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The fastest data delivery rate ever achieved using specific wavelength bands in fiber optic technology has been reported by an international team of researchers, who say they sent information 4.5 million times faster than the average home broadband will allow. According to researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England, who participated in the experiment, a series of new technologies they developed allowed them to successfully transfer data at an astonishing rate of 301 terabits (301,000,000 megabits) per second. Remarkably, the Aston team says the breakthrough that achieved these impressive data transfer rates used only standard optical fiber. The team says...

Psaki said Harris is 'a vital partner' to Biden and also 'a bold leader' -------------- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Vice President Kamala Harris' position in the Biden administration on Sunday amid her sinking poll numbers. "For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband," Psaki tweeted. Psaki's tweet comes after Harris' office appeared to respond to a CNN article on Sunday that suggested "dysfunction" within...

Pennsylvania may have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make significant progress on a long list of needed infrastructure projects if the House passes the $1 trillion plan approved by the Senate and makes billions in federal dollars available to the state. Officials can’t squander this chance to upgrade roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure areas statewide. In state-by-state estimates released by the White House, Pennsylvania stands to gain — over a five-year period — $11.3 billion in federal highway funding, $2.8 billion for public transit and $1.6 billion for bridge replacement. There’s also $171 million to add charging stations for electric...

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday proposed a three-year program with $7.35 billion in funding to bring broadband access to rural America. The bill would focus on the most remote and least served areas. More than 20% of rural Americans lack access to high-speed internet service, says the Center for Rural Innovation.

Prioritizing government-owned broadband networks would be inconsistent with the Constitution’s provisions regarding private property and commerce.As part of its massive $2 billion infrastructure proposal, the Biden administration is proposing an ambitious $100 billion broadband plan. The plan overreaches, misdirecting subsidies in ways that are wasteful, such as shoveling funds to areas already served instead of those lacking service. And the plan suggests the need to regulate the broadband prices of private service providers as if they were public utilities. As a matter of policy, these aspects of the Biden broadband plan are serious enough defects. But here we want to...

The Emergency Broadband Benefit, administered through the Federal Communications Commission, gives eligible households a $50-a-month subsidy that can be used to pay for broadband service, as well as a one-time $100 payment toward a device to connect to the internet.

Broadband internet is essential, not a luxury. Thank you @GovHolcomb for prioritizing #Indiana students and schools in your $250M investment so they have equitable access to participate in a meaningful digital learning experience. @ExcelinEd https://t.co/iLlqVzOqXf— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) April 23, 2021

Proponents have called the state’s massive new toll road project a monumental opportunity and a thoughtful plan for smart growth. The 330 miles of new highways will curb interstate congestion, bolster the economy and facilitate hurricane evacuations, they say. In short, the argument goes, the roads would be a good investment. So why is it that so many of the preliminary studies are at best lukewarm on the idea? And the latest reports only add to the list of reasons to reconsider the controversial project. The tolls roads, dubbed the Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, were largely pushed by...

Thanks, @pescami and @SlateGist, for the great convo on why #broadband access for everyone is so important for the future of our country. Listen at link below https://t.co/GmcVbdvmyf— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) November 2, 2020

Presidential candidate Joe Biden has released an infrastructure plan that calls for $1.3 trillion in investment over 10 years. The plan, released Nov. 14, makes a pledge to update the nation’s freight infrastructure, from highways and canals to railroads and tunnels. Biden plans to spend $50 billion over the first year of his presidency to repair roads, highways and bridges. He proposes a new $40 billion, 10-year Transformational Projects Fund, which will provide substantial grants for projects that are too large to be funded through existing programs, such as a major port upgrade or new tunnel. Biden also plans to...

The UK’s opposition Labour party has promised it will give free full-fiber broadband to every home and business in the country if it wins Britain’s upcoming December elections. The party said it would nationalize part of UK telecoms firm BT to achieve its goal, and introduce new taxes on Silicon Valley tech giants like Apple and Facebook to fund the network’s maintenance. The announcement took the business world by surprise, with shares in BT dropping four percent in early trading before recovering to a roughly two percent fall. The chief executive of the company Philip Jansen told the Financial Times...

