Internet/Broadband

Comcast’s new Pacific Northwest Region is investing $280 million in 2023 to offer multi-gigabit Internet speeds to more than four million locations, expand broadband and video services to more than 60,000 additional homes and businesses, and provide donations and in-kind services to communities throughout Oregon and Washington. The investment will significantly expand and evolve the availability of the Xfinity 10G Network across the Pacific Northwest in 2023.

Elon Musk and more than 1,000 tech researchers and executives have called for a six-month “pause” on the development of advanced artificial intelligence systems such as OpenAI’s GPT to halt what they call a “dangerous” arms race.  An open letter by the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit campaign group, had been signed by more than 1,100 individuals from across academia and the tech industry within hours of its publication. “Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can u

Lumen Technologies is hoping to grease the wheels on its fiber build in 2023 after pressing pause on its work late in 2022 and is aiming to exit the year having achieved a quarterly build pace that will allow it to exceed 500,000 new passings in 2024. The operator was originally planning to reach 1.5 million to 2 million locations this year as part of a plan to expand its footprint to 12 million locations over the coming years.

Frontier Communications is “very excited” about the possibility of using Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding to deploy fiber broadband to areas that aren’t currently part of the company’s plan to have fiber available to 10 million locations by 2025, said Chief Strategy Officer Vishal Dixit. He declined to say how many locations might be eligible for funding in the $42.5 billion BEAD program.

Singapore-based startup Transcelestial invented a laser communications technology that uses infrared spectrum to connect under-served people around the world to the internet. “The cost to connect the world is not commercially viable if upgrades depend on the rollout of new fiber cables,” said Mohammad Danesh, co-founder and CTO of Transcelestial. The company’s Centauri 25G product delivers 25 Gbps internet connectivity via laser beam, eliminating the need for underground cables or radio frequency-based devices.

Thousands of East Texans are part of a petition challenging the accuracy of the Texas Broadband Development Map that shows internet availability and speeds across the state.

CommScope unveiled a new fiber cable it claimed will drive down installation costs for rural broadband builds, supporting the product's launch with enough production capacity to cover at least half a million homes per year. CEO Chuck Treadway said CommScope plans to invest another $47 million to expand its fiber capacity even further. CommScope’s new HeliARC fiber is “smaller and lighter” than traditional fiber cable.

Comcast and Charter are two of the largest providers of Wi-Fi in the US.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently ordered a series of public hearings to investigate the quality of service on the CenturyLink copper networks. The hearings were prompted by a complaint filed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The complaint listed the failures of CenturyLink to meet state service standards due to the deterioration of the copper network. CWA also noted that CenturyLink is planning to eliminate half of the remaining technicians who work on copper.

New York State is approaching universal broadband through both access and adoption—and recognizes that affordability is a key barrier to adoption. In January 2022, Gov. Hochul unveiled ConnectALL, a $1 billion public-private initiative to deliver affordable broadband to millions of New Yorkers and transform the state's digital infrastructure through new investments. The initiative includes: