Access Providers

Wi-Fi 7 Adoption Is Accelerating

Wi-Fi 7 is spreading rapidly across America, promising faster speeds, greater capacity and fewer connectivity headaches. With big internet providers driving adoption, the technology is reshaping home broadband even as Wi-Fi 8 approaches.
 more

China’s Qianfan Emerges as a Satellite Internet Option for Cuba

China's Qianfan satellite constellation could bring high-speed internet to Cuba, where Starlink remains banned, deepening Beijing's digital influence while giving Havana a connectivity upgrade designed to preserve the government's control over online access. more

SpaceX Wants to Handle the World’s Broadband - Here’s Why That’s Unlikely

SpaceX wants to expand Starlink to 100,000 satellites and eventually carry most of the world's internet traffic. Ambition is not the problem. Market competition, geopolitics and the resilience of fiber networks make that goal implausible. more

Community Networks Offer a Durable Route Across the Digital Divide

An ITU report finds that community-owned networks, backed by reliable technology, flexible financing and supportive regulation, can bring affordable, meaningful internet access to remote populations that traditional providers have struggled to reach at lasting scale. more

Economic Stress Is Testing Broadband’s Recession-Proof Reputation

Mounting signs of consumer distress, from unpaid utility bills to rising loan delinquencies, are raising uncomfortable questions for internet providers about whether broadband remains recession-proof as households increasingly trade home connections for cheaper wireless alternatives. more

No Safe Harbor: SCOTUS Scuttles the DMCA

America's Supreme Court, in Cox v Sony, recast online copyright liability, effectively sidelining the DMCA safe harbor and replacing it with a narrow inducement standard that leaves service providers little obligation to meaningfully police infringement. more

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. more

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. more

Iranians Outsmart Internet Blackout to Broadcast Airstrikes

After US and Israeli strikes, Iran imposed a near-total internet blackout, yet citizens used satellite links and decentralized tools to share footage, undermining state control and exposing a growing contest over information in wartime. more

Iran Expands Digital Dragnet After Crushing Protests

After quelling nationwide protests, Iran has intensified its use of digital surveillance, deploying phone tracking, facial recognition and online monitoring to identify, intimidate and detain dissenters through a vast state-controlled communications infrastructure. more

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. more

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. more

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. more

Starlink’s Role in Last Year’s Los Angeles Fires

During California's devastating 2025 wildfires, Starlink, Tesla, and T-Mobile offered vital emergency connectivity. Their improvised response reveals both the promise of satellite-based disaster aid and the need for formalised coordination with public agencies. more

Iran Nears Completion of Internet Kill Switch Amid Protests, Says Iran International

Iran is finalizing a nationwide internet isolation system that would allow authorities to disconnect from the global web, as protests continue and external equipment sources, including Huawei, remain shrouded in secrecy. more