‘Meta in recent years has set its sights on building, and ultimately controlling, a VR ‘metaverse.’
July 28, 2022 – The Federal Trade Commission filed for an injunction Wednesday to block Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, from buying virtual reality company Within.
“Meta in recent years has set its sights on building, and ultimately controlling, a VR ‘metaverse,’” read the FTC’s complaint, listing several moves Meta made to acquire virtual reality studios. The metaverse is a 3D virtual world where virtual characters meet as if they were in the real world.
Meta has “become a key player at each level of the VR ecosystem: in hardware with its Meta Quest 2 headset, in app distribution with the Quest Store, and in apps with Beat Saber and several other popular titles,” the complaint claimed.
FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan argued that regulators must stop violations of competition and consumer safety when it comes to virtual and augmented reality, not just in areas of business where companies already dominate the market, according to Competition Policy International.
In February, the company announced that Horizon Worlds, its metaverse platform that allows players to interact with friends and build virtual worlds together, grew to 300,000 users.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that it is investing $401 million to provide high-speed internet for rural businesses and residents in 11 states across the nation.
The announcement includes money from loan and grant programs ReConnect and the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan and Loan Guarantee program.
The funds will support high-speed internet investments in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas. Several of which will connect people and businesses on Tribal lands.
Uprise LLC will receive a $27.1 million grant to deploy fiber-to-the-premises in a Nevada county as part of Thursdays announcement. It plans to connect over 5,00 addresses with symmetrical service of 200 megabits per second.
Midvale Telephone Company is set to receive a $10.6 million loan to build fiber networks in Idaho and Arizona that will connect over 500 addresses. Arkansas Telephone Company will receive a $12 million grant to connect over 1,000 addresses via fiber-to-the-premises.
USDA plans to make additional investments for rural high-speed internet later this summer through the ReConnect Program.
Performance measurement company Ookla announced Wednesday that it is acquiring CellRebel, a company aiming to help operators and telecommunications companies improve mobile networks worldwide.
Together, the companies said they hope to bring enhanced consumer network experience insights to the global telecommunications marketplace, read the announcement.
“The complexity of modern networks demands diversified streams of data to fuel holistic insights on performance, quality, and accessibility,” Doug Suttles, founder and CEO of Ookla, said in a statement. “It is vital that we understand more about consumer experiences with networks, and CellRebel brings billions of daily data points with innovative analytical views to help fulfill this need worldwide.”
CellRebel will bring a robust localized network experience data and sophisticated data visualization capabilities, continued the report, which will support network performance and optimization use cases. CellRebel will bring a “host” of real world consumer experience measurements to Ookla’s portfolio, the announcement said.
Ookla is a sponsor of Broadband Breakfast.
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The CHIPS Act had been pushed by officials as a key bill to increase America’s self sufficiency on chip manufacturing.
July 27, 2022 – The Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill to the House that will subsidize U.S-made semiconductor chips.
In a 64-33 vote, the Senate pushed forward the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocates $52 billion to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
“As Americans are worried about the state of the economy and the cost of living, the CHIPS bill is one answer: it will accelerate the manufacturing of semiconductors in America, lowering prices on everything from cars to dishwashers,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
In a virtual meeting on Monday, Biden stated that that because of the widespread use of semiconductor chips in many products such as cell phones, cars, medical equipment, and military equipment, the “shortage of chips during the coronavirus pandemic has caused price hikes and supply-chain issues in several industries,” the Post reported.
The domestic chip shortage was seen by experts and government officials as an economic and national security risk, as supply chain issues during the pandemic bare America’s reliance on foreign chip production. The bill presents a response to China’s rise as a dominant force in this sector.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that America’s share of the global chip manufacturing market has decreased from 40 to 12 percent, where most of the semiconductor manufacturing happens in Taiwan.
Louisiana announced Monday its first round of awards from its Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities program Monday, which includes roughly $9 million toward an AT&T fiber build to 9,800 homes, businesses, and farms in parts of 13 parishes.
An AT&T press release estimates that the total project cost will be nearly $19 million, with the provider matching the GUMBO grant. Project construction is set to start once the final agreement is made between the state and AT&T.
In all, Louisiana announced $130 million in grants — $225 million in total project investments – to winning applications for GUMBO funds on Monday, which will go toward connecting more than 66,000 locations. Other winners include Cox Communications, Conexon Connect, and Charter Communications.
The ultimate goal of the program is to help connect the entire state by 2029.
Internet service provider Brightspeed announced Wednesday its plans to build a fiber network in the state of Wisconsin.
According to a press release, in its first phase of construction, Brightspeed’s fiber network is estimated to bring reliable internet and Wi-Fi to more than 70,000 potential customers across 15 counties in Wisconsin by the end of 2023. These counties include Ashland, Bayfield, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Douglas, Grant, Green Lake, Jackson, La Crosse, Lafayette, Marinette, Monroe, Outagamie, and Sauk.
“Brightspeed’s investment in Wisconsin will make an enormous difference for residents of our great state who depend on reliable internet to work, learn, and live,” said Senator Julian Bradley, R-WI.
The company said that in the coming years, it plans to add an additional 80,000 potential customers in over 150,000 new fiber-enabled locations in Wisconsin.
