Two leading Democratic senators and a range of advocacy groups have condemned a partisan effort to force through confirmation of a new FCC commissioner.

At an online meeting on Monday, senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) along with representatives from Fight for the Future, Access Now, Free Press, and Public Knowledge, among others, argued that Nathan Simington has “almost no relevant experience” for the critical post at America's telecoms regulator. Simington did, however, draw up the Department of Commerce’s request to the FCC to take a look at changing Section 230 internet protection laws, and has refused to

The smartphone is perhaps the signature device of our modern lives. For most of the population it is never more than an arm’s length away, it’s on your person more than any other device in your life. Smartphones are packed with all sorts of radios and ways to communicate wireless. …read more

The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed the Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act of 2020, which earmarks $750m in grants to support the domestic development of OpenRAN.

The bill – which enjoys rare bipartisan support with 11 sponsors across both parties – places responsibility for administering the programme to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a body directed to begin issuing grants within 18 months of the bill's entrance into law.

These funds will focus on promoting the use of OpenRAN, accelerating deployment by carriers, and developing the underlying technology, with an emphasis on supply chains, virtualization, and security.

The Northern Ireland Executive has awarded a £165m contract to local infrastructure provider Fibrus Networks to expand gigabit-capable, full-fibre broadband to more than 78,500 rural homes and businesses.

The initiative – called Project Stratum – will target regions where the prevailing speeds are under 30Mbps. These will largely be concentrated in the area described by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency as "Band H", which mostly consists of open countryside. Deployment is slated to start immediately and forecast to conclude in March 2024.

Project Stratum is largely a direct result of the 2017 Confidence and Supply agreement between the

Updated The Home Office cannot order Ofcom to ignore its legal duties even when a government minister wants to shut something down because of unspecified "national security" concerns, the Court of Appeal has said, ruling that ministers acted outside their legal powers when banning GSM gateways.

The judgment ends a drawn-out saga that began with a dubious criminal prosecution a decade ago and saw several businesses destroyed by the dead hand of bureaucracy, as well as the questionable involvement of a Home Office permanent secretary in an issue well below his paygrade.

Ruling that the Home Office cannot order Ofcom