All Silicon Flatirons events in the 2020-21 academic year will be virtual because of COVID-19, the center at the University of Colorado-Boulder said Tuesday.
Mediacom will do the first field trial of the cable industry's 10G high-speed broadband Thursday at a house in Ames, Iowa, it said Monday. It said the work is being done with CableLabs and NCTA, and the home will have an 8K TV and a 3D holographic display. The first 10G field tests were expected this year (see 2001220003).
A Michigan settlement requires VoIP provider All Access Telecom tighten measures against illegal robocalls, Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) said Friday: It's the first time a state AG or federal agency modified a VoIP provider’s business practices to specifically fight robocalls. The company didn’t comment.
Local governments seek to remove a restriction on municipal broadband from a Michigan bill to establish a state grant program. The House Communications Committee voted 5-0 at a livestreamed meeting Wednesday to amend HB-4288, including to increase its proposed internet speed requirement to the federal standard, 25 Mbps downloads and 3 Mbps uploads. The amended bill still would ban the state from “directly or indirectly” awarding grants to governmental entities, educational institutions or affiliates. Localities “should have the option to participate,” said Michigan Townships Association Legislative Liaison Tom Frazier at the hearing in Lansing. “In some cases, that might be the only option.” At least allow municipal broadband in areas where no private entity applies, he said. Committee Chair Michele Hoitenga (R) disagrees “with the premise that a municipality would need to start their own broadband” since the bill would “give incentive for our providers to places they would not typically go.” The Telecom Association of Michigan and Communications Workers of America supported HB-4288. About 100 Michigan localities will oppose the bill due to the muni broadband restriction and other reasons, said Protec General Counsel Mike Watza. The bill requires speeds that are too slow and lacks buildout, rate or service quality conditions, he added.
North Carolina will direct $40 million to fund internet for students’ remote learning, Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said Wednesday. It includes $30 million to distribute 100,000 wireless hot spots; $8 million for wireless access points in school parking lots, municipal areas, state parks, museums and historic sites; and $2 million for remote-learning training. West Virginia activated 848 free Wi-Fi hot spots through the state’s Kids Connect initiative to set up internet access points at pre-K-12 schools, libraries, higher education facilities, state parks and National Guard armories, Gov. Jim Justice (R) said Tuesday. “We’re going to have over 1,000 of these sites very soon.”
The Georgia Public Service Commission set a process for implementing a 2020 state law to set the rate electric cooperatives can charge telecom companies for broadband pole attachments (see 2008060028). Commissioners voted unanimously at a livestreamed Tuesday meeting to adopt procedural rules and a schedule, and to issue a request for proposals to hire a consultant to help with the proceeding in docket 43423. The commission didn’t release the schedule right away.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr toured parts of Ohio Thursday with House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, a Republican from that state, Carr’s office said. The visits focused on “the FCC’s role in responding" to COVID-19. They included one to an ISP in Defiance “that is connecting households with K-12 and college students and building public Wi-Fi hotspots pursuant to special authority granted by the FCC,” Carr’s office said. He and Latta visited a behavioral health facility in the Toledo area that's using funding from the COVID-19 Telehealth Program “to treat at-risk patients remotely.” They toured a Perrysburg school that's working with ISPs to “ensure that their students can participate in remote learning while classes are taught online,” Carr’s office said.
The move to smart cities is global, said Bill McShane, Signify general manager-connected city experience, during a Utilities Technology Council virtual conference. Tuesday's speakers called fiber key. “Cities recognize that they must grow,” he said: “Their infrastructure is not where it should be. The population is demanding broadband services. The cities want to bring Wi-Fi sensors and cameras … to transform themselves.” Nodes are increasing and localities want to bring services to their constituents “but they’re looking for a better way,” McShane said. “They also have to bring fiber.” Communities are mostly deploying in mid- to high-band spectrum, McShane said in response to our question. The citizens broadband radio service band is “becoming more and more relevant today and everyone is wanting the full rollout of 5G,” he said. “Eventually, 5G millimeter wave will come along.” Due to the pandemic, telecom providers are “seeing an explosion of bandwidth demand for multiple technologies,” said Jay Borer, Corning director-carrier market development. Making technology available “can drive population growth, or at least sustained population, for many rural communities,” he said. Many households don’t have the bandwidth to deliver flawless video conferencing with apps like Zoom (see report, Sept. 2 issue), he said. Not all fiber deployments are equal, Borer said. “We’re seeing just a range of network architectures.” Some are “deploying really high fiber count cables,” up to 1,728 fibers per cable, he said: Others “are utilizing some very lean fiber-optic networks that allows for much smaller cable to be placed.”
Initial test results from SpaceX's Starlink constellation are disappointingly slow, CCG President Doug Dawson blogged Monday: Downloads were 35-60 Mbps, upload 5-18 Mbps. There's danger the FCC will consider the satellites a solution to the rural broadband gap, he said. SpaceX didn't comment.
New Orleans is mulling how it may legally deploy municipal fiber under competitive restrictions, said city Chief Information Officer Kimberly LaGrue Monday at NATOA’s virtual conference. State rules prevent cities from creating fiber broadband networks, LaGrue said: “We’re looking for legal opinions.” To ease potential ISP concerns, the city plans to make “some offers" for "partnerships that they could live with,” she said. “We don’t want to offer service to residents.” Municipal fiber is key to equitably distributing internet “as a utility to our residents,” said the CIO. The project recently got city council OK; the locality next will design fiber rings and seek bond funding, she said. Dublin, Ohio, has a fiber network for government, public safety and businesses, but the city isn’t selling to residents, said CIO Doug McCullough, although “eventually, we are going to have to become a service provider if we want to see broadband as a utility.” Boston Broadband and Cable Director Mike Lynch said broadband “should have been a utility back in 1996,” but “25 years later, we can’t put the cork back in the bottle.” That creates a “dilemma” for local governments seeking to address digital equity, he said. “I don’t think we can go back and make it a utility. On the other hand, we have to find the dollars to make it available.” Boston’s Wicked Free Wi-Fi uses the city’s network that’s “supposed to be for municipal use only,” so the municipality is careful to limit hot spots to parks, government buildings and business districts, Lynch said. “We do not try to make it available in home. We are not seeking to compete with broadband providers who gave us this fiber under the caveat that we would not compete with them.” NATOA plans to return its conference to Denver in 2022, this year’s original location before it went virtual due to COVID-19, Executive Director Tonya Rideout said. “What about 2021?” Rideout asked. “Well, the truth is we don’t know.” Depending on the pandemic and restoration of members’ travel and training budgets, next year’s conference could be virtual, in-person or a hybrid, she said.