Surfing the Broadband Bit Stream

Gogo, which sells Internet services to airplane passengers, initially hoped to begin offering 5G in 2021. Now the company is warning that the launch might not happen until 2025.

America’s energy system has a problem: Solar and wind developers want to build renewable energy at a breakneck pace — and historic climate legislation has fueled their charge with financial incentives worth billions of dollars. But too often the power that these projects can produce has nowhere to go. That’s because the high-voltage lines that move energy across the country don’t have the capacity to handle what these panels and turbines generate. At the same time, electric vehicles, data centers, and new factories are pushing electricity demand well beyond what was expected just a few years ago.

As a result, the U.S. is poised to generate more energy — and, crucially, more carbon-free energy — than ever before, but the nation’s patchwork system of electrical grids doesn’t have enough transmission infrastructure to deliver all that renewable energy to the homes and businesses that could use it. Indeed, this transmission gap could negate up to half of the climate benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, according to one analysis.

The entire OpenAI team focused on the existential dangers of AI has either resigned or been absorbed into other research groups, WIRED has confirmed.

Tech companies are scrambling to offer satellite cell service for ordinary phones.

What good is AI if you don't have a planet to use it on?

Microsoft released its 2024 Sustainability Report on Wednesday, and it's mostly bad news. Last year, Microsoft's emissions went up 29%, and it used 23% more water, primarily due to "new technologies, including generative AI."

Six years since the founding of the O-RAN Alliance, the original concept has barely made an impression on the global market.

This week: Amy Huffman, policy director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), joins to discuss the government's $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act and NDIA's new best practices manual for implementing digital equity plans.

Sometimes, whether you’re in the rugged wilderness or just a place with spotty reception, you’re going to struggle with cell coverage. That might soon be less of a problem if you’re an AT&T customer though, as the company has just announced a plan to provide its “first space-based broadband network direct to everyday cell phones.”

What does that mean in practice?

A federal appeals court rejected a request to reinstate a class-action complaint alleging that Amazon wrongly targets ads to consumers based on their interactions with Alexa-enabled devices.

Payments helped AT&T obtain key legislative wins in Illinois, prosecutors say.

5G private networks are helping industrial customers make big productivity and cost savings gains, a new report finds.

Loaded with ever more renewables, the grid will need to store a whole lot of energy. Enter: a new kind of magic school bus—one that can both charge and give power back.

KSTP 5 reports... The new labels show the provider’s name, the plan’s name and the base monthly price for internet service, along with any additional one-time or recurring fees — like installation charges, modem rental fees and other equipment-related fees, which must be separated from the base price. The new labels are mandated by the…

Twitter is fully X.com now. Given its transformation since Elon Musk bought it, that may be a small mercy.

Plus: Three arrested in North Korean IT workers fraud ring, Tesla staffers shared videos from owners’ cars, and more.

SpaceX's Starlink is introducing a major price increase to its global roaming plan, which allows users to access the satellite internet service worldwide. 

On Thursday night, several Starlink "Mobile - Global" plan subscribers received an email from SpaceX notifying them about the price increase. The company previously charged US users $200 per month for the service, but now the price is doubling to $400 per month. 

Dish and Hughes have launched a discounted pay-TV/satellite broadband bundle focused on the rural market. It marks the first joint offer from the two following the merger of EchoStar and Dish.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s installment of the Future in Five Questions. This week I spoke with Helen Toner, an artificial intelligence researcher and director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Last summer Toner she was at the center of the imbroglio surrounding Sam Altman’s ouster at OpenAI, as one of the four members of the nonprofit oversight board that voted to dismiss him. Four days later, Altman returned and she was removed from the board of directors. (Two more OpenAI leaders departed this week.) We talked about her proposed approach to “responsibly scaling” AI systems, how evolutionary biology has shaped her view of AI and its capabilities and why government should demand more transparency from AI companies. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows:

What’s one underrated big idea?

The U.S. | Newly passed legislation reforms the NTIA's spectrum resource management and expands its cybersecurity role.