Stories from Abroad

Over the last decade or so, access to broadband services has become increasingly important. While many in the UK already benefit from the provision of broadband, some, especially those located in more rural and remote areas, do not – they may not be able to access the Internet and when they do, their connection and consumer experience may be poor. After trying to resolve this through a stream of different initiatives, the UK government announced a broadband universal service obligation (USO) of 10 Mbps in late 2015.

Apparently, some of the world’s biggest tech companies have told their employees to stop talking about technology and technical standards with counterparts at Huawei in response to the recent US blacklisting of the Chinese tech firm. Chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm, mobile research firm InterDigital Wireless, and South Korean carrier LG Uplus have restricted employees from informal conversations with Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. Such discussions are a routine part of international meetings where engineers gather to set technical standards for communications

In an interview with CNBC, President Donald Trump criticized the antitrust fines imposed by the European Union on US tech companies, suggesting that these tech giants could, in fact, be monopolies, but the US should be the political body raking in the settlement fines. “Every week you see them going after Facebook, and Apple, and all of these companies that are, you know, great companies," President Trump said. "But I will say that the European Union is suing them all the time." “Well, we should be doing this. They’re our companies.

In the wake of an earthquake in Peru, Alphabet's Loon unit was able to quickly restore temporary internet access using its balloons. This was due, in large part, because it had already been in talks with Telefonica to bring its service to parts of the country and had offered its service in 2017 after flooding. Loon delivered the first service to Peru's earthquake-hit areas within 48 hours, as compared to the 4 weeks it took to deliver the first Loon-based connections to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Loon served about 20,000 unique users in the first 2 days of service.

Widespread internet access is changing the African continent, largely thanks to the rise in smartphone ownership. Many Africans who are unable to afford costly broadband connections can now access the web for the first time, via sub-$50 Android phones.

The Trump administration’s offensives aimed at frustrating the 5G ambitions of China and mobile-technology giant Huawei might end up impeding America’s wireless ambitions, too. Recent White House actions land as China and the US race to launch the superfast cellular networks, with Huawei and its Chinese customers targeting a nationwide 5G rollout in 2020. A US Commerce Department measure, designed to hinder Huawei from buying critical components, might make it harder for American and European telecom-equipment makers to buy certain supplies as well, Western industry executives said.

The Agency for Global Media is supposed to broadcast objective Spanish-language news programs into Cuba, but fails to meet basic standards of journalistic fairness and let an anchor describe Trump administration officials as the “dream team” for Cuba policy, according to an independent review. The review of Radio and Television Martí content, conducted by Spanish-speaking academics and former journalists, found the news organization routinely allows “almost any criticism of the Cuban government and its leaders” on the air.

My intention today is to outline the most recent actions of the Federal Communications Commission pertaining to the protection of US national security, identify the difficult position in which we find ourselves with regard to Chinese telecommunications providers and manufacturers, and raise certain concerns with respect to the operations of the International Telecommunication Union, or the ITU as it is more commonly known.

The European Commission compared the current situation with the one before its open internet regulation entered into force (on 30 April 2016) and concluded that the regulation’s principles are appropriate and effective in protecting end-users’ rights and promoting the internet as an engine for innovation. The report suggests that there is no need to amend the regulation at this stage, in order to continue with the regulatory stability and in view of continuing protecting end-users’ rights and promoting open access to the internet.

This paper analyses the incidence of broadband on regional productivity in Brazil, intending to find out if the economic impact is uniform across all territories of the country. The possibility of performing a regional approach to test the effect of broadband on productivity in an emerging country represents a novelty for the literature. Results suggest that the impact of broadband on productivity is positive although not uniform across regions. On the one hand, it seems to depend on connection quality and network effects.