President Donald Trump's blocking of certain Twitter users violates the First Amendment, wrote the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Tuesday's letter addressed to Trump said clients Holly O'Reilly and Joseph Papp were blocked from @realDonaldTrump "because they disagreed with, criticized, or mocked you or your actions as President." The letter said Trump's account is a "designated public forum" just like open city council or school board meetings. The institute said blocking O'Reilly and Papp is "unconstitutional" and it wants the president to unblock them and any others. The letter was written by Jameel Jaffer, the institute's founding director, and attorneys Alex Abdo and Katherine Fallow. It was also sent to White House counsel Donald McGahn, Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Director of Social Media Dan Scavino. The White House didn't comment.

President Jake Ward and others from the Application Developers Alliance said the group met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week about the importance of an open internet. Privacy, data sharing and competition came up, said a filing Friday in docket 17-108. “Members depend on an open Internet -- including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure that companies can’t discriminate against developers and their products or services, no matter how large or small the company maybe.” It said "developers need an internet -- wired and wireless -- that is open, competitive, stable, fast, and fair to all who use it. We also highlighted the need for a framework that facilitates continuous investment and innovation by the providers of Internet access.”

The FCC agreed to a waiver sought by Amtrak on the rules under which its Wi-Fi network operates so it can offer more robust service along its key Northeast Corridor (NEC). Amtrak requested the waiver in December (see 1612220013). “This action will permit Amtrak to deploy operations on its wireless trackside network (TSN) within the Northeast Corridor under the specifications that apply to fixed point-to-point operation in both the 5.15-5.25 GHz (U-NII-1) and 5.75-5.85 GHz (U-NII-3) bands,” said an order signed by Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology. The waiver applies only to the NEC's core Boston-Washington portion. The order specifies the total number of radios that can be used with the system and sets forth the boundaries of permissible communications. OET said it wouldn't condition the waiver on Amtrak’s use of any particular equipment for its TSN, provided the equipment complies with FCC equipment authorization rules. “The TSN bears many characteristics of a fixed point-to-point network,” OET said. “Both the access points and train-based radios transmit in a highly directional manner. Because Amtrak’s operations will be exclusively within the bounds of the NEC [right of way], its mobile operations will essentially be operating at a series of fixed linear points along a defined path.” In March, the Wi-Fi Alliance raised concerns (see 1703010027) on the proposed waiver, saying the passenger railroad must first “demonstrate that the benefit its customers will receive will not impose a cost on other users of the 5 GHz band.”

The U.S. had an average internet connection speed in Q1 of 18.7 Mbps, among the top 10 countries, Akamai reported Wednesday. The U.S. average connection speed increased year-over-year and was up 8.8 percent over Q4, when it was 14th-highest at 17.2 Mbps. South Korea had the highest average speed in Q1 at 28.6 Mbps, Norway No. 2 at 23.5 Mbps, Sweden No. 3 at 22.5 Mbps and Hong Kong No. 4 at 21.9 Mbps. The global average peak speeds in Q1 stood at 44.6 Mbps, with Singapore registering the highest at 184.5 Mbps. The U.S. ranked No. 16 for average peak speed for the quarter at 86.5 Mbps. Global adoption of connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose to 12 percent for Q1, with the U.S. having 38 percent adoption of that minimum speed, Akamai said.

Growing demand for in-flight connectivity could affect how both airlines and satellite operators view obsolescence, industry insiders said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event Thursday. Moves to wider channels and increased interest in the V- and Q-band mean obsolescence for installed in-flight connectivity systems will come sooner from changing technology than from problems with parts, said Bill Milroy, chief technology officer at antenna maker ThinKom. ViaSat Vice President-Space and Satellite Broadband Richard VanderMeulen said satellite operators are trying to provide LTE-like service today and expect to have to provide 5G-level service in the near future, and airlines ultimately will have to decide whether to prioritize the customer experience or eking out extra life of aircraft. As in-flight connectivity offerings follow the same 4G-to-5G trend of higher speed and capacity, "we're going to have to change our expectations about obsolescence," said Inmarsat Vice President-Enterprise Tim Johnson. SmartSky Networks Vice President-Digital Aviation Bruce Holmes said that beyond in-flight connectivity, an increased number of worldwide broadband networks will lead to "the Holy Grail of air space management" -- pre-computed flight plans avoiding any conflicts of flight paths and maximizing fuel and time efficiency. VanderMeulen said growth of those global networks could also lead to the point where airline passengers have choices of multiple data providers on a flight. He said the Department of Homeland Security laptop ban will have minimal effect on in-flight connectivity demand, since phones are the leading consumers of data on flights. Johnson expects carriers disproportionately affected by such a ban would find work-around for high-value customers, like providing tablets. Asked about typical per-customer connection speeds on a flight, operators largely demurred, saying the focus was on optimized service. Milroy said ThinKom often sees spectral efficiency that can work out to 250 Mbps per aircraft. While for many operators that averages out to 150-200 Kbps per passenger, "of course that number is going up and up," he said. Euroconsult earlier this month predicted more than 17,000 commercial aircraft will offer in-flight connectivity by 2021, up from 6,500 in 2016 and that as of the start of the year, more than 80 airlines installed or committed to in-flight connectivity.

