The Future of Super-Fast Internet
In its early days, the web was accessed in homes via a dial-up connection that topped out at 14.4 Kbps – enough speed to download the equivalent of one mp3 song to a single device in a little over an hour. Today, almost every home in America has access to internet speeds well over 100 Mbps. That’s enough to download dozens of mp3 songs, stream multiple 4k movies, surf the web, and chat with friends on numerous devices at the same time. Clearly, America has reached the digital age. But we are in the early innings of the internet’s expansion. We know that the demands of innovators, entrepreneurs
Hollywood Creative Forum Springboards Diverse Talent into the Business
The Hollywood Creative Forum (HCF) is just around the corner, and veterans of the film and television industry are getting ready to descend on Beverly Hills on February 21-22. Hosted by the Walter Kaitz Foundation, the two-day packed event full of luncheons, panels, meet-and-greets and one-on-ones is dedicated to fostering diversity and business intelligence within the industry, and has become a staple in the media and entertainment world for people of color since its start eight years ago. As we await this year’s HCF, we took some time to speak with past attendees about the influence the
Wi-Fi and Cars: Sharing the Spectrum Highway
Wi-Fi is so much a part of our connected society that most people say a week without Wi-Fi would leave them grumpier than a week without coffee. More than 85 million American households have Wi-Fi access points. And the number of Wi-Fi devices is even higher—more than a billion are expected to be in the marketplace by 2019. But this ever-growing demand for Wi-Fi has outpaced supply—as anyone who tries to get on the Internet in a busy Starbucks has probably discovered, Wi-Fi spectrum is quickly becoming congested. Wi-Fi relies on unlicensed spectrum—spectrum that is open for use by anyone
The State of TV Everywhere in America in 2017
Over the last few weeks, we’ve done status checks on America’s internet connectivity and speeds and on premium television. This week, we’re doing an assessment of TV Everywhere and TV apps. The rise of connected-devices and improved broadband access over the past several years has paved the way for a whole new way of watching television. Pay TV providers are offering TV Everywhere services, programming apps, and exclusive online content making TV more than just a living room activity, but an anywhere, anytime experience. Innovators and creators have streamlined and simplified the TV Everywhere
Honoring Black History Month on Television
Black History Month launched earlier this week and with it comes a line-up of special programming on premium television that pays tribute to African-American history and culture. In the past couple of years especially, we have seen new channels and avenues pop up on pay TV that are dedicated to exploring the role that African-American culture plays in shaping our society and the course of current events. Black History Month is the perfect time for television and media to remind us how important it is to continue to encourage, support, and amplify the African-American voice in our communities
Safer Internet Day and Why It Matters
Next week on February 7, NCTA – The Internet and Television Association will add its support to the worldwide celebration of Safer Internet Day 2017 – “Be the Change: Unite for a Better Internet”. Now taking place in over 100 countries, Safer Internet Day is an annual, globally coordinated event promoting the efforts of internet users of all ages, interests and backgrounds, to make the internet a better place and vice versa – to make the world a better place with the help of the internet. The U.S. host for Safer Internet Day is ConnectSafely.org. Its U.S. steering committee includes
The State of Premium Television in America in 2017
Last week we did a status check on the state of America’s internet connectivity and speeds. What we found was that millions of consumers are benefiting from the increasingly fast and reliable internet connections that ISPs have been delivering for nearly two decades. This week, we took a look at the state of premium television, a term that describes all of the award-winning content that pay TV networks produce. And we found similar strides that have made premium TV programming the best in the world. From Emmy-award winning shows to the breakthrough programming of new independent networks to
GCI Makes Telehealth as Easy as Regular Healthcare in Rural Alaska
For city and suburban dwellers, receiving medical treatment at a healthcare facility is an easy task that we take for granted. We have hospitals nearby, doctor’s offices and urgent care clinics within an hour from our homes, and ambulances have no problem reaching us within a reasonable timeframe. But for those who dwell in rural and remote areas of the country, gaining access to medical care is a challenge. This is where high-speed internet and a strong telehealth program can make all the difference. We’ve previously covered the efforts of GCI, Alaska’s largest internet service provider, to
At CES 2017, Are Next-Gen Routers Getting the Attention They Deserve?
CES 2017 was packed to the rafters with everything technology. Drones, TVs, goggles, and thermostats. Robots, cars, cameras, and dishwashers. Search the internet for the best-of CES and you’ll see list after list of the coolest gadgets and the most unique toys. But what you might not see on those top-10s is internet routers. Though they were at CES, these unsung heroes of home broadband don’t normally get press coverage. After all, they do the boring, dirty, sometimes complex and difficult-to-explain work of connecting all of our devices to the internet. Their updates and improvements are
Do Robots Hint at the Future of the Internet of Things?
Robots might always seem to be a concept that’s way off in the future, or conveyed to us as thrilling ideas we see in the big blockbuster movies, but in 2017, many already exist in our smart homes. Amazon’s ALEXA, and Google Home, which are essentially voice-operated assistants, are early forms of robots, awaiting commands that range from playing specific music, preparing the coffee pot, or finding out the score of the big game. Many of these commands are things we already perform on our own mobile devices. But at CES last week, where the robotics marketplace premiered some of the most