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[Commentary] A proposal put forth by Edward R. Murrow 54 years ago that big corporations regularly sponsor primetime documentaries deserves a fresh look today.

Why should all the corporate do-good money wend its way to PBS? If I were the commercial networks, I would target the likes of Google, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco and Verizon. They have been driving the never-ending media revolution and making billions without giving back much in the way of what actually passes through their devices, networks and apps.

Broadband is a world of extremes: it takes heavy-duty, 10-ton equipment to install fiber strands that are as small as a human hair. It takes months and years of hot, sweaty, dust-filled workdays to build a network that will provide massive amounts of data to end users at speeds measured in millionths of a second. It takes hundreds of man-hours, at a pace of 1000 feet per day to install the fiber that will connect our schools and hospitals with resources on the other side of the planet with just the click of a mouse. As a Federal Program Officer overseeing a number of our BTOP projects, I’m constantly collecting numbers that gauge progress from my awardees: miles of fiber and conduit installed; crews in the field; targets and milestones for connecting community anchor institutions (CAIs) and so-called last mile service providers – all with an eye toward completing the projects on time and on budget. Despite the weekly conference calls, quarterly and annual reporting, and internal analysis at the program office, there’s just no substitute to getting out in the field to understand exactly what our awardees’ crews experience on a daily basis. So the next time you’re in construction traffic, instead of stressing about the delay to your busy schedule, take a look outside your window as you pass the crews and watch what’s really happening. It’s not winter yet…it’s broadband season.

Rumors are swirling that the federal government is about to sue Google over claims that the company rigs its search results. Google has responded by invoking its right to free speech — but not everyone is buying this.

Tim Wu, a prominent law professor at Columbia, is not convinced that Google is invoking its First Amendment rights in good faith. He suggests that Google and other big companies are cynically invoking constitutional freedoms as part of a corporate deregulation agenda. In Wu’s view, search results are not really speech in the first space. Instead, he argues, Google’s algorithms are closer to other automated communication tools like navigation devices or even car alarms. Google, of course, doesn’t share this view. The company prefers to be compared to a newspaper editor — whose choice of what to put in the paper is an undisputed free speech right. In practical terms, this means Google should be able to favor its own restaurant reviews over competing services like Yelp. So who is right?

Verizon Wireless said it has many parties interested in purchasing its 700 MHz lower A and B Block spectrum, but company CFO and EVP Fran Shammo told investors on the company's quarterly earnings call that the spectrum is not a "fire sale."

And if Verizon does not get the price it wants for the spectrum, Shammo said Verizon will put it to use. "If we don't get fair value, we will use it internally," he said. Shammo said he expects the company to be able to provide more details on the spectrum sale later this year or early next year. In addition, he said that any spectrum transactions will have to get Federal Communications Commission approval, which means they won't close until the third or fourth quarter of next year.