networks, one or more commercial partners serve end users and may operate infrastructure, but the municipality owns the infrastructure. An example of this comes from Westminster, Maryland and involves private service provider Ting.
• Hybrid ownership. With this model, the city owns middle mile infrastructure, but one or more private service providers own and operate last mile infrastructure, as well as serving end users. The white paper cites an example in Lincoln (NE).
• Private developer open access. This category includes municipalities where a private developer owns and operates broadband infrastructure, but private service providers serve end users. The researchers reference Fullerton (CA) – a market where SiFi networks, Ting and GigabitNow have established a network of this type.
• Full private broadband. With this model, one or more service providers own and operate the network, as well as providing service to end users. While this might sound like the typical commercial network that comprises 92% of well served markets, the difference appears to be that the municipality becomes actively involved in attracting service providers by, for example, simplifying access to rights of way. Boston offers an example of this approach, the authors said.
  • The latter three categories combined comprise about 15% of municipally enabled networks, according to the white paper, which also includes a decision tree to help municipalities considering public, private and hybrid options to make the best choice, depending on their specific situations.

The mad spring rush for capacity is behind us, and now companies are assessing how the pandemic impacted their businesses. While we are starting to see some clients return to normal with their data and application transport requests, entire segments, such as hospitality or small and medium businesses, remain cautious. It’s a good time to take pause and figure out what’s next. A lot of what we think is new is really just stuff that was already in place before the crisis hit. Truth be told, we’re probably giving the corporate response to COVID-19 too much credit for driving digital transformation.  Here are a few reasons why:

• Companies around the world didn’t become digital overnight because of the pandemic.
• We knew companies were going all-in on digital. 
• It was all about human experience anyway. 
• The pieces were already in place to redefine what collaboration truly means. 

The introduction of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadband Deployment Act by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) is an important development in the vital Universal Service Fund (USF) program. At a time when all trends point toward reduced regulation as the key to expanding broadband access to more consumers, especially those living in the more costly and remote service areas, this needed legislative reform would eliminate the outdated requirement of an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designation for broadband providers seeking USF grant money. By reforming this onerous and unnecessary obligation, the net result will be more broadband access and better connectivity for millions of Americans. The ETC designation is not only failing to help strengthen our nation’s online connections, it is actually doing the opposite of its stated goal and driving providers away and reducing consumer choice. For a better connection for the Americans who need it most, ending the ETC designation makes enormous sense. 

[Gerard Scimeca is an attorney and co-founder of CASE, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market oriented consumer advocacy organization.]

The Commerce Department, as statutorily obligated by a recent law, sought feedback on how to best implement an administration 5G security strategy and has now posted all its comments. Around 80 parties weighed in, from the city of New York to companies like AT&T, Qualcomm and Ligado. One key discussion point across much of the input is the recent industry push to open 5G network architecture to increase the diversity of vendors at play (a challenge to China’s Huawei). Verizon, however, despite backing this “open RAN” approach, is urging the Administration “not to rely solely on the promise of open RAN,” the carrier cautions. “The strategic imperative of achieving greater supplier diversity will not be solved by open RAN alone in the face of the strategic government support enjoyed by untrusted suppliers.”

Michael Pack, the alt-right filmmaker installed by President Donald Trump to run US foreign broadcasting operations, remains on course to dismantle the independent journalism that has been their calling card. Apparently, Voice of America sources say Pack is refusing to renew the visas of foreign-born journalists who are vital to its mission of producing news reports in 47 languages. Pack has also frozen all VOA contracts, under which some 40 percent of its staff are employed. A failure to renew the visas and contracts would devastate VOA’s ability to deliver news to foreign audiences, including in authoritarian states where many people depend on US broadcasting for uncensored information.  It could also put the current VOA foreign employees in danger, if they are forced to return to countries whose regimes disapprove of VOA reports. 

Pack’s leadership purge already raised concerns in Congress. In July, a bipartisan group of seven senators dispatched a letter to him objecting to his “termination of qualified, expert staff and network heads for no specific reason.” The senators rightly observed that the US “cannot afford to invest in an enterprise that denigrates its own journalists and staff to the satisfaction of dictators and despots.” But Pack isn’t listening: He has resisted testifying at a congressional hearing, and hasn’t answered Hill inquiries about the J-1 visas. Senators responded by freezing a previously authorized VOA funds transfer. They need to be prepared to do more. Pack appears intent on gutting US foreign broadcasting while remaining unaccountable to anyone but President Trump.

A new and growing underclass is working inside some of the world's wealthiest companies. They push mops and clean toilets. They cook and serve gourmet lunches. They patrol suburban office parks. They ferry technology workers to and from their jobs in luxury shuttle buses. But they are not on the payroll at Apple, Facebook or Google, companies famous for showering their workers with six-figure salaries, stock options and perks. Instead they are employed by outside contractors. And they say the bounty from the technology boom is not trickling down to them. 

Nowhere is that trend more pronounced than in Silicon Valley where the economic divide is widening between highly educated and skilled high-tech workers and low-paid workers who are trying to piece together a living in one of the country's most expensive places. A much higher percentage of these low-paid workers are Black or Hispanic, making them stand out on high-tech campuses where those historically underrepresented groups account for a tiny fraction of the professional workforce.