Access Providers

Why Satellite Cellular Won’t Replace Traditional Cell Networks Anytime Soon

There was a burst of recent press about cellular service provided from satellites. This was probably prompted by the two recent hurricanes that have disabled terrestrial cellular and broadband networks in the southeast. I've seen speculation and discussion on Reddit and other forums where people have been wondering if satellite is the future of cell service and if the ubiquitous giant cell towers will eventually become obsolete. more

Broadband Labels are Here

On October 10, all ISPs in the United States were supposed to have implemented and posted broadband labels. The labels were required as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Large ISPs had to post labels six months ago, and now the requirement is for all ISPs. I looked at the ISPs in a few counties I'm very familiar with, and I found a few ISPs in each county that have not posted labels that I can find on their website. more

FCC Approves Starlink for Direct-to-Cell Service in Hurricane-Stricken North Carolina

Following the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on North Carolina, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX's Starlink to provide direct-to-cell coverage in affected regions. more

Has Your ISP Been Hacked? (Growing Concern Over AI-Driven Hacking)

As if we didn't have a long enough list of problems to worry about, Lumen researchers at its Black Lotus Labs recently released a blog that said that it knows of three U.S. ISPs and one in India was hacked this summer. Lumen said the hackers took advantage of flaws in software provided by Versa Networks being used to manage wide-area networks. more

Starlink Surpasses 4 Million Subscribers, Cementing Dominance in Satellite Internet

Starlink, SpaceX's satellite-based internet service, has hit a major milestone by surpassing 4 million subscribers worldwide. SpaceX confirmed the news on Thursday after company President Gwynne Shotwell hinted earlier in the week that the service would reach the mark within days. more

Hawaiian Airlines Introduces Free Starlink Satellite Internet on Entire Airbus Fleet

Hawaiian Airlines has completed the installation of Starlink's high-speed satellite internet across its entire Airbus fleet, making it the first major U.S. carrier to offer free Wi-Fi powered by Starlink on transpacific flights. more

Affordable Starlink Prices Coming to Low and Middle-Income Countries

SpaceX first departed from its uniform Starlink pricing policy when it offered a reduced price for throttled service in France two years ago. Since then, many new, higher-capacity satellites have been launched, enabling SpaceX to reduce prices in low and middle-income countries like Kenya. Kenya had 405 geostationary satellite internet subscribers when Starlink became available in July 2023. more

Malaysia Reverses Decision on Controversial DNS Redirection Policy

The Malaysian government has backtracked on its recent decision to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to redirect Domain Name System (DNS) traffic away from third-party servers like Google Public DNS and Cloudflare. more

Russian Internet Pioneer Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

Last month, Russian Internet pioneer Alexey Soldatov was sentenced to two years in a labor colony on charges of "abuse of power." Soldatov, the co-founder of Russia's first Internet service provider, Relcom, was convicted for his role as a co-founder and director of the Russian Institute for Development of Public Networks (RIPN). RIPN was founded in 1992 to support research and education networking. more

Will Starlink Harm the Ozone Layer?

There was a paper published in June in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters titled Potential Ozone Depletion from Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations. As can be deduced by the lengthy title, scientists have uncovered a new risk coming from the reentry of low-orbit satellites through the atmosphere. more

Chinese Company Launches First Satellites for Massive Network to Rival Starlink

A Chinese state-backed company has successfully launched its first 18 satellites, marking the initial phase of a significant project to establish a vast orbital network intended to compete with Starlink, according to The China Securities Journal. more

China Proposes Cyberspace IDs to Simplify Online Identity Verification

The Chinese government is considering a new system allowing citizens to use cyberspace IDs instead of providing personal information to internet service providers. more

Broadband Anywhere: The New Trend Bringing Connectivity to Campers and Remote Locations

A new broadband trend has quietly entered the market. Both Starlink and T-Mobile are advertising broadband that can be used practically anywhere and are aiming new products at campers, hikers, and others that go to remote locations. According to T-Mobile, this is a huge market, with 15 million households taking RV trips yearly and 59 million people camping. more

Can Cellphones Capture the Broadband Market?

Linda Hardesty wrote an interesting article in FierceNetwork that asks the question, "What if, in ten years, young people don't subscribe to fixed broadband at all?" Her story is based on a U.K. research group that predicts that within ten years, there will be a lot of young people who will never have subscribed to a landline broadband product. more

The Future of AI in Broadband: Impacts on Network Demand and Power Consumption

AI technology seems to be a hot topic in every industry, and broadband is no exception. It seems inevitable that AI will be used to help monitor and control complex broadband networks. It looks like the biggest ISPs are already phasing AI into the customer service process. Nobody seems to be able to answer the big question of whether AI will change the amount of broadband the average household uses. more