Sunsetting the High Cost Fund
SpaceX has filed comments with the FCC urging the agency to sunset the Universal Service Fund’s High‑Cost component, a program that spends roughly $4.5 billion annually on rural broadband and voice subsidies. The fund supports six Connect America mechanisms, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, Alaska, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands subsidies, a Mobility Fund for cellular carriers, and legacy telco aid. SpaceX argues that its Starlink satellite network now delivers nationwide broadband, making the subsidies redundant. Critics point to Starlink’s mixed speed performance and a $120‑per‑month price that may be out of reach for low‑income households.
Restart on Digital Discrimination Rules
On May 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the FCC’s 2023 digital discrimination rules mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The court held the agency exceeded its authority by imposing a disparate‑impact test...
Who Needs Moore’s Law?
Moore’s Law, which predicted a doubling of transistor density every two years, has effectively stalled since 2016‑2018 as physical limits loom. Chip manufacturers are now turning to alternative architectures—ASICs, GPUs, 3D‑stacked chiplets, on‑chip memory, optical interconnects, and quantum bits—to keep...
The Myth of Cellphone-Only Users
A Pew Research survey shows that 16% of Americans relied solely on a smartphone for broadband in 2025, but the figure varies sharply by income. Thirty‑four percent of households earning under $30,000 use only cellular data, compared with just 4%...
Millimeter Wave Broadband
Ookla’s latest RootMetrics report shows that Verizon’s millimeter‑wave (mmWave) spectrum now powers 2.2% of its cellular speed tests, while AT&T registers only 0.2% and T‑Mobile is negligible. The data confirms that mmWave can deliver gigabit‑plus speeds but only within roughly...
We’re Drowning in Data
IDC predicts the U.S. will generate an astonishing 394 trillion zettabytes of data each year by 2028, overwhelming current storage models. Roughly 20% of that data is "hot" and must be instantly accessible, while the remaining 80% is "cold" and stored...
Top-to-Bottom Review of USF
The FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to overhaul the Universal Service Fund’s High‑Cost program, which subsidizes rural broadband. The NPRM offers three reform paths: update existing mechanisms, create a new fixed‑support model, or let current A‑CAM subsidies phase...
Satellite Update April 2026
Amazon announced a $10.8 billion acquisition of Globalstar, giving it a foothold in direct‑to‑device satellite broadband with roughly two dozen satellites. Blue Origin filed an FCC request to launch 51,600 low‑Earth‑orbit satellites that would act as an AI‑focused data center, echoing...
EchoStar versus Tower Owners
EchoStar is walking away from roughly $9 billion of long‑term cell‑tower leases after abandoning its facility‑based cellular rollout, prompting a coalition of tower owners to demand FCC intervention. The dispute stems from EchoStar’s sale of spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX for...
Technology Shorts April 2026
Researchers unveiled four emerging technologies that could reshape data transport and power supply. Chip‑level photonics uses metasurface chips to turn infrared into steerable visible beams, potentially removing external lasers and easing the data‑in‑out bottleneck. Northwestern’s dirt‑powered microbial fuel cell harvests...
The Push for Permitting Reform
Congress is reviewing H.R. 2289, the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2025, which would overhaul permitting for wireless and wired infrastructure. The bill imposes a 60‑to‑150‑day "shot clock" for state and local authorities to approve or deny permits, automatically granting...
Customer Reactions to Outages
On January 14, Verizon suffered a ten‑hour cellular network outage that affected more than 1.5 million wireless users. Recon Analytics surveyed 1,702 Verizon business customers across small, medium and large firms to gauge reactions. The outage impacted 44% of large enterprises,...
Indoor Cellular Coverage
Cellular coverage indoors is deteriorating as carriers migrate to higher‑frequency bands that struggle to penetrate modern building materials. New construction uses low‑E glass and insulated panels that reflect or absorb signals, leaving pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and grocery stores with spotty...
Relaxed Environmental Study Rules?
The Council on Environmental Quality issued a memorandum on April 9 outlining new categorical exclusions that could waive NEPA environmental reviews for certain federal projects. The guidance lets agencies skip studies when a prior review covered the site, when similar past...
The FCC Opens the 900 MHz Band
The FCC voted to open the full 10 MHz of the 900 MHz band (896‑901 MHz and 935‑940 MHz) for licensed broadband services. The move expands bandwidth for utilities that use the spectrum for smart‑metering and enables private 5G and LTE networks. Anterix, which...