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Canada invests $85 million in internet satellites for rural areas
Telesat, the Canadian telecom and SpaceX internet competitor, wants to connect remote regions with its low-earth-orbit satellites. Now, it appears to have the backing of Her Majesty's Government. The company announced today that it is partnering with the Canadian government to expand high-speed internet access to rural areas. Over the next decade, the government will contribute $600 million in Canadian dollars towards the telecom's upcoming fleet of satellites. An additional $85 million of funding will be used to create 500 new jobs, invest in R&D and promote STEM education.
Amrita Khalid07.24.2019
Alphabet's internet balloons have spent a million hours in the stratosphere
The fledgling internet balloon industry just marked an important achievement. Alphabet's Loon has recorded over 1 million hours of stratospheric flight for its balloons, covering about 24.9 million miles. The figures aren't completely shocking when they've been pressed into service for hard-hit areas like Puerto Rico and Peru, but it's still significant when the technology only graduated from project status one year earlier.
Jon Fingas07.23.2019
Amazon asks FCC for permission to launch internet satellites
Amazon is moving fairly quickly on its plan to deploy thousands of internet satellites. The company has filed for FCC permission to launch 3,236 satellites as part of Project Kuiper. The spacecraft would be grouped into 98 orbital planes, and fly at altitudes between 366 and 391 miles. The filing reiterated Amazon's plans to connect "tens of millions" of people around the world, although the company warned that it couldn't cover everything -- it asked for a waiver on a requirement to serve the whole US as its satellites wouldn't cover parts of Alaska.
Jon Fingas07.07.2019
SpaceX is still in control of all but three of its internet satellites
How are SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites faring roughly a month after launch? Quite well, if you ask SpaceX. The company reported that it's in contact with 57 of the 60 initial broadband satellites. Although it's not certain what happened to those three faulty satellites, they'll eventually fall to Earth as gravity drags them down.
Jon Fingas06.29.2019
FCC task force will help connect farms and ranches
Today, the FCC announced a task force meant to support the deployment of broadband across unserved farms and ranches. The Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force will work with the US Department of Agriculture and public and private sector stakeholders. It will be responsible for developing policy recommendations for rural, agriculture-focussed broadband. "As I've traveled the country, I've seen the amazing efficiencies, innovations, and improvements that high-speed Internet brings to today's farms and ranches," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. " ... This is the present and the future of American agriculture, and we must do whatever we can to support these producers and enhance precision agriculture."
Christine Fisher06.17.2019
T-Mobile and Sprint make promises to clinch FCC's merger approval
T-Mobile and Sprint are still determined to secure a merger, and they've just made a fresh round of promises to win regulators' hearts. The carriers have made new commitments to the FCC that would guarantee wider access to high-speed mobile internet and home broadband, not to mention address concerns about a lack of competition. They've vowed to deploy 5G service that covers 97 percent of the US population within three years of an approved merger, and 99 percent in six years. About 90 percent of Americans would have mobile internet at speeds of "at least" 100Mbps, while 99 percent would have speeds of 50Mbps or more.
Jon Fingas05.20.2019
Elon Musk shows SpaceX's first internet satellites ready for launch
This might be your best chance to get a peek at SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites before they're hurtled into orbit. Elon Musk has posted a photo (below) of the first 60 production satellites packed into the fairing of a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of their launch this coming week. As you can tell, the housing is stuffed to the gills -- Musk added that the satellites are "flat-packed," without the dispenser you might expect for some missions.
Jon Fingas05.12.2019
FCC clears SpaceX to fly internet satellites in lower orbit
SpaceX is one step closer to fulfilling its plans of launching a host of internet satellites. The FCC has approved its revised plan that would fly over 1,500 of its Starlink satellites at a lower orbit of 'just' 550km (about 342 miles). The move clears the path for an initial Starlink launch "no earlier than" May, the company said. Theoretically, the lower flight path allows coverage with fewer satellites, lowers latency and reduces the chances of space debris.
Jon Fingas04.27.2019
Microsoft says FCC data on improved broadband coverage is misleading
It's a well-known fact that large swathes of the US remain without broadband connectivity -- indeed, some $22 billion has been poured into closing this gap over the past five years. However, exactly how many Americans are going without is up for debate. As a new blog post by Microsoft explains, "official" data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can't be trusted.
