Broadband

Two test satellites blasted off on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket emblazoned with Amazon’s famous logo on Friday, ahead of more than 3,200 planned to orbit the Earth, challenging Elon Musk’s reign over broadband real estate in space.

This year has been quite a ride for OneWeb and its globe-connecting constellation of low-Earth-orbiting broadband satellites, with Chapter 11 bankruptcy, followed by a cash injection from two major new investors. Now it's back launching satellites.

​Earlier today, SpaceX successfully launched and deployed its first two test satellites for Starlink, the rocket company's own constellation of thousands of communications satellites that aims to provide worldwide broadband internet access by 2024.

Fast affordable broadband is one of the essentials of modern life. Hence the latest data from Cable.co.uk paints an interesting picture of which countries are doing it right, and those where short-term gain for the telcos has prevailed.

Fifty seven percent of the world's population is currently without internet access. This was one of the statistics offered up by SpaceX's Patricia Cooper this week, as she fronted the US Senate to outline the company's plans to plug the gaps using a mesh network of internet-beaming satellites. ​​

Verizon appears to be making good on its promises of building the first 5G cellular network in the United States. Today, the carrier announced it will roll out 5G connectivity to pilot customers in 11 US markets by midyear.

Even though much of the world is being blanketed with internet signals through a variety of modalities, there are still places where getting a reliable high-speed broadband link is tough. AT&T has just announced a project that might help with that, called AirGig.

Earlier this year, a giant cable was laid between Japan and the United States to deliver 60 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth under the Pacific. As part of our One Big Question series, we asked Kenichi Yoneyama of NEC for more details on how the giant cord was installed.

A new trans-Pacific submarine cable built by NEC with the backing of a consortium of telecom companies and Google came online Thursday. The FASTER cable connects the U.S. west coast with Japan via a six-fiber pair cable bringing 60 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth under the Pacific.

Google Fiber officially launched in its fifth American city on Wednesday, when the gigabit broadband service became available in one Nashville, Tennessee neighborhood.

The internet provides a level playing field, by allowing anyone online to take a course or start a business. For it to do so, however, everyone must have access to it. A new Google Fiber initiative will ensure that low-income families in US public housing get that access, via a superfast connection.

In the English market town of Chesham, broadband telecommunications company Virgin Media has installed what's billed as the "UK’s first ever Smart Pavement" to provide broadband Wi-Fi.