Two-thirds of commercial passenger aircraft will have in-flight connectivity by the end of 2026, generating more than $32 billion in satellite communications revenue over the next decade, Northern Sky Research said in a news release Monday. It said quality and quantity of in-flight connectivity likely will take off, with very-small aperture terminal connectivity being installed on a third of commercial passenger aircraft by the end of 2019. NSR said more than half of the addressable commercial passenger aircraft market will have in-flight connectivity through fixed satellite service or high-throughput satellites by 2021. The company said any ban on personal electronic device use on flights could be a stumbling block, as the mid- long-term effect on such a potentially expanding ban is unclear.

ViaSat launched an in-flight connectivity service plan for large-cabin business jet users, plus a plan to migrate to the new broadband service. In a news release Monday, it said the new service -- based on its ViaSat-2 satellite system -- offers download speeds of up to 4 Mbps, double its current service plan. It said its Global Aero Terminal 5510 is expected to be certified in the second half of the year.

A federal judge remanded to New York Supreme Court litigation against Charter Communications that had moved from the state court to U.S. District Court earlier this year (see 1702270062). In an order (in Pacer) filed Thursday, U.S District Judge Colleen McMahon of Manhattan dismissed Charter arguments that the federal Communications Act is the exclusive remedy for false advertising and consumer protection claims against broadband providers, saying a Charter assertion that the New York claims brought by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are federally pre-empted isn't enough to give U.S. District Court jurisdiction. McMahon said the act's savings clause clearly indicates Congress didn't intend for it to be the exclusive remedy for redressing false advertising and consumer protection claims against common carriers. The judge said the FCC has never suggested the act completely pre-empts state law causes of action. In a statement Friday, the AG said the ruling "upholds a vital principle: that an Internet service provider who cheats New Yorkers out of the Internet speeds and performance they were promised can face justice in a New York state court. With that issue resolved, we look forward to pressing ahead in state court and to continuing our effort to hold Spectrum-Time Warner Cable to account for what we allege was a deliberate and systematic scheme to defraud customers.” The attorney general moved in March to have the suit -- alleging Charter deliberately lied to customers about internet speeds (see 1702010048) -- remanded. In a statement, Charter said it "will mount a strong defense against the lawsuit’s allegations involving TWC’s practices. We continue to focus on the customer, upgrading Time Warner Cable systems, instituting new policies and procedures to better ensure a positive customer experience, and rolling out Charter’s simplified and customer friendly Spectrum pricing and packaging.”

IEEE launched an initiative to develop consensus standards and a framework for better securing a person's digital identity and improving online trust, said the standards organization in a Thursday news release. The program is seeking academic researchers, policy and legal experts, tech innovators and others to create standards for consumer and patient data. “Identity is a consideration in every business and social transaction,” said program co-chair Greg Adamson, president of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology. “Blockchain technology could be the catalyst to making universal and dignity respecting digital identification systems a reality with its unique ability to retain identities in a secure and immutable manner.”

A "serious defect" in Netgear cable modems is resulting in high spikes in network latency, alleges a class-action lawsuit filed April 14 against Netgear in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. The suit claims consumers who bought Netgear’s CM700 modem, designed for the fastest speed internet service plans, “suffer from severe network latency spikes.” The complaint says hundreds of users have complained in online forums and Netgear acknowledged the issue but failed to fix the problems. The suit blames the latency on Netgear's decision to swap out a Broadcom chipset for the Puma 6 chipset from Intel, a problem Intel acknowledged causes cable modems to suffer from significant jitter and latency on their network connections, the suit claims. The plaintiff’s law firm, Schubert Jonckheer, is investigating whether other cable modems containing the Puma 6 chipset -- including modems from Linksys, Cisco, Hitron, and Arris -- suffer from the same severe network latency defect, it said. "Netgear and other cable modem manufacturers shipping modems with the defect should recall the affected models and issue refunds,” said partner Noah Schubert. In response, Netgear emailed us: “It is Netgear’s policy to not provide any public comment on pending litigation, but for the sake of our customers, we would like them to know that we have full confidence in the CM700 cable modem." A class-action suit filed in the same court March 31 against Arris for its SB6190 modem sought the right for plaintiffs to cancel and recover the purchase price of the modem, also based on Intel’s Puma chipset. The complaint cited an article from The Register entitled “Why Your Gigabit Broadband Lags Like Hell – Blame Intel’s Chipset.”