Coverage of how Internet service is deployed, used and regulated.
Internet/Broadband
Tim Berners-Lee still believes the web can be fixed, even today
30 years on, the web has been "hijacked by crooks" who could destroy it, world wide web creator Tim Berners-Lee said. It's morphed into a platform where disinformation spreads like a contagion, hate foments and personal privacy has been relinquished to the highest bidder looking to make a quick buck. Now, the 63-year-old said, he's working to fix the online world he helped create, and launched two major efforts in Nov to turn the web around. The first is the Contract for the Web, which he says will make the web more trustworthy and less susceptible to some of today's problems.
Bicameral Democratic Leaders Unveil Save The Internet Act to Restore Net Neutrality Protections
Democratic leaders of the House and Senate unveiled the Save the Internet Act that will keep the internet open and free.
Panel I
- Mr. Will DeVries
Senior Privacy Counsel
Google, Inc.
Mountain View , CA
- Mr. Alastair Mactaggart
Chairman
Californians for Consumer Privacy
Sacramento , CA
- Mr. David Hoffman
Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer
Intel
FCC Commissioner Starks’ Digital Inclusion Visits
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is proud to have facilitated digital inclusion visits for newly appointed Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. After he attended a forum on the rural and urban broadband digital divide hosted by Rep Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO), Commissioner Starks attended a meeting of the Kansas City Coalition for Digital Inclusion, sharing why digital equity is important to him. He stated “Who’s job is it to make sure everyone has internet at home? It’s my job.
Lawmakers Leery of Satellite Companies’ 5G Airwaves Plan
The Federal Communications Commission will soon decide whether to side with foreign satellite companies, and allow them to sell their rights to a swath of public airwaves to speed the deployment of 5G technology. Such a sale to the nation’s biggest wireless providers could bring in as much as $40 billion—and now Congress is threatening to step in and prevent the FCC from allowing the satellite companies to pocket the money.
The hearing will focus on the Federal Communications Commission’s order to improve the quality and expand availability of rural broadband. The subcommittee will also discuss opportunities and investments to support carriers in rural America, efforts to prevent overbuilding among federal broadband programs, and the next steps to close the digital divide.
Witnesses
A legislative hearing on restoring net neutrality protections
Municipal broadband internet: The next public utility?
Municial broadband initiatives across the country seem to be gaining steam as cities look to encourage equitable access — but pitfalls around cost and taxpayer risk remain. Despite many cities and counties looking to put together a municipal broadband initiative of their own, there remains strong opposition from telecom companies, as well as concerns over cost.
Without a doubt, the 2018 midterm elections revealed a nation divided on many issues and not just along party lines. However, beyond all the rancor and disagreement, Americans of all political stripes have come together on one of our most pressing policy problems: access to broadband internet. Broadband access has sparked a revolution in startup activity, producing an app economy defined by democratized entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, broadband is still unavailable for millions of Americans.
A world and web divided
A global reckoning around the future of the internet is underway as autocratic regimes look to censor the internet in their countries, and races to develop new internet technologies, such as blockchain and 5G, heat up between the US and China. The next version of the internet could be split between countries that embrace an open web and isolationists that don't. It could also be fractured by different technologies that could fundamentally change the interconnected nature of the network and limit who can do business where.