In the wake of CEOs abandoning the President’s Manufacturing Council due to his response to the Charlottesville nightmare, the President’s Advisory Council on Infrastructure has also been disbanded. By a recently signed executive order, the council was tasked with making recommendations on federal support for projects in many areas including broadband. The group was set […]

How fast is fast enough when it comes to broadband? Plenty of folks are scratching their heads with media reports that the FCC’s latest broadband deployment report suggests that Americans may not need a traditional fast home Internet connection and that a 10Mbps/1 Mbps mobile broadband offering may be sufficient. Comments from a wide variety […]

Yesterday, the state Senate narrowly (26-24) passed legislation containing $1.8 billion in new taxes to help fill the gap and balance the FY 2017-18 state budget. Among the increases included in House Bill 542 is a provision which would increase the Gross Receipts Tax on telephone companies/customers from 50 to 60 mills. Senate Majority Leader […]

Consolidated Communications has officially sealed the deal with its acquisition of FairPoint Communications, making it the ninth largest fiber provider in the country. Consolidated President and CEO Bob Udell offered that the combined company’s greater scale will allow it to better serve its customers with more than 36,000 route miles of fiber.  

The European Commission announced this week that it is slamming Google with a $2.74 billion fine for antitrust violations. The action comes in response to the company’s alleged placement of its comparison shopping service in the primo spots in search engine returns.    

The state budget deadline of June 30th is looming and legislative leaders are poised to work through the weekend to see if they can formulate a spending/revenue plan. Some sources have the House, Senate and Governor Wolf relatively close on agreeing to a $31.8 billion spend number, which is significantly less than the $32.3 billion […]

To the delight of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Georgia Republican Congressman Doug Collins has introduced legislation providing tax incentives to companies for broadband buildout. The Gigabit Opportunity Act bill is similar to a Senate version introduced last month and gives companies tax breaks for investing in gigabit-capable expansion in certain communities. Chairman Pai has long […]

On Monday, the House Consumer Affairs Committee held a hearing on Underground Utility Line Protection Law legislation (HB 284) currently being considered by the committee. In addition to the PTA and Verizon, testifiers included individuals from the Broadband Cable Association of PA, One Call, the Energy Association, PUC Commissioner John Coleman and the Utility Contractors […]

Suspicions that many of the electronic comments filed with the FCC on the net neutrality issue appear to be fake was confirmed by a National Legal and Policy Center analysis which concludes that more than 465,000 of the 2.5 million filings could be questionable.