Rachel England04.09.2019
Trump asks for $9.6 billion to bolster cybersecurity in 2020 budget
President Donald Trump has revealed his proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which "supports the creation" of Space Force (USSF) as the sixth branch of the armed forces. The White House also hopes to bolster cybersecurity and NASA exploration missions.
Kris Holt03.11.2019
FCC allocates $67 million to boost rural broadband adoption
The FCC is acting on its promise to pour more money into rural broadband. The regulator has formally offered an additional $67 million to 207 rural carriers through the Connect America Fund on the condition they "significantly expand" access to service with at least 25Mbps downloads and 3Mbps in uploads. If you ask the FCC, this could speed up internet access for as many as 110,000 households across 43 states.
Jon Fingas02.25.2019
FCC claims rural broadband access is improving
In a draft of its annual Broadband Deployment report, the Federal Communications Commission says the so-called digital divide is narrowing. Millions more Americans have access to modern broadband connectivity, particularly in rural regions. As such, the report suggests broadband "is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis."
Kris Holt02.20.2019
US government lays out strategy to speed up rural broadband deployment
The US government has unveiled a strategy called the American Broadband Initiative (ABI), which aims to speed up broadband deployment and bring faster, reliable internet access to tens of millions of Americans who don't yet have it. More than federal 20 agencies are involved with the project, which follows President Donald Trump signing an order last month to promote rural broadband.
Kris Holt02.13.2019
FCC loses bid to cut tribal broadband subsidies
Things definitely aren't going the FCC's way this week. A federal appeals court has reversed the FCC's attempt to cut broadband subsidies in tribal lands, citing both a lack of supporting evidence as well as a lack of considerations when making the decision. The regulator didn't show how pulling the $25 Lifeline discount would lead to carriers filling the void like it claimed, according to the ruling. It also didn't acknowledge that resellers were leaving the program, and didn't factor in the potential loss of access to internet service or the wireless rollout data related to the services they use.
Jon Fingas02.04.2019
FCC offers $67 million more per year for rural broadband programs
The Federal Communications Commission announced today additional funding to its Connect America Fund dedicated to expanding broadband internet service to rural communities. The agency will make available $67 million more per year than originally earmarked for the project. The funds could bring high-speed internet connections to more than 100,000 additional households and businesses, per the FCC.
AJ Dellinger12.12.2018
Microsoft says the rural broadband divide is worse than you think
Politicians and regulators like to say they're increasing access to broadband in rural areas, but the reality might be far less rosy. Microsoft has conducted a study showing that far fewer Americans have broadband access than FCC data suggests. While the FCC is currently focused on availability and notes that 24.7 million people can't get fast internet service, Microsoft determined that 162.8 million people don't use broadband service, 19 million of them in rural areas. The gaps are sometimes glaring. In Washington's Ferry County, only 2 percent of people have broadband where the FCC claims it's available to the entire region.
Jon Fingas12.05.2018
Mobile internet is faster than WiFi in 33 countries
It's tempting to assume that a good WiFi hotspot will outpace modern cellular data, but that's not necessarily true -- in some countries, WiFi might be more of a pain. OpenSignal has conducted a study showing that mobile data is faster on average than WiFi hotspots in 33 countries, including multiple African, European, Latin American and Middle Eastern nations. And the differences are sometime gigantic. You'll typically have an advantage of 10Mbps or more in places like Australia, Oman and the Czech Republic, while multi-megabit advantages are common in places like Austria, Iran and South Africa.
Jon Fingas11.25.2018
Samsung's new phone processor has hardware for on-device AI
Samsung has announced its latest system-on-chip (SoC), the Exynos 9 Series 9820 processor, geared specifically towards managing on-device artificial intelligence applications. Unlike its predecessors, this processor contains an AI-accelerator, or NPU, that means AI-related processing can be carried out directly on the device, rather than sending the task to a server. This adds up to seven times faster performance.
Rachel England11.14.2018
Microsoft helps bring broadband internet to rural tribal lands
Microsoft announced today that it is partnering with Native Network to deliver broadband internet access to unserved rural communities in Washington and Montana. The effort will reach about 73,500 people living in and around the Flathead Reservation in Montana and the lands of Lummi Nation and Swinomish Tribe in Washington.
AJ Dellinger11.08.2018
Verizon switches on 'world's first' commercial 5G network
Verizon has announced the start of its "First on 5G" program, which the company says is the world's first commercial fifth-generation network. The program is only live in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento for now.
Andrii Degeler10.01.2018