Alaska Broadband Advocates met with FCC commissioners and staff and discussed “the current disparity between the Lower 48 and Alaska in terms of speed availability, residential package pricing and cost per household,” according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-271. For example, a school district’s cost per Mbps of service in Alaska is “200 times more than the median cost in the United States,” they told the FCC. The Alaskans met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington and aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
Communication companies should prepare now for the threat from quantum computing, which can break the cryptography that protects data from attacks, Taylor Hartley, network security solutions architect at Ericsson North America, said during an IEEE webinar Wednesday. “Anything that utilizes a public key can easily be broken by a quantum computer,” Hartley said. “We definitely have reason to believe” bad actors are gathering encrypted data so that they will be able to unencrypt it one day, she said. Hartley recommended migrating weakened algorithms to post-quantum cryptograpy. The National Institute of Standards and Technology ran a contest and selected the first three algorithms found to be quantum resistant, she said. It's expected the three will be standardized this summer and “then we can start implementing them,” Hartley said. The concept of quantum computing started in the 1980s, and we’ve known since the 1990s that it could “break the cryptography that we use today,” she said. The first commercially available quantum computer was introduced in 2011, she said. Recently, companies like IBM, Google and Honeywell have made advances in quantum computing, she said. Hartley recommended starting a "quantum readiness road map, conducting inventories, applying risk assessments and analysis and engaging with your vendors.”
Non-stand-alone 5G networks tied to a core 4G network worked well in 5G's first phase, but they can’t handle network slicing and other things the new generation of wireless is promising, speakers said Monday during Fierce Network’s Cloud Native 5G Summit.
Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley signaled that his company is open to selling “assets” amid rumors that it's eyeing divesting 60 stations. Meanwhile, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said broadcasters can’t have confidence about transactions in the current regulatory environment. The CEOs spoke during their respective Q1 earnings calls last week. Ripley, Sook and executives from Gray and E.W. Scripps also discussed progress on ATSC 3.0, a backloaded political advertising market, and streaming during earnings calls.
Disney's entertainment streaming business -- not counting ESPN+ -- reaching profitability in the company's most-recent quarter "is a huge milestone for Disney and for the entire studio streaming ecosystem," Ampere Analysis' Guy Bisson wrote Tuesday. That $47 million operating profit came two quarters earlier than Disney predicted the entire direct-to-consumer business would reach profitability, he said. Disney was the only major studio to go so far with streaming, pulling back key content for its streaming platform, and "there is no going back from here," Bisson said. The move to profitability -- with other studios likely to follow in coming quarters -- "takes a huge amount of downward pressure off content spend," Bisson said. Streamers are moving to a "mix and match approach" of offering their originals while also seeking high-quality titles to license, he said. With linear viewing in decline, and spending on ads shifting to streaming, increased streaming profitability could accelerate that shift, he said. "As the 'proof of concept' is now signed, sealed and delivered, the industry will move even faster to transition away from traditional outlets."
WideOpenWest's high-speed data subscriber declines are slowing, CEO Teresa Elder said Tuesday as the company announced its Q1 2024 results. The company said it ended the quarter with 489,700 high-speed data subscribers, down from 508,700 the same quarter a year earlier but down only slightly from Q4 2023. That's because WOW has more-simplified pricing, increased minimum speeds to 300 Mbps and boosted 500 Mbps customers to 600 Mbps, Elder said. WOW ended the quarter with 79,300 video subs, down 117,100 from a year ago. Elder said that decline comes as WOW continues a transition from its linear video offering to having customers use YouTube TV (see 2305150027). WOW took no questions during its 13-minute earnings call, citing DigitalBridge Investments and Crestview Partners' unsolicited bid to buy it (see 2405030047).
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed a broadband bill (S-199) Monday aimed at simplifying the merger process for the state’s communications union districts. CUDs are groups of two or more municipalities that build infrastructure in rural areas of the state. The legislature passed the bill last month (see 2404160026). Meanwhile, the Connecticut House on Saturday added the wide-ranging SB-3 to its calendar after the Senate approved it 26-10 on Friday. Senate amendments included striking sections on net neutrality and affordable broadband that industry opposed (see 2402290053). The amended bill would require Connecticut’s consumer counsel to study broadband internet access; prohibit junk fees; ban certain foreign-made drones; require disclosures about voice recognition features on connected devices; give customers a right to repair electronics; and require municipalities to only use .gov internet domains, according to an official bill analysis.
The American Civil Rights Project supports the 20 industry petitioners arguing that the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court should vacate the FCC’s digital discrimination broadband rule since it runs afoul of the law and isn’t based on clear congressional intent (see 2404230032), according to the nonprofit’s amicus brief. It was filed Wednesday in docket 24-1179.
Vermont’s net neutrality law seems in good shape legally following two significant, late-April decisions by the FCC and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said experts on the statute. ISP groups must decide what to do with their 2018 lawsuit at U.S. District Court of Vermont now that the case can resume following the 2nd Circuit ruling.
The FCC should reign in its Enforcement Bureau to avoid conflicts with recent and expected U.S. Supreme Court decisions, though the current bureau doesn’t “overreach” as frequently as it did under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Thursday during a Wiley panel discussion called “Opportunities to Reform FCC Enforcement." Carr told us, “The jury is still out” on whether the EB under FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel needs reform, he said in an interview after the panel discussion: “We’re not off the rails the way the agency was during the Wheeler tenure."