Access Providers

Filling the Sky with Satellites

Low Earth orbit is crowding as Starlink, Amazon, China and others race to deploy thousands of satellites, promising faster broadband while intensifying global competition, orbital congestion concerns and a push for direct-to-device connectivity.

Running-Code Betrayal: How the RIR System Turned Consensus Against the Technical Community

A dispute over African IP governance exposes a flaw in the RIR system, where thin policy, weak accountability and institutional self preservation risk overriding running networks and undermining the technical legitimacy that sustained global coordination.

Concerns Over America’s WiFi Router Ban

America's FCC has barred new foreign-made consumer routers on security grounds, tightening supply for ISPs and households while raising costs and risking technological lag unless domestic manufacturing or approvals quickly expand in coming years significantly.

Sovereignty Inversion: How RIRs Reduced National Sovereignty to a US$100 Liability Cap

Regional internet registries, once coordinators of technical scarcity, now effectively cap liability at $100 while retaining control over national numbering systems, shifting risk to states and entrenching a governance model critics argue today inverts sovereignty.

Regional Internet Registries’ Thick Governance Turns Uniqueness Into Double Extraction

Regional Internet registries, built for coordination, now sit atop scarce IPv4 assets while bearing little liability, suppressing capitalization and imposing "double extraction" that weakens operators, distorts markets and threatens the stability of global internet uniqueness.

Rising Costs of Broadband Construction

Despite steady expansion of fibre networks, the cost of building them is rising. New survey data show labour-heavy construction, higher aerial costs and persistent inflation pressures likely to push deployment expenses higher in 2026.

Winning the 6G Race

America has declared its intent to win the 6G race, casting next-generation wireless as vital to security and growth. Yet standards are global, vendors multinational, and the rhetoric looks like spectrum lobbying than technological rivalry.

Who Uses the Internet?

Pew Research finds most Americans are online, yet access still tracks income, age and geography. Broadband gaps persist as subsidies fade, while smartphone dependence rises, reshaping how millions connect to work, services and civic life.

The Sovereignty Paradox: What Iran’s 2026 Shutdown Reveals About the Fragmenting Internet

Iran's 2026 internet shutdown was not a glitch but a trial of digital sovereignty, revealing how easily connectivity can be weaponised to silence society, concentrate state power, and fracture the promise of a global internet.

Starlink Flexing Its Market Power

Starlink is leveraging its growing dominance with data-hungry AI ambitions, regulatory demands, and space infrastructure plans. A merger with xAI could solidify its position as an unregulated gatekeeper of orbital connectivity and intelligence.