NEW YORK - Every hour that one of The Advance Group’s trucks is stuck in highway or bridge traffic, it costs the moving company around $200. And with 40 trucks trying to get into Manhattan daily and contending with the New York metro area’s deteriorating infrastructure, the price of lost time runs up quickly. “Getting to and from a job site is not really billable to a client,” says Anthony Parziale, president of The Advance Group, based in the suburb of Farmingdale.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Northern Indiana lawmakers are calling into question Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision against imposing new tolls on the state’s interstate highways, while allowing the Indiana Toll Road’s private operator to significantly boost rates for large trucks using that highway. Democratic Sen. Karen Tallian of Portage tells the South Bend Tribune that the situation is unfair because only the communities in northern Indiana along the Toll Road will have the burden of higher tolls, while all parts of the state will benefit from the toll money. The Republican governor announced in September that the operator of the Toll...

LAPORTE — Law enforcement in LaPorte County is preparing for the possibility of an already-congested and dangerous U.S. 20 being overrun with more semi-trucks as drivers avoid the 35 percent cost increase of traveling the Indiana Toll Road. Much of that stretch of highway being down to one lane in each direction for resurfacing adds to the concerns. LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd said he’s reached out to Indiana State Police to help patrol U.S. 20 if an increase in truck traffic becomes too much for his staff to handle alone. “We’re going to prepare for it,” Boyd said. “We’re...

There's no doubt about it: President Donald J. Trump has breathed new life into the American economy! With record-breaking 4.1% growth in GDP, what anti-Trump critics said was impossible during the 2016 campaign just became reality. Unemployment is low, business is booming, and billions of dollars that were sitting offshore are now re-entering our borders. Why were so many so-called expert commentators in 2016 wrong about President Trump? We were told that Trump's tough Queens, New York style and relentless counter-punching tweets would harm markets on a global scale. Even I had concerns. But as we now see, President...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Can cellphones really cause cancer? It’s been a question that’s dogged researchers for years. However, a group of experts say the results of some tests are pretty surprising. Millions of people constantly call, text, click, take pictures and play on cellphones. Even the top cellular radiation researchers from around the world have a hard time untethering. But, they gathered recently in North Carolina to talk about cellphone concerns and whether they really do increase the chances of developing cancer. The panel voted that the results from years of testing on mice and rats were more significant than...

“MASON CITY: To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new.” — Robert Penn Warren, “All the King’s Men” (1946) WASHINGTON — Appropriately, Warren began the best book about American populism, his novel based on Huey Long’s Louisiana career, with a rolling sentence about a road. Time was, infrastructure — roads, especially — was a preoccupation of populists, who were mostly rural and needed roads to get products to market, and for travel to neighbors and towns, which assuaged loneliness. Today, there is no comparably sympathetic constituency clamoring...

Donald Trump’s first budget recommendations help pay for a bigger military with lower expenditures for other promised programs. His recommendations for infrastructure disappointed local officials across the nation, and his plan to revive Nevada’s Yucca Mountain also received limited funds. Trump’s plan calls for $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects, with just $200 billion supplied by the federal government. It was widely assumed, including in conservative circles, that the program would force local governments to raise taxes. In the Unification Church publication Washington Times, economist Peter Morici wrote, President Trump’s infrastructure plan puts a heavy burden on the states and will...

Elon Musk’s plan to use satellites to beam Internet to Earth just got a key endorsement Wednesday from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai issued a statement Wednesday in support of the project and urged his colleagues to follow suit: Following careful review of this application by our International Bureau’s excellent satellite engineering experts, I have asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this application and moving to unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans. If adopted, it would be the first approval given to an American-based company to provide broadband services...

The president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) warned Monday of the negative effects that President Trump's proposed budget cuts could have on public broadcasting. Trump's budget proposes eliminating federal funding for the CPB over a two-year period. The budget has to be approved by Congress before it can take effect. In a statement released Monday, Patricia Harrison said that the "elimination of funding to CPB would at first devastate, and then ultimately destroy public media's ability to provide early childhood content, life-saving emergency alerts, and public affairs programs." "Public media benefits all Americans — whether they...