Progress with connecting low-income countries to the internet is slowing, Facebook said Monday, releasing its 2019 Inclusive Internet Index. Internet-connected households increased on average from 53.1 percent to 54.8 percent, but “the rate of growth in internet connections slowed to” 2.9 percent in 2019, vs. 7.7 percent in 2018, according to the index. About 5,000 respondents from 99 countries participated. Some 52 percent said “they are not confident about their online privacy.” Global Connectivity Policy and Planning-Head Robert Pepper urged collaboration and expertise-sharing among government, industry, academia, technologists and civil society: “No single stakeholder or group can achieve internet inclusion alone.”

Ultra Wide Band Alliance members met staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, including Chief Julius Knapp, on 6 GHz proceeding concerns. “Current proposed unlicensed broadband deployment, at the requested power levels, bandwidth, and [out-of-band emissions] would effectively render many UWB products, services and applications useless,” the alliance said, posted Friday in docket 17-183. “Consider mitigation solutions that will continue to allow for unlicensed UWB technologies to successfully coexist with incumbent users in the 6 GHz band and provide valuable functionality.” Comments were due Friday on an NPRM (see 1902150030). Representatives from Alteros, Bosch, DecaWave, iRobot and Zebra attended.

Satellite-provided Wi-Fi hot spots aimed at unconnected populations worldwide likely will generate $7.5 billion annual revenue for the satellite communications by 2027, with the industry increasingly able to target those customers because of better price-per-gigabyte competitiveness and increased focus on distribution channels, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra blogged Tuesday. Hurdles like the income of those populations mean providers need to sometimes offer entry-level data packages with small allowances, he said: They might need to look at free access to some content, plus mobile banking and telemedicine services, to stimulate demand.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to codify his net neutrality order in the FY 2020 budget, the Democrat said Wednesday. Cuomo’s 2018 executive order restricted procurement to ISPs that adhere to open-internet rules. “The FCC's dangerous rollback of net neutrality puts corporations over people and goes against our fundamental belief in the free exchange of ideas,” Cuomo said. Such language is in two budget bills, A-2008 and S-1508, and some New York lawmakers proposed separate measures (see 1901230008). The FCC, USTelecom, NCTA and Charter Communications didn’t comment. Challengers to the FCC’s net neutrality reversal made their case to reporters before Friday court oral argument (see 1901300021).

Customer shift to unlimited data plans in rural areas is putting additional stress on wireless networks, affecting reliability for carriers that haven’t invested in 4G LTE wireless infrastructure, said a Thursday J.D. Power report. Wireless network problems are rising for customers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and North Central regions, but problems decreased in the Southeast, it said. Suburban customers experienced fewer problems than rural or urban users. Verizon led the major carriers with the lowest network quality problems per 100 connections (PP100), in call, messaging and data quality in each region, J.D. Power said, and it tied on data with T-Mobile in the Northeast. Overall in the Northeast, Verizon led with a score of 10 PP100, followed by T-Mobile (11), AT&T Wireless (12) and Sprint (15), a pattern similar to that of the Mid-Atlantic states. In the Southeast, Verizon led with 8, followed by AT&T and T-Mobile at 11 and Sprint at 13. U.S. Cellular finished second (10) in rankings in the North Central region behind Verizon (8) and ahead of AT&T (11), T-Mobile (12) and Sprint (15). In the Southwest, AT&T tied with T-Mobile (12), just ahead of Sprint (13). In the West, T-Mobile (11), AT&T (12) and Sprint (13) followed Verizon (10). Verizon crowed Thursday in a news release, saying results showed “we’re doing many things right.” Mike Haberman, Verizon network vice president, credited last year’s rollout of LTE Advanced technologies including carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM in over 1,500 markets for “faster speeds, better connectivity and more bandwidth for customers.” Other carriers didn’t comment. The study, fielded July-December, was based on responses from 32,159 wireless customers.

Iridium's Iridium Certus satellite broadband service is available, the company said Wednesday, following completion of its Next constellation earlier this month (see 1901110024). The L-band Certus service is targeted now at maritime and terrestrial applications, with aviation applications expected later this year.

Broadband drives cable stock valuations, and new household formation is critical to growth in an increasingly saturated market, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett told investors Thursday. "As goes broadband, so goes the cable industry," he said. "There’s probably no more than 5 or 6 percent of the equity value -- or, in fact, the enterprise value -- of the cable stocks that we cover accounted for by their video businesses." The rest "is their broadband businesses, writ large," he added. Since 2008, Moffett said, cable has relentlessly taken wireline broadband market share, and despite telco network upgrades, "there’s still about 70 percent of the country where cable has an emphatically better technology than what it competes against.” He said it's "striking how little efficacy" telco price discounts had in spurring broadband gains. With "wired plus satellite" broadband reaching 80 percent penetration of occupied households, the industry growth rate slowed "because there just aren’t as many homes left to penetrate," and the remaining ones "are harder to penetrate," because they have mostly elderly and low-income residents. But “the growth rate of broadband has meaningfully accelerated in the last three quarters," he said. "All of that is attributable to an acceleration in new household formation."

The satellite industry could have cumulative revenue of $159 billion by 2027 from the satellite-delivered broadband and very small aperture terminal markets, Northern Sky Research said Monday. NSR forecasts 13.4 percent annual growth in the installed base of consumer sites. It expects lower capacity pricing and a stronger focus on retail to help increase demand. It said proliferation of Wi-Fi hot spots could open the market as well. The researcher said business models need to adapt, with operators needing to go direct-to-market in emerging applications like backhaul.

Al Yah Satellite (Yahsat) and Hughes Network Systems began a joint venture, YahClick, powered by Hughes, to provide commercial satellite services across Africa, the Middle East and southwest Asia, the companies announced Sunday. YahClick provides direct-to-premise service including broadband to homes and small- and medium-sized enterprises, they said. Masood Sharif Mahmood, CEO of Yahsat in the UAE, is YahClick chairman and Hughes President Pradman Kaul a board director.

Charter Communications “lied” to New Yorkers and “abused the workers,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) told a union rally Wednesday in New York City. Charter broke promises in its state franchise agreement to keep its trained workforce and to bring broadband to underserved households, he said. The state wants to fine it $20 million for violating the broadband agreement, he said. The union audience, including International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and AFL-CIO, chanted “Kick them out!” Cuomo later led another chant: “Workers united will never be defeated!” IBEW Local 3 has been on strike for nearly two years (see 1810230034). The operator also is defending against broadband complaints by the New York attorney general (see 1809250023) and Public Service Commission (see 1811270015), with the PSC ordering the company’s exit from New York. The union last week turned down a “fair offer” including “key concessions,” including the union’s top demand -- continued funding for the union’s medical and benefit plan, Charter blogged Wednesday. The offer “would have allowed many returning workers to have the choice to receive substantial wage increases, along with the company’s robust benefits; be covered by the union’s benefits; or receive a generous buy-out package with the union’s benefits." More than 97 percent of striking employees would be allowed to return to work, it said. “Only bad actors -- such as those who vandalized Charter’s network used to provide critical communications services to customers including to public safety, schools and hospitals, or blocked employees and customers from entering or exiting Charter facilities, or engaged in acts of violence -- would be unable to return.” The company claimed New York service quality remains at “an all-time high.”