“The Wisconsin fiber build is part of Brightspeed’s comprehensive plan to invest at least $2 billion in its fiber optics transformation, which is expected to reach up to 3 million homes and businesses over the next five years,” said a press release.
Former Google executive Camille Gloster has been appointed by the White House to its Office of the National Cyber Director.
July 26, 2022 – The White House announced Monday that former Google executive Camille Gloster will be the deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security at the Office of the National Cyber Director.
In this role, Gloster will lead the ONCD’s efforts to strengthen the security and development of the United State’s cyber ecosystem, said the press release.
The office was established by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.
“We need top talent in the government to meet the dynamic and complex cyber challenges we face as a nation,” said National Cyber Director Chris Inglis in a statement. “[Gloster] is a pioneer who has led on cyber issues for more than a decade at the highest levels of government and industry.”
Gloster previously worked at Google where she most recently served as Global Head of Product Security Strategy. She also served under the Obama-Biden Administration as a senior cyber policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Her appointment follows an announcement from the White House in May that committed to expanding the bureau with three new senior hires.
Verizon urged the Federal Communications Commission in a meeting to recommend that Congress appropriate additional funds to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program after the original funds are expended, according to a July 21 post-meeting letter.
The company urged the FCC to explain to Congress that broadband adoption is a “long-term challenge” that will require ACP support beyond the originally allocated period.
ACP supports the FCC’s permanent program, Lifeline, to support affordable access to broadband internet for low-income households. In its letter, Verizon commended the Lifeline program as continuing to serve a “distinct and important role.”
Verizon also urged the commission to recommend to Congress the extension of the universal service funding model that was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The model supplements the support provided by carrier contributions to the fund with appropriations for the ACP and other new programs.
Verizon called for a broader base of contributors to the fund and suggested that Congress make clear that the FCC has authority to expand the universal service contributor base, which relies on dwindling voice service revenues.
T-Mobile agreed Friday to pay $350 million to settle multiple class-action lawsuits over a data breach disclosed in August in which a hacker stole sensitive data of millions of customers.
The proposed settlement remains subject to preliminary and final court approval, expected as early as December 2022. If approved by the court, T-Mobile would also commit to spend an additional $150 million for data security and related technology in 2022 and 2023.
The company anticipates that upon court approval, the settlement will release a list of all claims arising from the cyberattack.
“The settlement contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the defendants,” stated T-Mobile in the Securities and Exchange Commission filling Friday.
T-Mobile issued a statement about the settlement on its website, “As we continue to invest time, energy, and resources in addressing this challenge, we are pleased to have resolved this consumer class action filing.”
The data breach did not expose any customer financial information but some SSN, names, addresses, dates of birth and ID information were compromised, stated the company.
The money will go toward internet access, equipment, and to hire and train information technology personnel.
July 25, 2022 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced Friday $10 million in five grants that will go to minority-serving colleges and universities.
The money, which according to a release will be used “to fund internet access, equipment, and to hire and train information technology personnel” in the schools, comes from the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program and will go toward historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions and minority-serving institutions.
“America’s minority serving colleges and universities are bedrock learning centers that have too often been left behind when it comes to accessing affordable high-speed internet,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves in a news release.
“The Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program enables these institutions to be a resource for access, digital skills training, and workforce development programs for students and the community to help level the economic playing field,” Graves added.
The news release states that additional awards will be announced on a rolling basis, as the “NTIA is continuing to review more than 200 applications” submitted on December 1, 2021.
The Federal Communications Commission proposed Friday $4.3 million in fines against 73 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund applicants who defaulted on bids in an apparent violation of FCC rules.
Since the winning bids were announced in December 2020, the agency – under new chair Jessica Rosenworcel – has been reviewing those bids on suspicion that it could lead to some of the $9.2 billion going to areas already served with adequate internet infrastructure or areas that don’t need it. The agency last year sent letters to some of the winning bidders asking them to review those areas and offered them the opportunity to default with a possibility to do so without penalty.
While the agency said it found good cause to waive the penalty for some bidders, the agency said in a Friday news release that it is proposing fining 73 of those applicants for violations on their defaults. “The bid defaults prevented 1,702 census block groups with 129,909 estimated locations in 36 states from seeing timely new investments in broadband infrastructure,” the agency said.
“The applicants defaulted on their respective bids by withdrawing applications in certain areas or failing to meet the deadlines and requirements required in the auction rules,” the FCC added.
Also on Friday, private equity firm Oak Hill Capital announced its new partnership with Omni Fiber, an Ohio-based Fiber provider, to accelerate the deployment of fiber-based broadband to underserved areas in the Midwest.
Oak Hill is giving $250 million to Omni Fiber to fund construction for fiber, TV, internet and phone services to homes and businesses across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
“With Oak Hill’s investment in the company, Omni will not need to rely on grants or subsidies from federal, state, or local governments to build its network,” and can provide symmetrical speeds up to 2 Gbps to small and mid-sized towns in the Midwest, the press release states.
“Oak Hill’s investment will spur our growth to help bridge the digital divide and establish competitive choice by providing hundreds of thousands of households access to our future-proof, 100% fiber-optic network,” said Omni Fiber CEO Darrick Zucco.
“We believe that reliable, high-speed access to the Internet represents a fundamental catalyst for economic growth and equal opportunity for all Americans, from small towns to big cities,” added Oak Hill Partner Scott Baker.
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