"Lehigh Valley residents deserve internet that works as hard as they do. We're not just expanding our network—we're giving customers a superior choice. By signing up now, residents can secure early access to faster speeds, better reliability, and a customer experience built for them."
66% of internet users live where political or social sites are blocked, and 78% are in countries where people have been arrested for online posts. New social media regulations have emerged in dozens of countries in the past year alone.
"We share The Wonderful Company's vision of ensuring the entire Lost Hills community has access to reliable, high-speed Internet," said Matthew Murphy, CEO of unWired Broadband. "We're proud to play a role in making that vision a reality. Partnerships like this demonstrate how collaboration between the public and private sectors can expand critical infrastructure and help ensure families, students, and local businesses have the connectivity they need to succeed."
The firm's study, 'North American Fiber Broadband Report: FTTH Review and Forecast 2026-2030,' indicates that nearly $200 billion will be spent on fiber over the next five years, highlighting a significant investment in fiber-to-the-home services.
"The most important aspect of pricing for consumers is knowing their total price rather than an advertised price that comes with hidden fees: 88% of respondents believe all fees should be included in advertised pricing."
The goal of the new USTelecom program is to show consumers, businesses, civic leaders, and policymakers why maintaining legacy copper for the small portion of end users is not an efficient approach. A key part of this is explaining why modern technology is better.
Eight of the municipal networks studied beat their local provider competitors in median upload speed. Sherwood Broadband - in the town of the same name in Oregon - was the only one to beat its local competitor in median download speed.
TP-Link is no longer owned by a Chinese company and its products are assembled in Vietnam, but Paxton's lawsuit claims that because the company's "ownership and supply-chain are tied to China" it's subject to the country's data laws, which require companies to comply with requests from Chinese intelligence agencies. The lawsuit also says that firmware vulnerabilities in TP-Link's hardware have already "exposed millions of consumers to severe cybersecurity risks."
Stefanovic found that Starlink carried data more quickly than connections that started on European cellular networks, despite the space broadband service often requiring more network hops and not using Tier 1 networks. She hypothesized that Starlink's performance can be attributed to the satellite-to-satellite laser connections SpaceX employs, which route traffic across the satellite network so it can reach the most appropriate terrestrial egress point. That laser network, she suggested, should perhaps be considered a new routing layer for the internet.
New Mexico's Low-Income Telecommunications Assistance Program (LITAP) took a key step toward becoming law Friday with its unanimous passage by the state senate. Senate Bill 152 would provide $10 million in funding to help as many as 27,000 low-income residents in need in New Mexico get broadband. The funding will come from the Public Regulation Commission's State Rural Universal Service Fund. That fund has $40 million earmarked for broadband funding.
FCC OIS detected similar fraud in the system in a 2017 report, which resulted in the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), the Lifeline program administrator, beginning a "death check" as part of the enrollment process. However, the FCC allowed three states (California, Texas, and Oregon) to opt out of the death check process. The most recent OIG report specifies that the $5 million in fraud was all in the opt-out state
The program is free of charge, with monthly classes and workshops administered by the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) and paid for by the U.S. Congress. Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI) will provide lab equipment, workbooks, tools, and all teaching equipment. The funding for the three-year broadband workforce program comes from a $1.99 million federal grant New Mexico received from the 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act. Last year, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham asked state agencies in 2024 to address the critical need for infrastructure development in the state, including telecommunications.